Britain · updated 2h ago · 2 min read
King Charles Responds To Earl Spencer Claim He Said 'We’ll Forget Her Soon Enough'
Earl Spencer alleges Charles said 'we’ll forget her soon enough' days after Diana’s death. Spencer says Charles sounded 'giddily elated' on a post-death phone call.
Whether this is mainly a feud or mainly alleged wording.
10 of 12 outlets skipped it: copies stolen from a truck in the Netherlands (four Dutch-language).
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News18
“The statement did not directly address whether Charles made the alleged remark.”Read the original ↗
BBC
“A spokesperson said: "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”Read the original ↗
ITVX leans into the royal feud framing, while the BBC sticks to the alleged phone wording and the palace grief-impacts line.
Memoir sparks Palace response
Britain’s King Charles issued a rare response to claims by Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, that Charles told him "we'll forget her soon enough" days after Diana’s death.
“"we'll forget her soon enough"”
The allegation appears in Spencer’s upcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which the BBC said is due to be published next week and is expected to be highly critical of the Royal Family.B
In a statement, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."
The BBC reported that Spencer claims Charles subjected him to a "stream of anger" after Spencer insisted Diana would not have wanted Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to have to walk in her funeral procession.B
The BBC also said it had not seen the book in full, even as it described Spencer’s account of being informed by a senior Palace aide that the young princes would walk alongside Diana’s coffin.B
Funeral dispute and quotes
Earl Spencer’s account, as described by the Guardian, says the reported comments were made during a heated argument over funeral arrangements about whether William and Harry should walk behind Diana’s coffin.
The Guardian reported that Spencer wrote that Charles allegedly made the remark with Spencer recalling: "Rest assured," he hissed, "we'll forget her soon enough!'"
The Guardian also said Spencer responded to a senior aide’s warning that William and Harry would take part in the procession by writing: "That's not going to happen,".
In the same dispute, the Guardian said Spencer later received a phone call from Charles, who insisted it should happen, and the ensuing argument led to the alleged remark.
The Independent reported that Charles, who was Prince of Wales at the time, made the apparent remarks during a major dispute after Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.
Publication timing and theft
As the memoir’s release date approached, the Guardian said Swan Song is due to be published worldwide next Tuesday, with the UK edition by Penguin Michael Joseph.
“Four copies of the Dutch language edition were reportedly taken from a truck”
The Guardian also reported that four copies of the Dutch language edition were taken from a truck while it was en route from the Dutch publisher’s printers to their warehouse in the Netherlands.
In a separate account, Reuters via Internazionale said Britain’s King Charles took the unusual step on Wednesday of responding to criticism by Diana’s brother.
Reuters also said Spencer alleges Charles told him "rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough", according to a report in the Daily Mail, which begins serialising the book on Thursday.
The Independent added that the Daily Mail said the book would include a “string of further extraordinary claims” about Diana’s failed marriage and the aftermath of her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.