Charles Spencer Responds to Buckingham Palace's Denial of Memoir Claims

<p>Charles Spencer, the brother of Princess Diana, responded to Buckingham Palace after the royal household questioned his recollection of a conversation with King Charles III, stating he felt he was being "gaslit" by the monarch.</p><p>Earlier this week, The Daily Mail published an excerpt of Spencer's upcoming memoir, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," in which he described a heated conversation with Charles following Diana's death. In the excerpt, Spencer alleged that Charles said, "We’ll forget her soon enough!" regarding his ex-wife during their exchange.</p><p>Buckingham Palace later responded to Spencer's claims, disputing his account of the conversation and suggesting that grief may have affected his memory of events surrounding his sister's death.</p><p>In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Spencer criticized the palace's response. "It is not every day you wake up to find you've been gaslit by the king," he said. "It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I'd lied without the King being able to deny what I'd said."</p><p>He also remarked that the palace's response was a poor imitation of the famous "recollections may vary" quote issued after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.</p><p>In the excerpt, Spencer described a phone call he claimed to have had with Charles six days after Diana died in August 1997. He alleged that during the call, Charles expressed contempt for Diana and stated, "Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!"</p><p>According to the excerpt, Spencer and the then Prince of Wales disagreed over the decision to have Prince William and Harry, then 15 and 12, walk behind their mother's casket during the funeral procession.</p><p>A Buckingham Palace spokesperson issued a statement responding to Spencer's claims, saying, "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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."</p><p>Spencer maintained his account of the alleged conversation during an appearance on BBC One's "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg." When Kuenssberg pointed out that Buckingham Palace had denied his version of events, Spencer responded, "But they haven't actually, Laura. They've sort of smudged that one, haven't they?"</p><p>Kuenssberg read the palace's statement to Spencer, who questioned whether the king was furious or embarrassed. He asserted, "Well, I'm telling the truth."</p><p>Spencer stated he remembered the conversation clearly because he had spoken infrequently with Charles. He added that he repeated the alleged comment to close friends and family members immediately afterward because it was shocking.</p><p>When asked whether William and Harry would be upset by his account, Spencer suggested they were already familiar with his version of events, stating, "This will not be a surprise to them."</p><p>A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We won’t be offering any comment."</p><p>Diana died at age 36 after suffering injuries from a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, also died in the crash.</p><p>At the time of her death, she and Charles had been divorced for about one year. They married in July 1981, announced their separation in December 1992, and finalized their divorce in August 1996.</p><p>Harry wrote about the decision to have him and his brother walk behind their mother's coffin in his 2023 memoir, "Spare," saying that "several adults were aghast" and that "mummy’s brother, Uncle Charles, raised hell," telling the royal family, "You can’t make these boys walk behind their mother’s coffin! It’s barbaric."</p><p>Spencer previously spoke about his opposition to William and Harry walking behind their mother's coffin, describing it as "bizarre and cruel." He stated, "It was the most horrifying half an hour of my life. It was just ghastly."</p><p>"Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" is set to be released on September 22.</p>