Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. Her brother, Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, has written a memoir, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," due out in the UK on September 22, 2026. Excerpts began running Wednesday, September 16, centered on a phone argument Spencer says he had with then-Prince Charles in the days before Diana's funeral, over whether Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother's coffin. Buckingham Palace responded on September 17 — an unusually pointed statement for a Palace that, by custom, doesn't comment on books about the family.

1. Charles Sounded Thrilled After Diana Died (Charles Spencer, Earl Spencer)

Diana's brother says Charles's reaction to her death was cold, and maybe relieved.

Charles sounded thrilled, not shaken. Spencer says that's how he came across right after Diana's death: "unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated, like a lottery winner."

Charles told him Diana would be forgotten soon enough. During their argument over the funeral procession, Spencer says Charles told him: "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough!"

This was years of resentment finally boiling over, Spencer argues. He describes Charles as unleashing "what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death." Spencer goes further, suggesting Charles's mood reflected relief that Diana's death cleared the way for him to eventually marry Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla.

2. But Grief Warped Spencer's Memory, the Palace Says (Buckingham Palace; Julian Payne, Charles's former communications secretary)

This is one of the sharpest public rebukes a Palace has issued in years.

Grief clouds memory. Charles's character isn't the issue. That's Buckingham Palace's position, laid out in an unusually direct statement: "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 judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."

That line doesn't match the man Payne worked for. Julian Payne, Charles's communications secretary at the time, called the "we'll forget her soon enough" remark "just not in his nature and it certainly wasn't in his nature at that time, when he was a man absolutely grief-stricken."

Charles spent years insisting on the opposite. Payne says Charles told his staff never to criticize Diana, and was "absolutely emphatic" that people respect her memory.

3. Still, Nobody Can Check Either Story (The Spectator)

This is a 29-year-old memory dispute with no tape to check it against.

Nobody can prove Charles said those words at all. That's the real dispute, The Spectator argues: whether Charles said those words, not whether they'd have been justified. Almost three decades of memory can't settle that either way.

People will pick whichever version they already believed. The Spectator put it bluntly: "Those who loathe the King will believe Spencer's account, while monarchy supporters will regard this as a sensational and largely untrue memoir."

Reporters treated the Palace's pushback as its own story. Multiple outlets described the statement as one of the most pointed public rebukes from a British monarch in years — treating the sharpness of the response as newsworthy in its own right, separate from what actually happened on the phone in 1997.

Where This Lands

Spencer says Charles sounded elated and told him Diana would be forgotten. The Palace and Charles's former communications secretary say that's not who Charles was in those weeks, and that grief bent Spencer's memory instead. There's no record to check either claim against, only memory — and readers will likely land wherever they already stood on the King. The memoir isn't even out yet; it publishes September 22, with Spencer's full account still to come.

Sources