King Charles allegedly made a striking remark about Princess Diana just days after her death, according to a new claim from her brother, Charles Spencer.
In his memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Spencer described a tense phone conversation with the then-Prince Charles over plans for Diana’s funeral procession. He claimed the disagreement ended with Charles saying that people would eventually forget his former wife.
Charles Spencer claims King Charles said people would ‘forget Diana soon enough’ following Princess Diana’s death
The alleged exchange took place before Diana’s funeral on September 6, 1997.
Spencer said he objected after learning that Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12, would walk behind their mother’s coffin. He believed Diana would not have wanted her sons to face such a public experience so soon after her death.
According to the Charles Spencer memoir, Charles called him and defended the decision by referring to his own participation in Lord Mountbatten’s funeral procession years earlier.
Spencer responded that Charles had been 30 when Lord Mountbatten died, while William and Harry were still teenagers.
The conversation then became heated, according to Spencer.
“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting,” he wrote.
Spencer claimed Charles eventually told him, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!”
The earl said the alleged comment shocked him.
“‘I can’t believe you just said that,’ I said flatly, before hanging up,” Spencer wrote.
Spencer interpreted the remark as evidence of what he described as Charles’ resentment toward Diana and discomfort with the enormous public reaction to her death.
According to The Daily Mail the claim appeared in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which Spencer said he wrote to address what he considered false narratives surrounding his sister.
Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Six days later, Spencer joined William, Harry, Charles and Prince Philip in the funeral procession through central London.
The new King Charles Diana claim revisited one of the most emotionally charged moments surrounding the Princess Diana death and added Spencer’s version of what happened behind the scenes.
