Earl Spencer Claims King Charles Was Elated After Princess Diana’s Death
Prince Charles allegedly sounded giddily elated and like a lottery winner when he called Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, following the fatal 1997 car crash in Paris that killed Princess Diana, according to claims published in Earl Spencer’s forthcoming memoir, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.”
A Late-Night Phone Call and a Disputed Reaction
The disclosures, surfacing ahead of the book’s September 22 publication date, detail conversations that took place almost thirty years ago in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. According to excerpts published by the Daily Mail and reported by Page Six, the 9th Earl Spencer recalled that while other callers were stunned and barely able to articulate condolences, the then-Prince Charles exhibited a markedly different demeanor.
“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, I remember thinking at the time,” Earl Spencer writes in the text, as detailed by BBC News.
The author recounts that he was alerted to the August 31, 1997, crash by a middle-of-the-night phone call from his sister Jane at his home in Cape Town, South Africa. During subsequent calls confirming the death, Charles informed him that he had already broken the news to Princes William and Harry “first thing that morning, in their bedrooms at Balmoral.”
Analyzing the interaction retrospectively, Earl Spencer suggests that the prince’s primary reaction centered on how the event might remove barriers to marrying the woman he loved, rather than processing the loss of his ex-spouse. Charles and Diana had separated in 1992 and officially divorced in August 1996. Charles ultimately married now-Queen Camilla in 2005.
Buckingham Palace Pushes Back Against the Memoir’s Claims
Buckingham Palace strongly challenged the credibility of the book’s assertions. Following an initial extract claiming Charles had remarked that Diana would be forgotten “soon enough,” a palace spokesperson issued a pointed statement addressing the psychological impact of long-ago grief.
“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,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson told Page Six.
Representatives for Prince Harry indicated that the Duke of Sussex chose not to comment publicly on the book. However, sources familiar with the matter noted that the contents were not entirely unexpected by the duke, who spent time discussing related family history during a visit to the Spencer ancestral estate at Althorp earlier in the year.