ROYAL FAMILY NEWSKing Charles Offers Rare Response to Charles Spencer's Claim His Majesty Said Princess Diana 'Would Be Forgotten Soon Enough' After She Died
King Charles and Charles Spencer had a heated phone call about Princess Diana in 1997.
Sept. 16 2026, Updated 5:19 p.m. ET
Charles Spencer looked back on a heated phone call he had with the now-King Charles after his sister, Princess Diana, died in August 1997.
Spencer, 62, penned an anecdote about the conversation in his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, where he recalled Charles, 77, saying the world would quickly "forget" about the late Princess of Wales.
The monarch issued a statement on Wednesday, September 16, where he responded to his former brother-in-law's claims.
Princess Diana Died in August 1997
Princess Diana died at the age of 36 in August 1997 after a car crash in Paris.
“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," Buckingham Palace said.
“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting," the 9th Earl Spencer wrote in the chapter shared by Daily Mail.
The call took place just before Diana's funeral, with Spencer and Charles discussing whether her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, then ages 15 and 12, would walk behind her coffin during the procession.
'He unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana,' Charles Spencer wrote about King Charles.
"Then [Charles] stopped. I assumed the pause signaled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone 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 wrote in the memoir.
"'Rest assured,’ he hissed, 'we’ll forget her soon enough!'" Spencer added of the former Prince of Wales.
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Prince Harry and Prince William Both Walked Behind Princess Diana's Coffin
Prince William and Prince Harry took part in Princess Diana's funeral procession.
Spencer was so dumbfounded by the egregious remark that he took a brief pause before replying back: “I can’t believe you just said that."
William, now 44, and Harry, now 42, both decided to take part in their mother's mourning procession.
Charles Spencer Said the Eulogy at His Sister's Funeral
Charles Spencer spoke at Princess Diana's funeral in September 1997.
In 2017, Spencer expressed his trepidation over Harry walking behind Diana's coffin despite being so young.
“I was just so worried — what a trauma for a little chap to walk behind his mum’s body,” he told People at the time. “It’s just awful. And, actually, I tried to stop that happening, to be honest.”
At Diana's burial service held at Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997, Spencer famously eulogized his sister and spoke out against the media scrutiny she faced in her 36 years of life.
"She proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic," he said in part.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister hits bookshelves on September 22.
