Princess Diana’s Brother Has Broken Decades of Silence — And the Palace Is Already Pushing Back

Her brother, Charles Spencer, has written a new memoir about Diana, and some of the claims are so explosive that Buckingham Palace has taken the unusual step of responding publicly.

The book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due to be published on September 22 and recounts the days surrounding Diana’s death and funeral from Spencer’s perspective.

What has drawn the most attention is what Spencer says happened behind palace walls after Diana died.

The claim that triggered a rare palace response

Spencer says that during a dispute over Diana’s funeral arrangements, then-Prince Charles made a remark suggesting she would soon be forgotten.

According to Spencer, Charles told him words to the effect of, “we’ll forget her soon enough.”

Buckingham Palace did not ignore the allegation.

In a rare statement, a palace spokesperson said the King believes that the pain of losing a sibling can affect reason, judgment, and memory over time.

That response stood out precisely because the palace usually avoids commenting on books about the royal family.

The dispute was about William and Harry

At the center of the disagreement was one of the most unforgettable images from Diana’s funeral.

Prince William and Prince Harry, then just 15 and 12, walked behind their mother’s coffin through central London.

Spencer says he strongly opposed the idea.

He believed the boys were too young and that Diana would not have wanted them put through such a public and emotionally intense experience.

According to Spencer’s account, the disagreement with Charles became deeply heated.

The funeral procession ultimately went ahead with William, Harry, Charles, Prince Philip, and Spencer walking behind Diana’s coffin.

It became one of the defining images of the royal family in the 1990s.

Spencer makes an even more startling claim

The memoir goes further.

Spencer claims that when he spoke with Charles after Diana’s death, the future King sounded unusually upbeat.

He describes Charles as sounding “giddily elated” and compares his tone to someone who had just won the lottery.

That is Spencer’s interpretation of the call, and Buckingham Palace has pushed back strongly on his recollection.

The palace has not accepted his version of events and has instead suggested that grief may have influenced the way he remembers those conversations.

Why this is such a big deal

Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, at just 36 years old.

Her death triggered an extraordinary public outpouring of grief and created one of the biggest crises the modern royal family had faced.

Almost three decades later, her legacy remains enormously powerful.

That is why claims about how the royal family reacted privately in the days after her death still carry so much weight.

It is also why the palace’s response has attracted nearly as much attention as the memoir itself.

Royal correspondents have described the intervention as unusually forceful compared with the palace’s normal approach to controversial books.

Spencer says the book is meant to honor Diana

Despite the controversy, Spencer has described the memoir as a personal tribute to his sister.

He says he wanted to tell Diana’s story from the perspective of someone who knew her long before she became one of the most famous women in the world.

The book also revisits their childhood, Diana’s personality away from cameras, and the family relationships that shaped her life.

Spencer has said he believes Diana would have approved of the project.

More revelations may still be coming

The most explosive excerpts are appearing before the book’s full release.

And several other claims have already surfaced.

Spencer says palace officials overruled parts of Diana’s family’s wishes for her funeral, including music choices, and he has questioned how decisions around William and Harry were handled.

He has also made claims about how some people inside royal circles reacted privately to Diana’s death.

Those claims remain disputed.

The argument over Diana is not going away

For millions of people, Princess Diana remains one of the defining public figures of her generation.

Her death may have happened nearly three decades ago, but the emotions around it have never completely disappeared.

Now her brother’s memoir is bringing the private tensions surrounding those days back into public view.

And the fact that Buckingham Palace has chosen to respond at all suggests just how seriously the royal household views what Spencer is saying.

With the full book still to come, this may only be the beginning.