King Charles vs Earl Spencer: Royal expert claims monarch fears Diana’s brother a ‘ticking time bomb’
A royal expert says Earl Spencer’s impending memoir is posing a ‘real problem’ for King Charles ahead of the 30th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.
King Charles’ extraordinary decision to respond to bombshell claims from Earl Spencer ahead of his tell-all book on the monarch’s relationship with Princess Diana shows how worried Buckingham Palace is, according to a royal expert.
Expert Duncan Larcombe has told Metro that the still unreleased memoir from Diana’s brother titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is posing a real problem for the 77-year-old monarch.
The comments came after Buckingham Palace made the unusual move to strongly respond to Spencer’s claim in the Daily Mail that the then-Prince of Wales bluntly told the Earl in the wake of Princess Diana’s death in 1997 that “we’ll forget her soon enough”.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The claim, which will be included in the Earl’s memoir, provoked Buckingham Palace state that “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”.
The unusually strong response drew immediate parallels with those of Queen Elizabeth II in 2021 against Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s claims of racism that “recollections may vary”.
However, Larcombe said the fact the Palace saw fit to respond to a still-unreleased memoir showed how seriously the royal family was taking the threat of it.
“For Earl Spencer to say that the King, when he was Prince Charles, was ruthless and uncaring after that terrible accident is an astonishing accusation from somebody that the public still remembers for his speech at his sister’s funeral,” said Larcombe, a former royal editor at The Sun.
“And the fact that the Palace have taken this extraordinary step of responding to it so quickly and publicly shows just how seriously King Charles is taking this.”
“Normally, the response is always the same: ‘We do not comment on private conversations.’ This reaction has been so different. They didn’t wait for the book to even hit the shelves before they’d got their defence in.
“I think that’s an indication that they are so extremely worried that the public will have an adverse reaction to the king because of these alleged comments.”
Larcombe also emphasised how the timing of the memoir was fuelling further anxiety at the Palace, given that 2027 marks the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death.
He told Metro that the book excerpt published in the Mail showed that “this moment is the calm before the storm.”
“Diana was the biggest threat the British establishment had for decades. As her brother, I think the royal family is very worried that Earl Spencer may speak out publicly and criticise the institution again. This book shows that rather than him letting bygones be bygones, he was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”
The excerpt appeared to document a private phone conversation between the Earl and Charles during the planning of the funeral procession for Diana following her death on August 31, 1997, in a car accident in Paris.
The discussion over whether Princes Harry and William should march behind their mother’s coffin soon descended into a furious argument, with Charles insisting that her sons should be part of the procession.
The Earl, now 62, wrote: “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.
“Rest assured,” he hissed, “we’ll forget her soon enough.”
Larcombe’s comments came as the royal family appeared to put on a quietly united front amid the fall-out, with King Charles shrugging off reporters’ questions as he hosted AI executives for a summit at Dumfries House in Scotland.
Also in Scotland Prince William and Kate Middleton appeared cheerful during a royal engagement on the island of Bute.
The smiling Waleses were happily taking to the fields at the Bute Shinty Club as part of their tour highlighting the work of community organisations.
The Princess Royal Anne also kept her official engagements with a visit to the Cannock Chase War Cemetery in Cannock, Staffordshire.
