King Charles Made This Shocking Comment About Princess Diana Shortly After Her Death, According to Her Brother
King Charles Made This Shocking Comment About Princess Diana Shortly After Her Death, According to Her Brother
Rachel BurchfieldWed, September 16, 2026 at 6:07 PM UTC
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Charles Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry, and Prince Charles at Princess Diana’s 1997 funeral.Credit: GettyThe Gist -
Not long after Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, her younger brother Charles Spencer had a heated phone call with her ex-husband Prince Charles (now King Charles).
The crux of the call was Spencer disagreeing with Prince William and Prince Harry walking behind her coffin at her funeral—which they ultimately did.
“Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” Charles allegedly told Spencer about Diana.
In his forthcoming bookSwan Song: Diana, My Sister, Princess Diana’s younger brother Charles Spencer shares a shocking anecdote involving King Charles that took place after the late Princess of Wales’s death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.
Ahead of Diana’s September 6 funeral at Westminster Abbey, Spencer and Charles—then Prince Charles—had a heated phone call about Charles and Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, walking behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral. Ultimately, William, 15, and Harry, 12, did take part in the walk, against Spencer’s objections; Spencer joined them, as did Charles and Prince Philip.
Prince Philip, Prince William, Charles Spencer, Prince Harry, and Prince Charles.Credit: Getty
On that phone call, Charles allegedly said (per The Daily Mail), “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” speaking of Diana, who was just 36 at the time of her death and the most famous woman in the world.
“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting,” Spencer wrote in the book. “Then he stopped. I assume 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.”
Princess Diana on July 27, 1989.Credit: Getty
After the then future king uttered those shocking words, Spencer wrote he was “so stunned” that he took a few seconds to reply before telling his brother-in-law, “I can’t believe you just said that,” before hanging up.
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Spencer has previously spoken about how he argued against William and Harry walking behind Diana’s coffin, telling People that he “was just so worried” about what that would do to the boys—particularly Harry—and said, “actually, I tried to stop that happening, to be honest.”
Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Charles Spencer, Prince William, and Prince Philip behind Princess Diana’s coffin.Credit: Getty
Swan Song hits shelves on September 22, and the idea for the book came about after Spencer said he was “inundated” with interview requests as the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death approaches in the summer of 2027.
“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral,” Spencer said, giving a nod to the powerful eulogy he gave at Westminster Abbey that day. “As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”
Charles Spencer and Diana Spencer in 1968.Credit: Getty
Charles Spencer and Princess Diana.Credit: Getty
On September 15, The Daily Mail reported that four copies of the bombshell book were stolen from a truck in the Netherlands ahead of publication. A truck was bringing copies of Swan Song to a warehouse for distribution to bookstores, and the driver parked overnight to sleep; after waking up, the driver discovered that the copies of the book had been stolen. Dutch police are reportedly investigating the theft, which a source called “highly suspicious.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” a source told The Daily Mail. “This is probably the biggest book of the year, and the security surrounding it has been incredibly tight. Every possible precaution has been taken to prevent it from being leaked ahead of its serialization. Therefore, this unprecedented incident is being taken extremely seriously.”
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
