Earl Spencer insists ‘I am telling the truth’ after backlash over Charles’ alleged comments on Diana’s death

Earl Spencer has insisted he is “telling the truth” about a claim in his new book that the King told him that his sister Diana would be forgotten “soon enough” following her death.

In an interview with the BBC, the Earl said he was left “stunned” by Charles’ response to his former wife’s fatal car crash and that his words were “monstrous”, adding: “Those are exactly the words he said.”

Asked about Buckingham Palace’s response to his claims, Earl Spencer told the BBC: “Is he (Charles) furious, or is he embarrassed? Because I can tell you, here and now, those are exactly the words he said.

“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said, and I promise that to you now, genuinely, that is what he said.

“I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”

A spokesman for the palace hit back on the claims after they first emerged on Wednesday, saying “fraternal grief can cloud reason”.

King Charles has been engulfed in a third day of controversy following a series of bombshell allegations made by Earl Spencer in a tribute book to his older sister, Diana, Princess of Wales.

The highly anticipated memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is being serialised in the Daily Mail before it is published next Tuesday.

On Friday, the Earl detailed the day of Diana’s funeral and claimed there had been a “lack of obvious care for Harry”, who had walked behind his mother’s coffin.

He wrote: “He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him. But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.

“I have often looked back, reckoning that a more caring hand at such points as this would have helped him enormously in the future. Instead, he seemed so very alone in his despair and torment.”

In one of the most shocking allegations, the Earl claimed that the King had sounded “giddily elated… like a lottery winner” when he rang following her death in 1997.

He also revealed comments Charles supposedly made about his ex-wife in a row over funeral preparations, in which he was said to have told Diana’s brother “we’ll forget her soon enough”.

One excerpt read: “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.”

The Earl added: “He let me know he had informed William and Harry of their mother’s death, first thing that morning, in their bedrooms at Balmoral.

“It all sounded strangely matter-of-fact, given the enormity of the disaster.

“Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not.”

He also wrote about how he fought plans for William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk behind their mother’s coffin during the funeral procession.

The Earl is said to have insisted to the King that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to have made the difficult public walk.

“He went nuts. ‘That’s the problem with your family. They’ve got no bloody sense of duty!’ he started, before descending into a general rage,” Earl Spencer wrote.

“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.

“I assumed the pause signalled 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. ‘Rest assured’, he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”

The allegations sparked an “unprecedented” response from Buckingham Palace, which hit back before the serialisation, saying “fraternal grief can cloud reason”.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “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.”

Earl Spencer says the book has been written to correct “untruths” told about his older sister, who he says was “contemplating ending it all” and drove “more than once” to the cliffs at Beachy Head in East Sussex.

He also revealed details about Diana’s unhappy marriage to Charles and her wish to call off the engagement prior to their wedding in 1981, and claimed that the late Queen Elizabeth II considered restoring his sister’s Her Royal Highness title, which she lost when she divorced Charles.

The revelations comes amid a difficult time for the royal family, who have been surrounding by controversy following a string scandals.

It also follows the recent return of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who the King has insisted are no longer working members of the royal family.