Piers Morgan: Royals are 'spitting blood' over claims in Charles Spencer's Diana book

The royal family are “spitting blood” over Earl Spencer’s memoir about Diana, Princess of Wales, Piers Morgan has claimed.

The earl also suggested Mr Morgan was responsible for publishing photographs, taken with hidden cameras, of Diana in a leotard working out at the gym, in the Daily Mirror newspaper in 1993.

Morgan was working at The Sun at the time, and did not join the Mirror as its editor until 1995.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Mr Morgan said: “I know for a fact the royal family are spitting blood, they are furious about this.

“Clearly, the quite deliberate attempt to destroy King Charles’s reputation.

Piers Morgan joined The Mirror as editor in 1995

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“I think he’s done a remarkable job after the death of his late, great mother and deserves all the accolades that have come his way.

“For him to now be taken down by this pipsqueak, Earl Spencer, with a series of claims that can never be disproven factually because it’ll be his word against his word.”

Mr Morgan strongly refuted this, saying: “When he called me, it was to uninvite me from the funeral. He says I was surly, annoyed, I was rude to him. Absolute nonsense. That is a bald-faced lie.

“I was very respectful to Earl Spencer. I could not have been more respectful to him.

“I pointed out I only accepted the invitation because I had specifically asked if his family approved. I said to him, ‘please extend my deepest condolences to your mother’ and he said he would do that and he thanked me.”

Representatives for Earl Spencer and Buckingham Palace have been contacted for comment.

Mr Morgan has called on Diana’s brother to pulp the remaining copies of his book and instructed his lawyers to demand the work be pulled from sale immediately.

Mr Morgan doubled down on his threat of legal action, telling BBC Radio 4’s PM programme he had asked his lawyers to send a legal letter to both the earl and the book’s publishers.

Earl Spencer, William, Harry and Charles at Diana’s funeral service (Fiona Hanson/PA)

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“The mere fact he has so speedily issued an apology should say it all…” Mr Morgan said.

“You’re a self-proclaimed historian – remove it immediately. If that means you have to pulp your book, well that’s on you.”

Mr Morgan also wrote on social media: “Earl Spencer has apologised to me for his defamatory lies published in his new book, Swan Song, published today.

“But I am pursuing legal action against him and his publisher Penguin to have the lies removed, and damages paid to the King’s Trust.”

The statement on behalf of Earl Spencer read: “Earl Spencer’s account of his conversation with Piers Morgan is accurate.

“Mr Morgan was surly and annoyed when Earl Spencer called personally to tell him that he was not welcome at his sister’s funeral.

Earl Spencer being interviewed about his book by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

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“The book then records Earl Spencer’s assumption that Mr Morgan’s response was because he was editor of the Daily Mirror when the Mirror Group had published highly intrusive photographs of Princess Diana at the gym.

“The photographs were published by the Sunday Mirror on November 7 1993. Mr Morgan has pointed out that he did not join the Daily Mirror until October 1995.

“As an historian, accuracy is important to Earl Spencer. He therefore wishes to clarify that his assumption was incorrect. Earl Spencer apologises to Mr Morgan for this error.”

Mr Morgan had earlier criticised the earl for “fabricated inaccuracies” and “examples of brazen falsity”.

Speaking on his YouTube show Piers Morgan Uncensored, he added: “It’s all bullshit and very, very easy bullshit for me to prove it.

“The photographs which he says that I published were printed by the Sunday Mirror on November 7 1993. I joined the Daily Mirror in October in 1995.

Copies of Swan Song: Diana, My Sister are unboxed at a bookstore in central London

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“In fact, at the time of the gym pictures, I was doing a showbiz column on the Mirror’s arch-rival, The Sun. About as far removed from responsibility for the Mirror scoop as I could possibly have been.”

Morgan was the editor of the Mirror from 1995 to 2004.

The pictures of Diana working out were taken by Bryce Taylor, the then-owner of LA Fitness in Isleworth, west London, who used a hi-tech camera hidden in a panel above the princess’s head to capture her astride an exercise machine wearing a leotard and cycling shorts.

She launched legal action against Mr Taylor and Mirror Group Newspapers and they later settled out of court in 1995, with the princess’s legal costs met and a donation secured to charity.

The photos were first published in the Sunday Mirror and then the Daily Mirror.