Princess Diana’s brother claims Charles said she would be forgotten ‘soon enough’ just days after her death

By Lauren Kent, CNN

London (CNN) — The brother of the late Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, has claimed in his forthcoming memoir that King Charles told him days after her death that “we’ll forget her soon enough,” according to an extract published on Wednesday by the Daily Mail.

Spencer claimed that Charles – then Prince of Wales – launched into a “stream of anger” over the phone after he argued that his sister would not have wanted William and Harry to take part in her funeral procession.

The late Princess of Wales died in August 1997 after suffering internal injuries resulting from a high-speed car crash in Paris. Her sons, ages 15 and 12 at the time, walked in the funeral procession days later.

Buckingham Palace pushed back against the claims by Spencer. In an unusually strong statement that attributed a reaction directly to the King, the palace suggested that Spencer’s judgment had been hampered by his grief.

“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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,” a palace spokesperson said in a statement.

CNN has not seen the book, Swan Song, ahead of its publication, but a spokesperson for Penguin Random House confirmed to CNN that the passages quoted from the book are accurate. The Daily Mail obtained exclusive rights to publish excerpts as part of a series starting on Thursday, according to the paper, which has described the book as “explosive.”

Spencer wrote about the tense phone call in his book, which publishes next week and is expected to include heavy criticism of the royal family.

“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped,” Spencer wrote. “I assumed 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.”

“‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’” Spencer wrote. “‘I can’t believe you just said that,’ I said flatly, before hanging up.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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