Princess Diana's brother makes stunning claim about Charles' reaction to her death

Read the original at CBS News ↗
CBS News · collected 2026-09-17

Quick Summary

Earl Spencer, the brother of Princess Diana, claims in his new memoir that Prince Charles, who is now King Charles III, had an unfavorable response upon learning about Diana’s death. The article focuses on these allegations as reported by journalist Holly Williams.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-17, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Charles Spencer, Diana's brother and the ninth Earl Spencer, alleges in his upcoming memoir "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" that then-Prince Charles said days after her death, “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” during a phone call about funeral arrangements. The allegation sparked significant debate within the Royal Family. In September 1997, six days after Diana's fatal car crash in Paris, Earl Spencer insisted Diana’s young sons, William (aged 15) and Harry (aged 12), should not walk behind her coffin, as Charles reportedly wanted them to do. Buckingham Palace responded by stating that King Charles is "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason" and affect memory even years later. The Earl’s book aims to correct what he perceives as misconceptions about his sister, with this revelation being a central claim against the late Princess's ex-husband, now King Charles III.

Written for “Charles Response To Diana Claims” on 2026-09-17, grounded in this article and the 25 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 16136 · logged 2026-09-17

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
3
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
33%
1 of 3 hedged
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Correction & hedging signals
76.6
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
26
Politics
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-17 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Charles Response To Diana Claims
Politics · 26 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 33% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Palace responds to Earl Spencer bombshell claims King said Diana would be forgotten 'soon enough' same event · 100%
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 15% hedged 2 of 13 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's claims about Prince Charles' (now King Charles) alleged comments regarding Princess Diana shortly after her death in his new book.”
Royals set for busy day after ‘unprecedented’ palace response to Spencer claims same event · 100%
Evening Standard
⚖️ Leans right 🔴 24% hedged 8 of 34 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's new memoir allegations about Prince Charles' reaction to Princess Diana's death on the same day.”
Buckingham Palace hits back at new claims made by Princess Diana's brother in new book same event · 100%
CBS News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 67% hedged 2 of 3 📰 publisher trust 77
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's new memoir claims and Buckingham Palace's response about Prince Charles's reaction to Princess Diana's death.”
Buckingham Palace hits back at claims in a book by Princess Diana’s brother same event · 100%
CBC News
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 18% hedged 3 of 17 📰 publisher trust 76
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's claims about Prince Charles' reaction to Princess Diana's death, as detailed in his new memoir.”
Earl Spencer's unreleased book on sister Diana stolen in the Netherlands different event · 95%
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 14 📰 publisher trust 96
“Article A describes the theft of Earl Spencer's unreleased book in the Netherlands, while Article B discusses the content of the memoir regarding Charles' reaction to Princess Diana's death.”
Charles told Earl Spencer 'rest assured, we'll forget Diana soon enough' in incendiary phone call days after her death, claims devastating memoir same event · 95%
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 8% hedged 2 of 26 📰 publisher trust 59
“Both articles report on the same incendiary phone call between Prince Charles and Earl Spencer shortly after Princess Diana's death, as described in a new memoir.”
Charles said Diana would be forgotten ‘soon enough’ after her death, book claims same event · 95%
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 29% hedged 4 of 14 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's claims about Prince Charles' reaction to Princess Diana's death in a new memoir, which are being publicized around the same time.”
‘We’ll forget her soon enough’: Diana’s brother makes explosive claim about Charles same event · 95%
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 30% hedged 7 of 23 📰 publisher trust 96
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's claims about Prince Charles' (now King Charles) reaction to Princess Diana's death, made in a new book released around the same time.”
King Charles issues blistering statement in response to Charles Spencer’s book claims on Princess Diana’s death different event · 95%
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 14% hedged 1 of 7 📰 publisher trust 59
“The articles describe different aspects of the same topic but refer to distinct events - one is King Charles' response to claims made in a book, and the other is Princess Diana's brother making those claims.”
Palace hits back at claims King said Diana would be forgotten ‘soon enough’ same event · 95%
Evening Standard
⚖️ Leans right 🔴 23% hedged 3 of 13 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles refer to the same claim made by Earl Spencer about Prince Charles' alleged comment following Princess Diana's death, reported in a serialised memoir.”

Publisher

CBS News · 588 article(s) · 3 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 3 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

No reporter is named on this article.

Topics

No topics tagged.

Subjects

Charles PERSON · 2× Diana PERSON · 2× Charles III PERSON · 1× Earl Spencer PERSON · 1× Holly Williams PERSON · 1× Princess Diana's PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, makes stunning allegations in a new memoir against then-Prince Charles, now King Charles III, and his reaction to Diana's death.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-17
🔮 Holly Williams reports.
2026-09-17 · CBS News
Princess Diana's brother makes stunning claim about Charles' reaction to her death · mixed framing

Claims (3 extracted, 1 hedged)

Princess Diana's brother makes stunning claim about Charles' reaction to her death uncertain
brother → make → death
Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, makes stunning allegations in a new memoir against then-Prince Charles, now King Charles III, and his reaction to Diana's death. asserted
brother → make → death
Holly Williams reports. asserted
Williams → report → ?
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