King Charles was ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother says

Read the original at South China Morning Post ↗
South China Morning Post · collected 2026-09-18 · by Reuters
Content note This article describes suicide or self-harm.

Quick Summary

In his book, Diana Spencer's brother Charles Spencer claims that Prince Charles sounded "like a lottery winner" after Diana's death in 1997, describing him as "giddily elated." This suggests that Charles was relieved because it potentially allowed him to remarry. The king responded through a spokesman, questioning the reliability of grief-affected memories and judgment.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-18, 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

In his forthcoming book "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer, Earl of Spencer, claims that then-Prince Charles sounded “giddily elated—like a lottery winner” after Princess Diana's death in 1997. This reaction is attributed to the possibility that he felt liberated from their marriage, allowing him to pursue his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles.

Spencer also notes that Prince Charles informed him of having told Princes William and Harry about their mother’s death "first thing that morning, in their bedrooms at Balmoral." The book further suggests Diana had driven herself more than once to Beachy Head cliffs in East Sussex, contemplating suicide but ultimately deciding against it due to her love for her sons.

Buckingham Palace responded to these claims by stating, “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 and affect judgment and memory.” Despite this, no further response was given regarding the latest published excerpts.

Written for “Charles Reaction To Diana Death” on 2026-09-18, grounded in this article and the 42 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 17459 · logged 2026-09-18

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
3
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
67%
2 of 3 hedged
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Correction & hedging signals
93.5
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
43
Politics
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-18 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Charles Reaction To Diana Death
Politics · 43 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 67% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Sydney Morning Herald · 0.97 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 24% hedged 8 of 33 📰 publisher trust 97
“Both articles report on the same specific claim made by Earl Spencer about Prince Charles' reaction immediately after Princess Diana's death in 1997.”
The Straits Times · 0.96 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 18% hedged 2 of 11 📰 publisher trust 59
“Both articles describe King Charles' reaction after Princess Diana's death as reported by her brother in his book, referring to the same specific incident and timeframe.”
New York Post · 0.87 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 31% hedged 4 of 13 📰 publisher trust 59
“Both articles describe King Charles sounding 'giddily elated' after Princess Diana's death, as claimed by her brother in his forthcoming book.”
ABC News (AU) · 0.86 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 26% hedged 6 of 23 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles report on Charles Spencer's claims about King Charles' state of mind immediately after Princess Diana's death as described in his upcoming book.”
Deutsche Welle
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 18% hedged 3 of 17 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's new book claims about King Charles' reaction after Princess Diana's death in 1997, indicating they describe the same incident.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 29% hedged 2 of 7 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles describe Earl Spencer's claims about King Charles' reaction immediately after Princess Diana's death in 1997, as published in excerpts of his book.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 25% hedged 5 of 20 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's claims about Prince Charles' reaction in a phone call immediately after Princess Diana's death in 1997.”
ABC News (US)
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 30% hedged 6 of 20 📰 publisher trust 94
“Both articles describe the same specific incident: Buckingham Palace's rare reply prompted by claims in Charles Spencer's book about King Charles III's reaction to Princess Diana's death.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 17% hedged 2 of 12 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's claims about Prince Charles' state of mind immediately after Princess Diana's death in 1997, as described in his book.”
The Guardian · 0.89 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 24% hedged 5 of 21 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles describe Earl Spencer's claim about King Charles sounding 'giddily elated' immediately after Princess Diana's death, based on extracts from his new memoir.”

Publisher

South China Morning Post · 512 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Reuters
131 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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🔮 The ministry said Iran would take necessary measures to safeguard its national rights and interests, including through reciprocal action.
2026-09-18 · assertive framing · Iran expels Swedish diplomat in retaliatory move
🔮 Diana’s brother Charles Spencer said the then-Prince Charles was “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997, possibly because he felt it meant he was freer to marry again, according to passages in the Daily Mail. Charles on Wednesday took the unusual step of responding to criticism after the first extracts of Spencer’s book were published in the Daily Mail, saying via a spokesman that grief could impact reason, judgment and memory.
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🔮 Australia will stop foreign students from bringing partners and children to accompany them while they study and tighten working holiday visa rules, a senior minister said on Thursday, amid growing debate over high migration levels.
🔮 Remains of small rodents in scat samples suggest they may form part of its diet, while camera-trap evidence indicates it could be more active at night, Nogales-Ascarrunz said.
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🔮 Remains of small rodents in scat samples suggest they may form part of its diet, while camera-trap evidence indicates it could be more active at night, Nogales-Ascarrunz said.
🔮 Rather, the US directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen.”
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Wire or desk byline, not an individual reporter.
More on this subject from Reuters
King Charles responds to criticism from Princess Diana’s brother in rare move
2026-09-17 · South China Morning Post · 85% similar
All 131 articles by Reuters →

Topics

Britain the Daily Mail

Subjects

Diana PERSON · 5× Charles PERSON · 4× Britain GPE · 2× Charles Spencer PERSON · 2× the Daily Mail ORG · 2× Harry PERSON · 1× Spencer PERSON · 1× William PERSON · 1×

Narrative

There was no new comment from the king on the latest excerpts, which also stated that Diana went to a site of many suicides on Britain’s south coast, but that her love for her sons, William and Harry, “stopped her from going further”.
framing: speculative · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-18
🔮 Diana’s brother Charles Spencer said the then-Prince Charles was “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997, possibly because he felt it meant he was freer to marry again, according to passages in the Daily Mail. Charles on Wednesday took the unusual step of responding to criticism after the first extracts of Spencer’s book were published in the Daily Mail, saying via a spokesman that grief could impact reason, judgment and memory.
2026-09-18 · South China Morning Post
King Charles was ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother says · speculative framing

Claims (3 extracted, 2 hedged)

King Charles was ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother says The royal sounded ‘like a lottery winner’, possibly because he felt it meant he was free to marry again, Charles Spencer says in his book Britain’s King Charles sounded “like a lottery winner” after the death of his late first wife Diana, her brother writes in his forthcoming book, new extracts of which were published on Thursday. uncertain
extracts → say → Thursday
Diana’s brother Charles Spencer said the then-Prince Charles was “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997, possibly because he felt it meant he was freer to marry again, according to passages in the Daily Mail. Charles on Wednesday took the unusual step of responding to criticism after the first extracts of Spencer’s book were published in the Daily Mail, saying via a spokesman that grief could impact reason, judgment and memory. uncertain
grief → say → reason
There was no new comment from the king on the latest excerpts, which also stated that Diana went to a site of many suicides on Britain’s south coast, but that her love for her sons, William and Harry, “stopped her from going further”. asserted
love → be → her
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