Earl Spencer insists he’s telling the ‘truth’ over King allegations

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Evening Standard · collected 2026-09-18 · by Tony Jones

Quick Summary

Earl Spencer is defending his claims against King Charles III in a new memoir about Princess Diana. Buckingham Palace responded by suggesting that grief can affect judgment. In an interview with the BBC, Earl Spencer insisted he heard the king say they would forget about Diana soon enough and denied Palace suggestions of exaggeration or misinterpretation, stating he has no other evidence besides his own testimony and immediate reactions from those close to him.
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

Experts suggest that Earl Spencer felt a duty to write his memoir about Diana's life. In the book, he makes explosive claims against King Charles, alleging that shortly after Princess Diana’s death in 1997, then-Prince Charles said "we’ll forget her soon enough." This prompted Buckingham Palace to issue a statement saying His Majesty is mindful that fraternal grief can cloud judgment and reason.

Spencer accused the king of gaslighting him when the palace responded by questioning his recollections. He called the palace's defense a "rather poor imitation" of how Queen Elizabeth II handled similar allegations from Prince Harry in their Oprah interview.

The book also includes details about an alleged row over Diana’s funeral arrangements where King Charles reportedly went ballistic, criticizing Spencer's family for not fulfilling their duties adequately enough. Buckingham Palace did not comment on the specifics of these claims but suggested that grief could affect memory accuracy over time.

Earl Spencer told BBC he wanted to put down truths before it was too late due to his awareness of mortality. He added that there are other facts about King Charles he chose not to include in the book, deeming them irrelevant.

Written for “Diana Controversies Royal Family” on 2026-10-05, grounded in this article and the 92 other(s) covering the same event.

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
11
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
18%
2 of 11 hedged
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Correction & hedging signals
67.5
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
93
Politics
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-18 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Diana Controversies Royal Family
Politics · 93 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 18% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard · 0.98 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 22% hedged 4 of 18 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's BBC interview where he discusses his claims about the King and Buckingham Palace's response, describing the same alleged reaction from the King.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 15% hedged 2 of 13 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's claims about King Charles regarding Princess Diana in his new book and Buckingham Palace's response to those claims.”
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 31% hedged 4 of 13 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe Earl Spencer's interview with the BBC where he discusses and defends his claims about King Charles' remarks regarding Princess Diana, occurring on the same date.”
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 22% hedged 6 of 27 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles describe Earl Spencer defending his claims about the King in an interview with BBC on the same day.”
Evening Standard · 0.98 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 30% hedged 8 of 27 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's interview with BBC regarding his memoir's claims about the King and Buckingham Palace's response.”
Evening Standard · 0.98 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 30% hedged 8 of 27 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles report on Earl Spencer's interview with BBC where he questions Buckingham Palace's response to his memoir and recounts the King's reaction.”
Evening Standard · 0.91 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 9% hedged 2 of 22 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles describe Earl Spencer's response to Buckingham Palace regarding his allegations about the King in the context of his memoir and BBC interview.”
The Sydney Morning Herald · 0.89 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 31% hedged 9 of 29 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles discuss Earl Spencer's claims about King Charles' alleged disparaging remarks regarding Princess Diana, specifically mentioning the phrase 'we’ll forget her soon enough,' and Buckingham Palace's response.”
The Guardian · 0.85 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 38% hedged 9 of 24 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles describe Earl Spencer's claims about King Charles's comments following Princess Diana's death and the subsequent reaction from Buckingham Palace, indicating they are reporting on the same specific incident.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 23% hedged 3 of 13 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles discuss Buckingham Palace's response to Earl Spencer's claims about the King's alleged comments regarding Princess Diana.”

Publisher

Evening Standard · 3460 article(s) · 22 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 22 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Tony Jones
24 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, expected to attend the Commonwealth summit with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, recently reiterated the Government’s position during an interview with Politico, a digital newspaper, saying: “I don’t think reparations are the answer, and I’ve had those discussions already with some of our Commonwealth colleagues.” A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “There are important discussions taking place in various fora about colonial legacy and the intergenerational impact of the transatlantic trade in enslaved persons. “
🔮 Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, expected to attend the Commonwealth summit with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, recently reiterated the Government’s position during an interview with Politico, a digital newspaper, saying: “I don’t think reparations are the answer, and I’ve had those discussions already with some of our Commonwealth colleagues.” A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “There are important discussions taking place in various fora about colonial legacy and the intergenerational impact of the transatlantic trade in enslaved persons. “
🔮 William tells villagers ‘holistic’ approach required to tackle flooding William sympathised with residents in the rural settlement of Skenfrith who might be “anxious” about extreme weather events he said were no longer “one in 50-year” occurrences but seemed to be happening every year.
🔮 Earl Spencer has said he could write a “hit piece on the royal family” but said it was not a threat as he would not put pen to paper.
🔮 In a speech to recipients, their families and some of the WellChild nurses, Harry became emotional after saying: “To all the mums and dads – most of us will never truly know the emotional ups and downs of your day.”
🔮 Will Messer, the 10-year-old winner of the Inspirational Child award, asked the duke to sign a Funko Pop “Prince Harry” doll and presented him with a silk scarf from his favourite football team, Sunderland.
🔮 It has been reported Meghan is aiming to rekindle her work with her UK-based charities but it is understood she will not attend Monday’s charity event.
2026-09-21 · assertive framing · Meghan to miss Harry’s WellChild Awards ceremony
🔮 Speaking about an alleged row over Diana’s funeral arrangements involving her sons, the earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened. “
🔮 Speaking about an alleged row over Diana’s funeral arrangements involving her sons, the earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened. “
🔮 Speaking about an alleged row over Diana’s funeral arrangements involving her sons, the earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened.
Also by Tony Jones
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 24 articles by Tony Jones →

Topics

BBC Buckingham Palace’s

Subjects

BBC ORG · 3× Spencer PERSON · 2× Buckingham Palace’s ORG · 1× Charles Spencer PERSON · 1× Diana PERSON · 1× Earl Spencer PERSON · 1×

Narrative

The earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened. “
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-18
🔮 The earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened. “
2026-09-18 · Evening Standard
Earl Spencer insists he’s telling the ‘truth’ over King allegations · assertive framing

Claims (11 extracted, 2 hedged)

Charles Spencer has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling his sister Diana that prompted an “unprecedented” response from Buckingham Palace who said “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”. uncertain
pain → make → reason
But in an extract of an interview with the BBC, Earl Spencer questioned whether the official response showed with the King was actually embarrassed. asserted
response → question → King
The earl said: “(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened. “ asserted
I → say → idea
And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s gonna pull himself together and say something more appropriate’, and then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.” asserted
We → stop → her
Earl Spencer added: “I really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, ‘I cannot believe you just said that’, and I hung up on him.” asserted
I → add → him
Asked about Buckingham Palace’s response to his claims, Earl Spencer told the BBC: “Is he (the King) furious, or is he embarrassed? uncertain
he → ask → BBC
Because I can tell you, here and now, those are exactly the words he said. asserted
he → tell → you
“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. asserted
I → have → 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.” asserted
he → say → what
Asked whether he has “evidence” of the King’s comments, the earl told the BBC: “I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous.” asserted
it → ask → friends
He added: “I’m telling the truth.” asserted
I → add → truth
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