Earl Spencer has accused King Charles III of gaslighting him after Buckingham Palace disputed Spencer's claims that Charles said "we'll forget her soon enough" about Princess Diana following her death. In a BBC interview, Spencer defended his memoir's claims as truthful and described the King’s response as “monstrous.” Buckingham Palace responded by suggesting that fraternal grief can affect memory accuracy over time.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-20,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
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.
Earl Spencer has accused the King of gaslighting him after Buckingham Palace pushed back against explosive claims that Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after Diana, Princess of Wales, died.
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Diana → accuse → Wales
The earl has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister Diana that prompted the response from Buckingham Palace, which said “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
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pain → make → reason
Now, the earl has accused the King of gaslighting him and called the response a “rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote” – the late Queen’s response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s allegations in their Oprah Winfrey interview, The Mail on Sunday reports.
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Mail → accuse → Sunday
He said: “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King.
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you → say → King
“It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said.
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I → try → what
“I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place.”
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which → think → place
He also said “Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book”.
asserted
Diana → say → book
In response to the claims made in the memoir, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Wednesday: “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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
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others → make → loss
In an extract of a BBC interview released on Friday, the earl insisted he is “telling the truth” and described the King’s comments about his sister as “monstrous”.
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he → release → sister
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.
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I → speak → idea
“And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s going to pull himself together and say something more appropriate’.
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he → stop → something
“And then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.”
asserted
We → say → her
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.”
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it → ask → friends
He added: “I’m telling the truth.”
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I → add → truth
Charles is said to have made the comments about his ex-wife in a row with the earl over whether the then Prince William and Prince Harry should follow Diana’s funeral cortege.
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William → say → cortege
In the latest extract of the earl’s book serialised in the Daily Mail, Earl Spencer told of his memories of the funeral, and his concern for Harry, after he observed a “lack of obvious care” for the then 12-year-old prince.
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he → serialise → prince
Earl Spencer walked behind Diana’s coffin during the funeral procession on September 6 1997, alongside Harry, William, then 15, Charles, and the late Duke of Edinburgh.
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Spencer → walk → Edinburgh
Recounting the train journey from London to Althorp after the funeral, Earl Spencer said: “My chief memory of that train journey is of being concerned at the lack of obvious care for Harry, as he decompressed from the ghastliness of the morning.
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he → recount → morning
“He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him.
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they → need → him
“But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”
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he → allow → control
Earl Spencer said he could not get over how “tiny, and slight, and bereft” his nephew looked, adding he remembers thinking Harry was “too small to be doing this”.
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Harry → say → this
The Aporia
