Charles Spencer's striking claims about the royal fallout following Princess Diana's death

Read the original at CBS News ↗
CBS News · collected 2026-09-20

Quick Summary

In an interview promoting his new book "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer discusses his efforts to reveal what he considers the true history of Princess Diana's life. He also comments on Prince Harry's grief following their mother's death and suggests that better support for Harry could have led to a more positive outcome for him.
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).

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
2
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
50%
1 of 2 hedged
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Correction & hedging signals
65.6
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 2026-09-20 · 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 50% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Extended interview: Charles Spencer on Princess Diana same event · 100%
CBS News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 2 📰 publisher trust 66
“Both articles describe Charles Spencer's first interview about his new book 'Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,' discussing Princess Diana and related topics on the same day.”
Key takeaways from BBC interview as Earl Spencer defends claims about King same event · 100%
BBC News
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 11% hedged 8 of 72 📰 publisher trust 78
“Both articles describe Charles Spencer's interview about his book 'Swan Song: Diana, My Sister', discussing claims and details about Princess Diana's life and the royal family.”
Princess Diana's brother claims Charles told him, "we'll forget her soon" different event · 95%
CBS News · 0.86 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 31% hedged 5 of 16 📰 publisher trust 66
“While both articles discuss Charles Spencer's claims about Princess Diana and her treatment by the royal family, they describe different interviews or content from his book.”
JAN MOIR: I just can't accept that Prince Charles practically revelled in the death of his former wife different event · 95%
Daily Mail · 0.86 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans strongly left 🔴 22% hedged 10 of 46 📰 publisher trust 65
“The articles discuss different perspectives on Princess Diana's death and its aftermath through two distinct authors' analyses of Charles Spencer's book, rather than a single specific incident.”
Charles said Diana would be forgotten ‘soon enough’ after her death, book claims different event · 95%
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 29% hedged 4 of 14 📰 publisher trust 67
“Article A discusses allegations in Earl Spencer's book about a comment made by Charles regarding Diana's funeral, while Article B covers an interview with Charles Spencer about his new book and its content.”
Prince Harry knew about bombshells in Princess Di’s brother’s new book: sources different event · 95%
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 12% hedged 3 of 26 📰 publisher trust 64
“Article A discusses Prince Harry's knowledge about Charles Spencer's book before its publication, while Article B covers an interview with Charles Spencer promoting his book.”
Earl Spencer's Diana book opens old wounds royals would rather forget different event · 95%
BBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 10% hedged 5 of 51 📰 publisher trust 78
“The articles discuss related topics but cover different aspects and events: Article A focuses on Earl Spencer's book and Buckingham Palace's reaction, while Article B covers an interview about the book and its claims regarding Prince Harry's grief.”
Princess Diana’s brother says his bombshell claims against King Charles following her death will ‘not be a surprise’ to nephews William and Harry different event · 95%
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 20% hedged 4 of 20 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles discuss different parts of Charles Spencer's interview and claims related to his sister Princess Diana, but they do not describe the exact same specific incident happening at the same time.”
King Charles issues rare statement disputing claims from Princess Diana’s brother different event · 90%
National Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 29% hedged 6 of 21 📰 publisher trust 60
“The articles cover related but different events: one reports on King Charles's statement regarding criticism from Princess Diana’s brother, while the other focuses on an interview with Charles Spencer about his new book.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s experience ‘echoes’ what happened to Princess Diana, says Charles Spencer different event · 90%
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 6% hedged 1 of 17 📰 publisher trust 64
“The articles discuss different aspects and focus on separate elements from Charles Spencer's interview, suggesting they are not reporting on one single occurrence.”

Publisher

CBS News · 1979 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

No reporter is named on this article.

Topics

No topics tagged.

Subjects

Diana PERSON · 3× Charles Spencer PERSON · 1× Charles Spencer's PERSON · 1× Harry PERSON · 1× Mark Phillips PERSON · 1×

Narrative

In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer talks with correspondent Mark Phillips about his attempt to set down what he calls the true history of the life of his sister, Princess Diana.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-20
🔮 He also talks about Prince Harry's grief after Diana's death, suggesting that a "more understanding treatment" of the young prince at the time might have led to "a happier course ahead."
2026-09-20 · CBS News
Charles Spencer's striking claims about the royal fallout following Princess Diana's death · mixed framing

Claims (2 extracted, 1 hedged)

In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer talks with correspondent Mark Phillips about his attempt to set down what he calls the true history of the life of his sister, Princess Diana. asserted
he → talk → sister
He also talks about Prince Harry's grief after Diana's death, suggesting that a "more understanding treatment" of the young prince at the time might have led to "a happier course ahead." uncertain
treatment → talk → course
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