Earl Spencer has claimed that Prince Charles was “giddily elated” during a phone call after the death of Diana. The claim comes from excerpts of his forthcoming book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which are being serialized in the Daily Mail ahead of its release next week.
In an excerpt about the aftermath of the 1997 car crash, Earl Spencer recounts the moment Prince Charles met him on the stairs while the phone continued to ring. “Unlike others, who were stunned, barely able to express their condolences or offer help, he sounded giddily elated — like a lottery winner, I thought at the time,” Spencer writes.
He says Prince Charles told him that he had already informed William and Harry of their mother’s death that morning in their bedrooms at Balmoral. Spencer notes that the conversation sounded “strangely mundane” given the magnitude of the tragedy.
Reaction from Buckingham Palace
Looking back, Earl Spencer suggests that the Prince’s initial reaction may have been the realization that Diana’s death would clear his path to marry the woman he loved.
Earlier, after excerpts were published in which Spencer says that, in the days after Diana’s death, the then‑Prince Charles told her brother “be sure, we will soon forget her,” Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement.
The palace said that King Charles is aware that “the pain of sibling grief can cloud the mind, affect judgment and alter memories in ways that other people do not notice, even many years after such a loss.”
Sky News royal correspondent Laura Bundock described the Buckingham Palace statement as a “very unusual intervention” and a “very strong response.”
Other claims in the book
In another excerpt released on Thursday, Earl Spencer claims that by her wedding day, Diana had already been suffering from an eating disorder for five months. He also says that, in later years, she contemplated suicide.
Spencer further alleges that after being told of the intention to divorce, Diana told him, “My husband is in love with his valet.”
Buckingham Palace has not commented on these latest excerpts.
Source: Sky News
