Sam Tobin
London: King Charles sounded “like a lottery winner” after the death of his late first wife Diana, her brother writes in his forthcoming book, according to newly published extracts.
Diana’s brother Earl Spencer said the then-prince Charles seemed “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, saying via a spokesperson that grief could impact reason, judgment and memory.
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”.
“It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all,” Spencer wrote.
Diana was killed at the age of 36 when the car carrying her and her lover Dodi al-Fayed crashed in Paris as it sped away from chasing paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.
Spencer says in the book – Swan Song: Diana, My Sister – that he spoke to Charles shortly after Diana’s death was confirmed, writing: “Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”
Spencer added: “Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not.”
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. That was a year after Diana told the BBC that “there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”, in reference to Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he married in 2005.
Buckingham Palace took the rare step on Wednesday (UK time) of rebutting an explosive claim in the book that Charles said people would forget Diana “soon enough” after her death.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “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.”
That claim centred on the earl’s strong belief that Diana would not have wanted William and Harry to walk behind her coffin in her funeral procession, but that Charles insisted the plan go ahead.
“He unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death,” the earl wrote. “‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough’.”
Julian Payne, the now-King’s former communications secretary, on Thursday said Charles told staff never to criticise Diana in the years after her death.
Payne, who worked alongside Charles during the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in 2017, told the BBC that he did not recognise “the way the King is being characterised in those remarks”.
“What I remember was he was very clear that there was never to be any criticism, never to be any pushback on the narratives that were usually highly critical of him,” he said.
“He was absolutely emphatic that we were to respect her memory and not undermine it in any way. When he was telling us there was never to be any criticism or pushback, that wasn’t about him.
“That was absolutely about the late princess and her memory, so it seems to me very odd that in the moment itself, with the grief of his family and his own shock, that he would choose that moment to use those words. It’s just not language that I recognise.”
Spencer’s claims appears likely to heighten the rifts within the family. Prince Harry has a strained relationship with his father after his memoir, Spare, which also touched on the decision over the funeral.
Harry, meanwhile, made his first public appearance on Thursday (London time) since he and his wife, Meghan, returned to Britain after six years in California, speaking at a charity event and attending an awards ceremony in London.
Harry, Meghan and their children Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, relocated last month – surprising even their close family.
The Duke of Sussex attended the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards in London, which are linked to the Invictus Games, the sporting competition he founded for wounded, injured and sick military veterans.
Earlier, he spoke at an event focused on improving the care of children wounded in conflict hosted by charity Save the Children and Imperial College London.
