Earl Spencer, the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, has claimed King Charles sounded “giddily elated” when he called him after her death in 1997.
Spencer makes the claim in his memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is due to be published next week.
In excerpts published by the Daily Mail, Spencer recalls receiving news of the fatal car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.
He said his sister Jane first called him at his home in Cape Town, South Africa, before further calls confirmed Diana had died.
Spencer said the then-Prince Charles later called him.
“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,” the memoir says.
Spencer also writes that Charles told him he had informed Princes William and Harry about their mother’s death that morning at Balmoral.
Buckingham Palace has rejected the credibility of Spencer’s account.
A Palace spokesperson said the King does not comment on books as a matter of principle, but added that grief can affect how people remember events many years later.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
The latest allegation follows an earlier extract from the memoir in which Spencer claimed Charles said of Diana: “We’ll forget her soon enough.”
The claims are based on Spencer’s recollection of private conversations surrounding Diana’s death nearly 30 years ago.
Dickie Arbiter, who was press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II when Diana died, strongly disputed Spencer’s latest account.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Arbiter said Charles was “devastated at the time” and that such a reaction was not consistent with his character.
“There’s no way he could have ever said anything like that. Charles Spencer is just talking hogwash,” Arbiter said.
Royal commentator Jennie Bond said she had no reason to doubt that Spencer remembered the conversation that way, but questioned whether his account represented the entire exchange.
“I have no reason to disbelieve this is his memory of what happened, but there are usually two sides to a conversation and a story.”
Spencer also writes about Diana’s troubled marriage to Charles, which ended in divorce in August 1996.
He claims a friend of Diana told him Charles said shortly before their wedding in 1981 that he was “very happy to marry her” but was not “actually in love with her.”
Spencer writes that the marriage became “very difficult indeed” early on and says he believes both Diana and Charles “despaired of the other at times.”
He also says he now believes Diana had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and experienced what he describes as rejection sensitive dysphoria.
Spencer writes that Diana considered taking her own life on more than one occasion in her later years, but that her love for William and Harry prevented her from going further.
Representatives of Prince Harry have declined to comment on the memoir. Buckingham Palace has referred back to its earlier response.
Amid the controversy, Harry attended the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards in Greenwich on Thursday.
He spoke to veterans and guests at the event, which recognises resilience, sporting recovery and philanthropic support.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, did not attend.
Charles also appeared in public on Thursday, hosting an AI summit in Ayrshire, where he warned of the “existential dangers” of the technology falling into the wrong hands.
Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, were also in Scotland, where they took part in a beach clean-up on the Isle of Bute and met local residents.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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