Princess Diana’s brother shocks the royal family after Prince Harry: Charles said we would forget her very quickly

Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, has insisted that King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, told him during a telephone conversation after her death: “We’ll forget her very quickly.”

In an interview with the BBC, given at the family estate in Althorp, Northamptonshire, Spencer said he clearly remembers the phone call with Charles and has no doubt about the words that were used.

“I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said,” Spencer stated. He explained that he had only had two telephone conversations with Prince Charles throughout his life, which was why he had paid particular attention to that call.

According to his version of events, the conversation took place in the days after Diana’s death, at a time when the family was discussing whether her sons, William and Harry, should walk behind the coffin in the funeral procession.

Spencer said he had opposed their involvement because he believed Diana would not have wanted her sons to go through such an experience. He claims that Charles became angry during the debate and spoke about the family’s duty and responsibilities.

“Then he stopped and I thought: now he’s going to compose himself and say something more appropriate,” Spencer recalled. “Then he said: ‘We’ll forget her very quickly.’”

Diana’s brother said he was stunned by the statement. After a moment of silence, he said he replied to Charles: “I can’t believe you’ve just said that,” and then hung up.

Spencer rejected the possibility that grief had affected his memory, stressing that this was not an episode he remembered vaguely.

Earlier, Buckingham Palace had responded to Earl Spencer’s claims in an unusual statement. The response said that the King was aware that the pain of loss can affect judgment and alter the way events are remembered, even many years later.

“They’ve sullied it a little, haven’t they? They’ve said that memories can change,” Spencer said, rejecting the Palace’s argument.

When asked which version the public should believe, his answer was unequivocal: “I’m telling the truth.”

He added that he had told family members and friends what had happened at the time because, in his view, Charles’s statement was “so monstrous.”

Following Earl Spencer’s latest claims, Buckingham Palace declined to provide any further comment.

In other excerpts from his book, published by the Daily Mail, Spencer also recounts the first telephone call he received from Charles after the accident in Paris in which Diana was killed on 31 August 1997.

He writes that the other callers were shocked and struggled to offer their condolences, whereas Charles had seemed “extremely cheerful” to him. Spencer compared his appearance to that of a “lottery winner.”

These descriptions are personal accounts by Earl Spencer and are not presented as independently verified facts.