In an interview ahead of the the release of his book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer accused King Charles III of gaslighting him.
Speaking with ABC News’ Maggie Rulli, Spencer said: “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the king.”
“It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the king being able to deny what I’d said,” he told the U.S. outlet.
His comments came days after Buckingham Palace, in an unusual move, responded to claims made by Spencer, in an excerpt of his book published in the Daily Mail, that the then-Prince Charles said Diana would soon be forgotten after her death.
“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 recognize, even many years after such a loss,” the statement said.
Spencer alleges that his former brother-in-law made the comment during a phone call discussing palace plans for Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession.
Spencer told the BBC in an interview aired Monday that he told the now-king that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to endure such an ordeal, and that Charles went “ballistic” at him.
He recalled sharing with friends what the now-king reportedly said about Diana during the call, describing it as “monstrous.”
“After a stunned silence, I said, ‘I cannot believe you just said that,’” he told BBC news presenter Laura Kuenssberg, and that he then hung up on the prince.
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“I felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana’s death that really jarred with me,” he added.
Kuenssberg, quoting directly from the book, asked Spencer when he wrote the “prince’s 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 the one he did not,” if he was suggesting that Diana’s death was convenient for the now-king.
“That is how I felt at the time from the tone of his voice,” Spencer responded.
When pushed by Kuenssberg to explain why the public should believe his version of events, Spencer said, “because I am telling the truth,” before reminding her of his eulogy at Diana’s funeral, where he said, “Above all, we give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister. The unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana, whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds,” a conclusion he said was a “direct rebuttal” to Charles’ alleged remarks.
He told the BBC that his revelations will not be a surprise to Prince William and Prince Harry, and that he knows lots of things about the King that he chose not to include because they are not relevant, as the book is a “loving tribute to a sister.”
He also likened his sister’s experiences with the tabloid press to that of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s.
“If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant.”
“And I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example.”
“I’m not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who’s being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life,” he added.
The publication of the book and the return of Harry and Meghan to Britain are another challenge for the King, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer.
Diana’s family accused the royals of showing a lack of support or care towards the late princess before her death, a charge that was repeated by Harry, who is now largely estranged from the rest of the Royal Family.
A wave of mass grief for the Princess of Wales after her death forced the Royal Family to acknowledge the power of her common touch, a quality that strayed from its tight-lipped stoicism and was often deemed distasteful by senior members.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, comes out on September 22.
— with files from Reuters
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