Earl Spencer accuses King of ‘gaslighting’ him after Charles suggests explosive book is ‘clouded by grief’

EARL Spencer has accused King Charles of “gaslighting” him in a fresh blow to the royals as the row over Diana’s memoir continues. The Earl made the accusation in response to the Palace’s statement over the claims made in his memoir titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. In his newest wave of accusations, the Earl has hit out at the King Credit: Reuters The King has been accused of ‘gaslighting’ Earl Spencer Credit: Getty The author – who said the then-Prince told him “we’ll forget her soon enough” after her death – stood by his claims this evening. He also claimed Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, would be “cheering from the rafters” at his book. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! It comes after Buckingham Palace issued a furious riposte to the allegation, made in a book the 62-year-old author, Diana’s brother, will publish next week. A spokesman for the King, in an unusual move, said Charles was “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason.” Diana died in a car crash in Paris, 1997 Credit: PA The pair shared a public divorce in the years before the Princess of Wales died Credit: Getty Speaking to The Mail, the Earl 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.” Earl Spencer also claimed money, including a reported advance of up to £1million, had “never even been the remotest consideration.” He added: “My motivation in this book has been to tell the truth about Diana and all she had to put up with in her public life through the eyes of the brother who grew up with her.” Most read in The Sun And, claiming Diana would have supported the book, called Swan Song, he added: “People are missing a fundamental point, which is that Diana was my sister and I have every right to write about my own sister. “I can tell you that Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book. “I have no doubt about that.” This comes as King Charles told Earl Spencer he was “lucky” to have inherited his fortune so young, the author has claimed. Princess Diana’s brother, 62, said the alleged comments left him “surprised” after his father, the eighth Earl Spencer, died aged 68 in 1992. Spencer, who was 27 at the time, told US TV network CBS: “It was a very peculiar conversation, actually, because my father had died very suddenly a few days before. “And I just was so surprised, because Prince Charles, as he was then, said to me, ‘You’re so lucky.’ And I said, ‘I’m so sorry, sir.’ And he said, ‘You are so lucky to have inherited so young’.” Earl Spencer is set to bash the King further in a BBC interview broadcast tomorrow evening. But a friend of the King, who last week hosted an AI summit in Scotland, hit back, telling The Sunday Times: “He is saddened that the sorrows of old are being dragged up again. “The King was rather more concerned about the future of mankind than the unkind claims of one man picking at the scars of the past.” Buckingham Palace, in a rare move to answer allegations, denied claims made against the King last week. It said: “His Majesty is mindful 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.”