King Charles’ “Ballistic” Behavior and the Brothers’ Feud: 8 Shocking Revelations From Earl Spencer Interview

Earl Spencer made headlines last week when a snippet from his upcoming book prompted a sharp response from Buckingham Palace.For context, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is due for release on September 22. However, several claims made in the book—including that King Charles allegedly said “we'll forget her soon enough” about Princess Diana following her death—were recently released by the press. This resulted in a sternly worded reply from the royals, with the Palace saying in a statement that the King was “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement, and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.”Days later, Earl Spencer sat down with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg for an interview. In the interview, Spencer said that it was his “duty” to write the book as “an eyewitness to history.” Here’s everything else we learned in the shocking interview…Earl Spencer thought Diana’s crash was not seriousIn his chat with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Earl Spencer recalled being in South Africa at the time of Princess Diana's car crash, which happened in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997. Spencer explained he was called in the middle of the night by his sister, Lady Jane Fellowes, who said Diana had been in a crash but that it was “not too serious.”However, as the hours went by, Spencer said he “kept getting more and more distressing calls” from his sister. “And then my sister Jane said, ‘I’m afraid she’s died,’” he went on. “It started as a little prang, and then it became a broken leg, perhaps a head injury, and then death.”King Charles had a “giddy tone” after Diana’s deathSpeaking about the hours after Princess Diana's tragic passing, Earl Spencer—who was still in Cape Town—said he received a call from the then-Prince Charles, who described how he broke the news to Prince William and Prince Harry.“I felt there was a sort of giddy tone,” Spencer told the BBC of Charles’s supposed manner on the call. “I'd had a lot of calls that day from people who cared, who were stunned...and I just felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana's death that really jarred with me.”Spencer's comments to the BBC echo those made in his upcoming book. In a snippet already shared with the press, Spencer compared Charles' intonation to that of a “lottery winner.” In the book, Spencer went on to suggest Charles' reaction was based on how Diana's death would open the door for him to later marry Camilla Parker-Bowles, the now-Queen.“I cannot be sure, I'm saying that's what I assume from the tone is a possibility,” he replied when asked by the BBC's Kuenssberg what he thought Charles was thinking at the time.Pool//Getty ImagesEarl Spencer has descried King Charles as having had a “giddy” tone when he learned of Princess Diana’s deathDespite allegedly having a “giddy tone” in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death, the then-Prince Charles is accused by Earl Spencer of going “ballistic” over her funeral arrangements.According to Spencer, he had spoken to a Palace aide about his sister's funeral and learned that Princes William and Harry were to walk behind her coffin. To that, Spencer argued that his sister would not have wanted this, and he later took a call from Charles, who disagreed.“I said, ‘Well, of course not, sir, she wouldn't want it.’ And then he said, ‘Well, I walked behind Lord Mountbatten's coffin.’ And I said, ‘Yes, but you were 30, and he wasn't your mother,’” Spencer told the BBC of the phone call with Charles. He went on to accuse Charles of going “ballistic” on the call and then ranting “for a while” about how the Spencer family's sense of duty was not adequate.King Charles said “we'll forget her soon enough” about DianaAnother shocking revelation from Earl Spencer's upcoming book and interview with the BBC is that the then-Prince Charles expected the Royal Family to “forget” his ex-wife after her death.Recalling the above conversation, in which Spencer accused the now-King of going “ballistic,” he said that Charles told him: “We'll forget her [Diana] soon enough.”“I really was so stunned,” Spencer said of how he reacted to the alleged statement. “After a stunned silence, I said, ‘I can not believe you just said that’ and I hung up on him.”Doubling down on that recollection following the Palace's recent rejection of it, Spencer told the BBC's Kuenssberg: “I can tell you here, and now, those are exactly the words he said.” He also confirmed that he had told “close friends and family” about the “monstrous” comment at the time.Julian Parker//Getty ImagesSpencer says he was “stunned” by Charles’ reaction to the news of Diana’s death“I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage in my life,” he went on. “I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said. And I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said.”Directly commenting on the Palace's response, Spencer added: “I don't hear him [Charles] saying he didn't say that.”When pressed about whether the public should believe him or the King, Spencer reminded Diana's fans of the eulogy he gave at her funeral. In it, he said his sister's qualities would never be “extinguished from our minds.” He now says this was a “direct rebuttal” of her ex-husband's comments.Earl Spencer thinks Princes William and Harry won't be “surprised” by claimsElsewhere in his BBC interview, Earl Spencer made the sad admission that his nephews, Prince William and Prince Harry, are unlikely to be “surprised” by any of the revelations in the book, particularly the comments made by their father, King Charles.According to Spencer, Charles' words “will not be a surprise” to the brothers.Prince Harry’s lack of protection is a concern to Earl SpencerOn the topic of Princes William and Harry, Earl Spencer revealed that he is worried about his younger nephew, who has recently moved back to the UK with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children. Much like Harry himself, Spencer is concerned about the lack of protection for the Sussexes, who he says have faced intrusions into their private life that echo the treatment of Princess Diana.“I would say that I personally worry about the fifth-in-line to the throne who's served in the military not having any police protection,” he said. Spencer went on to say: “As an uncle who's seen his sister die in very, very preventable circumstances, I would veer towards protection.”Although he was reluctant to discuss the Royal Family's treatment of Harry and Meghan, Spencer did comment on how the press has impacted them. Notably, Spencer said tabloid articles about the Sussexes “could be really, really unpleasant.”“It would really be beholden on people to learn from Diana's example,” he went on. “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.”Spencer continued, “[Diana] was really brought low by all that criticism. And yeah, I suppose it's a pity when I see echoes of that now.”Tim Graham//Getty ImagesEarl Spencer told the BBC he hopes his nephews can “resolve” their differencesEarl Spencer hasn’t included everything he knows about King Charles in the book While Earl Spencer is very sympathetic towards his nephews, there's no doubt that his feelings towards King Charles are less favorable. In his interview with the BBC, Spencer revealed that he knows a lot more about the monarch but didn't include everything in the book because it wasn't relevant to Princess Diana's story.To that, Spencer was asked whether he was threatening the Royal Family with such information. “I wanted to just put things down once and for all that were true,” he replied. “This is not a threat, it's a fact. I know lots of things about the King which I chose not to include in the book because they were not relevant.”Of the potentially damaging information he's harboring about Charles, Spencer continued: “Not at all a threat, it's just the reality.”Ultimately, Spencer said the purpose of the book is to honor his sister rather than damage the reputations of others. “It's a brother's tribute, a loving tribute to a sister,” he said. “I think she deserves honesty, so that's what I've delivered.”Earl Spencer wants Princes William and Harry to reconcileIn perhaps what is the first real confirmation from someone on the inside that Prince William and Prince Harry are in a feud, Earl Spencer told the BBC he hopes his nephews can “resolve” their differences.After denying he is taking any side in the battle between the brothers, Spencer explained that there have been “a lot of reasons on both sides” which have led to “this stage” of deterioration in William and Harry's relationship.“I hope one day it's resolved,” Spencer said. However, his later comment that he doesn't “know” everything suggests William and Harry's feud could be beyond help. “I certainly don't know what's been done in the finer detail, and so I would feel intrusive if I got more involved than to say, of course, a mother would want her two sons to be happy together and love each other,” he continued.