Why has arrogant Earl Spencer waited 29 YEARS to make hurtful claims & destroy Harry & Wills’ relationship with King

WHY now, Earl Spencer? Recollections may vary, but one nagging question around Charles Spencer’s bombshell revelations about his late sister Diana does not alter: WHY NOW? Charles Spencer is releasing his new memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister Credit: Getty During her short life Diana was hunted, harassed and cynically misused Credit: Getty Why has Earl Spencer waited 29 years to reveal — or to CLAIM — that the then- Prince Charles dismissed the tragic and shocking death of Diana with unimaginably cruel contempt? “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” Spencer says he recalls Charles sneering, in the Earl’s new memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. Within 90 minutes of the allegation, Buckingham Palace responded with an unprecedented riposte. “The pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason and colour memory,” said a spokesman for the King. But the accusations keep coming from Earl Spencer, who also writes: “He [Charles] sounded giddily elated” when he called after Diana died. This is not the first time Earl Spencer has launched a vicious assault on his former brother-in-law. This is not the first time Earl Spencer has launched a vicious assault on his former brother-in-law. In September 1997, I had a ringside seat in Westminster Abbey when Charles Spencer delivered his raw, defiant eulogy at his sister’s funeral. I was in the Press section, sitting right behind the Spencer family and directly facing the royals — and the pulpit where Earl Spencer delivered his scathing address. “Of all the ironies of Diana, perhaps the greatest was this,” Spencer said. “A girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was in the end the most hunted person of the modern age. “She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys, William and Harry, from a similar fate. And I do this here, Diana — on your behalf.” Many thought it to be an electrifying speech. Inside Westminster Abbey, we could clearly hear the applause of the crowds outside. They lapped up Spencer’s line about Diana’s “blood family” watching over the two young Princes. To me, it seemed to be hardly rational — the Windsors were surely just as much “blood family” to William and Harry as the Spencers — and grotesquely inappropriate. In that eulogy, Spencer — uncle to William and Harry — seemed to be unilaterally claiming the role of their prime adult carer. As if they did not have a father. Whatever you thought of the speech, there was no denying Charles Spencer was a heartbroken man, grief-stricken by the death of his sister and desperately worried about his nephews. But does Earl Spencer REALLY believe that his book will bring William and Harry anything but unbearable pain? Spencer’s memoir — and these incendiary, hurtful claims — can surely cause nothing but grief to the nephews he so flamboyantly promised to protect. William and Harry may be estranged from each other, and perhaps their rift will last for ever, but both seem to have built a loving relationship with their father, the King. Does Charles Spencer really imagine he is doing William and Harry any favours with his salacious revelations? To me, it feels like the Earl is attempting to destroy William and Harry’s relationship with the only parent they have left alive. So, why now? Because the bitter truth must come out? Because, after 29 years, Charles Spencer could no longer keep his exchanges with the then- Prince Charles to himself? All this seems unlikely. Charles Spencer’s memoir feels like it is motivated by greed more than grief or grudge. Spencer is an ageing aristocrat who has been expensively divorced three times, with the family estate of Althorp to maintain. This arrogant toff is cashing in on a beloved national figure who died half a lifetime too soon. It is true that during her short life Diana was hunted, harassed and cynically misused. It is still happening. But now it is that arrogant ass Charles Spencer who is doing the exploiting. SPORT’S VICIOUS TO SYD Sydney’s eye-popping ad for ‘sports predication platform’ Novig has drawn condemnation from many elite women athletes. Credit: Instagram / Sydney Sweeney / Novig SYDNEY SWEENEY – she has some balls. Last year, there was the “Sydney Sweeney’s got great jeans” controversy around American Eagle’s denim advert. Now, Sydney’s eye-popping ad for “sports predication platform” Novig has drawn condemnation from many elite women athletes. The racy commercial sees Sweeney in a number of provocative poses – a pair of American footballs covering her modesty – and a number of poses that are frankly ludicrous, including one where she perches naked on a basketball hoop. “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this,” posted four-time Olympic swimming gold medallist Ariarne Titmus. “Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity.” The anger of women who have dedicated their lives to elite sport is perhaps understandable. In the ad, Sydney sprawls on a pool table wearing nothing but white pants and a knowing smile. She wiggles at the tennis net and jiggles with a golf club. So, what does ANY of it have to do with the reality of women in sport? Er, nothing. It is all about persuading sex-starved blokes to have a bet. POTUS FOCUS President Trump says he is ‘reviewing’ the US position on the Falkland Islands Credit: Getty UK ally President Trump says he is “reviewing” the US position on the Falkland Islands and gives his enthusiastic backing to Northern Ireland becoming part of a united Ireland. I am shocked he says nothing on the future of Gibraltar, aka The Rock. Surely Gibraltarians should have burned their British passports and all be speaking Spanish by now, Mr President? DON’T LOOK BACK, NOEL Noel Gallagher of Oasis celebrates as the Manchester City fans behind him do ‘The Poznan’ Credit: Getty NOEL GALLAGHER goes his own way. Noel’s greatest talent is a determination to do things the way he wants. His independent spirit got him out of a council house in the Manchester suburb of Burnage. It helped him through four years of therapy to cure his childhood stammer. It guided him into music, a refuge from a childhood marred by his father’s violence. It got him out of working in the road crew of Inspiral Carpets. Noel’s autonomy got him out of Oasis – then back in again. The reunion happened because Noel wanted it. The man is a free spirit. And so there is no way he is ever going to take part in that dumbest of football rituals, the Poznan. Originally a stupid celebration in Poland, the Poznan – where fans turn their back to the pitch, link arms and jump up and down – is now beloved of Manchester City fans. They were doing it as City beat their neighbours United last Sunday. Except for one fan in the front row. “I just never do it,” Noel said. “I find it ludicrous that grown men put their arms together and jump up and down shouting, ‘Let’s do the Poznan’. I like to be different.” And he is. Because of Noel, that freest of spirits, Oasis’s biggest year ever will be 2027. BACK TO SCHOOL, HARRY Prince Harry and Meghan pulled their children out of their new school after just two days Credit: Getty HARRY and Meghan pulled their children out of their new school after just two days because their security team was “alarmed” at the heavy term-time traffic. Didn’t the flunkies around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex see this coming? Any parent in the UK could have told them that the traffic to school would be bad. I don’t know what it is like in California, but in this country we have a thing called “the school run”. The traffic is always absolutely abysmal. The first ten years are the worst. But I imagine Harry and Meghan, those serial quitters, will be back in California by then. AFTER an irascible interview with GQ, Tom Cruise is widely being described as a “grumpy middle-aged man”. “You turned 64 last week,” said the GQ journalist. “Does that mean anything to you?” “It means I’m 64,” Tom snapped. I bow to no man in my admiration of Tom. But it is a bit of a stretch to call him “middle-aged”. Unless, of course, he plans to live until he is 128. SHAME, SADIQ IT is only four years since Sadiq Khan, London’s spectacularly lousy Labour Mayor, angrily called for the abolition of the House of Lords. During a fiery exchange with Conservative Shaun Bailey, socialist Sadiq sneered that Shaun’s appointment to the second chamber was “proof, if it was ever needed, that we should abolish the House of Lords”. But who was preening proudly in their white-fur-trimmed ermine robes on Tuesday as he was inducted into the House of Lords? You guessed – it was none other than Lord Khan of Tooting. There is no bigger hypocrite on this planet than the socialist who suddenly sniffs his own peerage. ONE of the stars of the new HBO Harry Potter TV series reckons all private schools should be “burned to the ground”. “It [private school] was quite traumatic for me,” says Johnny Flynn, who plays Lucius Malfoy in the new adaptation and was packed off to boarding school aged seven. “They should all be burnt to the ground. I don’t think private schools should exist.” I wonder if that includes ­Hogwarts?