Princess Diana’s youngest brother, Charles Spencer, alleges in a new book that King Charles claimed after her tragic 1997 death that she would soon be forgotten, according to a report about his upcoming memoir.
In excerpts from “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” that the Daily Mail shared Wednesday, Spencer claims that he and the now-king were involved in a heated phone exchange about whether Prince William and Prince Harry would walk in their mother’s funeral procession.
In the book set to be released next week, Spencer wrote that “Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.”
“I assumed the pause signaled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death. ‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’” he continued.
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Spencer wrote that he took a few seconds to respond as the comments left him “so stunned.”
“‘I can’t believe you just said that,’” I said flatly before hanging up,” he wrote.
The Daily Mail reported Tuesday that four copies of Spencer’s book were stolen from a truck in the Netherlands and that Dutch authorities are investigating the break-in.
One publishing source called the theft “extremely suspicious,” telling the outlet that “nothing like this has ever happened before.”
“This is probably the biggest book of the year and the security surrounding it has been incredibly tight,” they told the Daily Mail.
A representative for Spencer did not immediately respond to JS’s request for comment.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in a statement to JS: “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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.”
Spencer delivered an impassioned eulogy at Diana’s funeral at Westminster Abbey, emphasizing the British tabloid’s relentlessness for information and calling her “the most hunted person of the modern age.”
In a recent social media post, Spencer said his upcoming book is “the most personal of the ten books I’ve written over the past three decades.”
“At heart, this is a brother’s simple tribute to an extraordinary sister,” he wrote.
Carly Ledbetter contributed to this report.