Spencer says "I'm telling the truth" and rebuts the Palace's "recollections may vary" line
Charles SpencerAuthor of the forthcoming memoir "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister"; Princess Diana's brother
In a BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg, responding directly to Buckingham Palace's statement that grief can "cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory," Earl Spencer said he stood by his account word for word, explaining that he had only ever had two phone calls with Charles and was "hyper alert" to what was said. He gave a fuller account of the call, saying Charles "went ballistic" and ranted about the Spencer family's sense of duty before saying "we'll forget her soon enough," after which Spencer said he hung up on him. He characterized the Palace's response as having "smudged" the matter by suggesting recollections may vary.
“I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said. I don't hear him saying he didn't say that. [...] He went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened. And then he stopped and I thought, oh now, now he's gonna pull himself together and say something more appropriate. And then he said, 'we'll forget her soon enough.' I really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, I cannot believe you just said that. And I hung up on him. [...] They've sort of smudged that one, haven't they? They've said that recollections may vary. [...] I'm telling the truth.”
Interview
Other statements by Charles Spencer in this case
- Spencer tells CBS he is “reporting that’s the fact,” not “justifying or criticizing”Later: Mixed or conditional
- Spencer tells CBS he is “absolutely not bitter” and that his book “would be more bitter” if he wereLater: Challenged the characterization
- Spencer denies trying to discredit CharlesLater: Challenged the characterization
Where this statement fits
Earl Spencer's memoir claims about King Charles's reaction to Diana's death
In his memoir "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," serialised from September 2026, Charles Spencer makes a series of claims about how the then Prince Charles behaved towards him after Diana's death in 1997. He writes that Charles told him by phone, "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough," and, in later excerpts, that Charles sounded "giddily elated – like a lottery winner" during the call and that he now suspects Charles was weighing how the death might free him to marry Camilla. Buckingham Palace, in a rare on-record statement, did not directly confirm or deny the quotation, saying instead that "the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory," and declined to respond again to the later claims. The dispute is whether Spencer's account of Charles's words and demeanour is accurate.
Source and context
Interview
About this source
BBC News's report on Laura Kuenssberg's exclusive interview with Earl Spencer at his Althorp estate, published September 18, 2026, responding directly to Buckingham Palace's September 16 statement that grief "can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory." The Palace declined to respond to these further comments. This is a new, separately dated statement from Spencer's earlier memoir-excerpt claims.
Before the quotation
Buckingham Palace had issued an unusual public statement on September 16, saying grief "can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise," in response to Spencer's memoir excerpts published by the Daily Mail (recorded at 901, 979, 980). The Palace declined to comment further on these new remarks.
After the quotation
Spencer's book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due for publication the following week. The full interview was scheduled to air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One that Sunday.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Spencer reaffirms and expands his account here, insisting on its accuracy and directly rejecting the Palace's suggestion that his memory may be unreliable. This continues the same condemnation of Charles's alleged conduct recorded at 979 and 980, but is a separately dated, distinct statement: it is his first response to the Palace's specific rebuttal (901), made in a different venue (a broadcast interview rather than memoir excerpts) and adds new detail (Charles going "ballistic," Spencer hanging up on him) not previously captured. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, since part of the interview disputes the Palace's characterization of his memory as unreliable; that loses because the interview goes well beyond disputing that characterization to restate and add detail to the substantive condemnation of Charles's conduct.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- King Charles III
More from this case
Read the full caseRichard Kay says Spencer told him after Diana’s death that Charles had been “utterly pathetic”
“He and I spoke several times during that frightful week between Diana’s death and her funeral. … Then, pointedly and without further explanation, he said everyone he had been dealing with over the funeral – courtiers, officials, Downing Street – had been helpful, with one exception. Who, I asked? ‘Prince Charles,’ came the reply. He said they’d had a ‘furious row’. It was ‘about the boys’, but he was reluctant to go further. Cuttingly he added: ‘He has been utterly pathetic.’”Read statement
Dickie Arbiter says Spencer “really has got an axe to grind” and “he'll make a lot of money”
“I have to say here and now, I worked for the King for five years. I was in very close proximity of him. I was his spokesman for five years. I do not believe he ever said that, let alone think that. It's just not in his DNA. He wouldn't even think anything like that. He wasn't capable of thinking like that. And I think Charles Spencer really has got an axe to grind. And you have to ask, why after 29 years? Why didn't he do it, say, on the 25th anniversary of Diana's death? Has he been harboring it for 29 years? I really do not understand why he's coming out with it now. I mean, yeah, it's a good line. It sells books and the books will fly off the shelves if people indeed want to read it or believe it. And he'll make a lot of money. It's interesting, isn't it? He once said in 1998 in a television interview, I will not profit on my sister. And what is he doing? Just that.”Read statement
Andy Webb says Spencer relayed the conversation to him privately “over the years”
“He came across to me as never anything less than a truth teller. … He’s a ferocious note taker. And indeed, the account of that conversation with King Charles about, you know, Diana will soon be forgotten — I can say now that that conversation itself had been, you know, relayed to me confidentially, and I’m sure not only me over the years.”Read statement
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The Dispute Index. "Spencer says "I'm telling the truth" and rebuts the Palace's "recollections may vary" line". First published: 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/1018-in-a-bbc-interview-with-laura-kuenssberg-responding