Robert Hardman on the “giddily elated” claim: “I don’t buy it”
Robert HardmanJournalist and royal biographer, interviewed on Times Radio by Ed Vaizey
Royal author Robert Hardman told Times Radio he did not accept the “giddily elated” characterisation, citing Charles’s visible emotion at the funeral, while acknowledging that it is how Spencer remembers the exchange.
“The person who was most visibly moved, the most emotional person in that entire funeral was Prince Charles. So this idea that he’s elated, that he’s somehow, you know, giddily dancing around the room, I’m afraid I don’t buy it. But that’s how Charles Spencer remembers it. So that’s his view. But the king clearly remembers it very differently.”
Original video
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
Original video
About this source
Interview with Ed Vaizey. The quoted wording is our transcription of the audio. Hardman writes for the Daily Mail, which paid for the serialisation of the memoir he is discussing.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Said in a Times Radio interview on September 18, four days before the book’s publication.
After the quotation
Hardman writes for the Daily Mail, which paid for the serialisation of the memoir. His evidence is his observation of Charles at the 1997 funeral; he was not party to the telephone call. The quoted wording is our transcription of the audio.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
On Hardman rejects the accuracy of Spencer’s characterisation of Charles’s demeanour, offering his own observation of the funeral as counter-evidence. He stops short of alleging invention, expressly allowing that this is how Spencer remembers it and framing the disagreement as two differing recollections, which keeps it within “Challenged the characterization” rather than condemns.
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- Charles Spencer
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Spencer tells CBS he is “reporting that’s the fact,” not “justifying or criticizing”
“He sounded excited in a sort of upbeat way. … Yes, and obviously I'm not justifying or criticizing. I'm reporting that's the fact. … I said in the book that that might have been it, yeah, but that's obviously … I can't say what he was thinking”Read statement
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The Dispute Index. "Robert Hardman on the “giddily elated” claim: “I don’t buy it”". First published: 2026-09-19. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/1096-royal-author-robert-hardman-told-times-radio-he