Andy Webb says Spencer relayed the conversation to him privately “over the years”
Andy WebbJournalist and documentary film-maker, author of “Dianarama,” interviewed on Times Radio
Andy Webb, who worked with Spencer on a book about the 1995 Panorama interview, told Times Radio that Spencer had always struck him as a truth teller and a meticulous note-taker, and said the account of the conversation with Charles had been relayed to him privately years before the memoir was published.
“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.”
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
Webb knows Spencer through work on his book about the 1995 Panorama interview. The quotation is our transcription of the published audio. A second guest in the same segment argues the claims are “all entirely unprovable”; that passage is a different speaker and is not attributed to Webb here.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Said on Times Radio Breakfast on September 18. Webb came to know Spencer while researching his book on the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana.
After the quotation
Webb is an acquaintance of Spencer's, which is disclosed here rather than treated as disqualifying. He does not claim to have witnessed the call; his account is that Spencer described it to him privately before the memoir. A second guest in the same segment argued the claims are “all entirely unprovable”; that is a different speaker and is not recorded here. The quoted wording is our transcription of the published audio.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
On Webb supports the accuracy of Spencer’s account, which places him at the opposite pole from the Palace, Arbiter, Payne and Hardman. His contribution is corroborative rather than a criticism of Charles in his own voice: he vouches for Spencer’s reliability and, more materially, says the account was circulating privately long before publication, which bears on whether it was produced for the book. It is labelled condemns for consistency with how this case treats assertions of the account, and the rationale records that his evidence is provenance rather than first-hand knowledge of the call.
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- Charles Spencer
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“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. "Andy Webb says Spencer relayed the conversation to him privately “over the years”". First published: 2026-09-19. Last updated: 2026-09-25. https://disputeindex.com/events/1097-andy-webb-who-worked-with-spencer-on-a