Spencer calls the Palace's response 'gaslighting'
Charles SpencerDiana's brother and author of the forthcoming memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, speaking in a Mail on Sunday interview
In a Mail on Sunday interview, Charles Spencer called Buckingham Palace's response to his memoir claim 'gaslighting.' He said it suggested he had lied without directly denying his account of the 1997 phone call.
“It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King.”
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
Original Mail on Sunday interview with Charles Spencer about Buckingham Palace's September 16 response to his memoir. His 'gaslit' wording characterizes the Palace's response; it does not independently establish what was said in the disputed 1997 calls.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Buckingham Palace's September 16 statement suggested fraternal grief can affect memory. Spencer publicly rejected that suggestion in a BBC interview released September 18 before speaking to the Mail on Sunday.
After the quotation
Spencer said the Palace response implied he had lied while avoiding a direct denial. 'Gaslit' is Spencer's characterization, not an independently established motive. The Mail on Sunday reported that the Palace declined to comment on further claims in the memoir.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
In this interview, Spencer primarily challenges the Palace's characterization of his recollection as clouded by grief, calling the response 'gaslighting' and saying it implied he had lied without directly denying his account. Unlike his earlier BBC interview, this excerpt does not add a new description of the 1997 call. The label records his challenge to the Palace response, not a judgment that the Palace intentionally misled him.
- 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 calls the Palace's response 'gaslighting'". First published: 2026-09-20. Last updated: 2026-09-22. https://disputeindex.com/events/1266-in-a-mail-on-sunday-interview-charles-spencer