Buckingham Palace says "grief can cloud reason" in response to Spencer's memoir claim
Buckingham PalaceOfficial statement issued by a Buckingham Palace spokesperson on behalf of King Charles III
Buckingham Palace, without directly confirming or denying the alleged remark, said in a statement that grief "can cloud reason ... and colour memory."
Responding to
In the days after Diana's death in 1997, then-Prince Charles told him by phone, "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."
“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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
Reporting
Reporting
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
Reporting
About this source
Carries the Buckingham Palace statement in full, preserving the Palace's own British spelling of “colour” and “recognise”. Several U.S. outlets, including Fox News and NBC News, print the same sentence with American spellings. The statement is a single sentence. It questions the reliability of Earl Spencer's recollection and does not deny the remark he attributes to Charles, a distinction several headlines describing the statement as a rebuttal do not carry.
Reporting
About this source
Fox News report giving the full text of Buckingham Palace's statement responding to Spencer's memoir claim.
Before the quotation
Issued the same day Charles Spencer's memoir "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" began serialization, in which Spencer wrote that then-Prince Charles made the "we'll forget her soon enough" remark to him by phone in the days after Diana's 1997 death.
After the quotation
The statement did not directly confirm or deny that the specific remark was made, and no named Palace official was quoted; the statement was attributed to a Buckingham Palace spokesperson.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The Palace statement does not confirm or deny that Charles made the specific remark Spencer attributes to him. Instead, without addressing the quotation directly, it suggests Spencer's account may be distorted by "fraternal grief" clouding "reason," "judgment," and "memory" many years on -- disputing the reliability of Spencer's characterization of what was said, rather than either admitting or flatly denying it.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Charles Spencer
More from this case
Read the full caseSpencer denies trying to discredit Charles
“At no point am I looking to discredit anyone.”Read statement
Spencer tells CBS he is “absolutely not bitter” and that his book “would be more bitter” if he were
“No, I'm absolutely not bitter. I can tell you, if I was bitter, this book would be more bitter.”Read statement
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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- Buckingham Palace says "grief can cloud reason" in response to Spencer's memoir claim
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The Dispute Index. "Buckingham Palace says "grief can cloud reason" in response to Spencer's memoir claim". First published: 2026-09-17. Last updated: 2026-09-17. https://disputeindex.com/events/901-buckingham-palace-without-directly-confirming-or-denying-the