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Charles said Diana would be forgotten ‘soon enough’ after her death, book claims

16 Sep 2026 4 minute read

File photo dated 03/11/92 of the then Prince and Princess of Wales Credit: PA/PA Wire

Helen William, Press Association

Just days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, then-Prince Charles told her brother “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough”, it has been claimed.

It is alleged that the comment was by made by Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales, over arrangement for Diana’s funeral where Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, would walk in their mother’s funeral procession in September 1997.

In response to the claims, made in a memoir of Diana’s brother Earl Spencer which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said Charles is “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.

The statement reads: “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.”

Charles is said to have made the comments about his ex-wife in a row over funeral preparations and to have questioned the Spencer family’s sense of duty.

The Earl says he insisted to the then Prince of Wales that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to have made the difficult public walk, it is claimed

According to the newspaper, Earl Spencer says the book – Swan Song: Diana, My Sister – has been written to correct “untruths” told about his older sister, who died in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

According to a book excerpt, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s senior aides told him that William and Harry were to walk in the procession, prompting the Earl to state “that’s not going to happen”.

Charles called minutes later and told him that 18 years earlier he had walked in the funeral procession of his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, it is claimed.

The Earl pointed out that Charles had been 30 at the time of Lord Mountbatten’s funeral in 1979.

Front cover of Swan Song: Diana, My Sister by Charles Spencer. The book will mark the first time that Earl Spencer, 62, has spoken at length about his sibling, three decades after her death. Credit: Penguin Random House/PA Wire

In an book excerpt, the Earl claims: “Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.

“I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death. ‘Rest assured’, he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”

The Earl says he then hung up the phone.

William, Harry, Charles, Prince Philip and the Earl walked behind Diana’s coffin in a funeral procession through central London to the funeral service at Westminster Abbey.

The Earl then delivered a passionate eulogy at Diana’s funeral, pledging the princess’ “blood family” would protect William and Harry “so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition, but can sing openly as you planned”.

Earl Spencer’s book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is published on Tuesday, September 22. The work by Charles Spencer tells the story of his sister Diana, Princess of Wales’s life and death, with the book described as containing “many revelations that will draw considerable attention”. It comes ahead of the 30th anniversary of the princess’ death next year.

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