Earl Spencer Accuses King Charles of 'Gaslighting' Him and Says Press Coverage of Harry and Meghan Echoes Diana's

Earl Spencer has accused King Charles of 'gaslighting' him over a disputed remark about Diana, Princess of Wales, and warned that press coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle now echoes the treatment his sister faced before her death.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the earl said: 'It is not every day you wake up to find you've been gaslit by the King.' He called the Palace's response 'astonishingly provocative and below the belt', saying he believed it was effectively accusing him of lying without the King directly denying his account.

He described the statement as a 'rather poor imitation' of the late Queen's 'recollections may vary' response to the Sussexes' 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Disputed Remark at the Heart of the Row

The row centres on 'Swan Song: Diana, My Sister', which is due out on 22 September and has been serialised by the Daily Mail. In extracts, the 62-year-old earl alleges that the then Prince of Wales told him: 'Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough.'

He says the remark was made during a disagreement, days after Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, over funeral arrangements, including whether Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, should walk in their mother's funeral cortege.

Diana's funeral took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 September 1997. The princes walked behind their mother's coffin alongside their father, the then Prince Charles, Prince Philip and the earl, who delivered the eulogy.

Further extracts published on Thursday allege that the then Prince of Wales 'sounded giddily elated' when he called the earl after her death, with Spencer recalling that he sounded 'like a lottery winner'.

Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement on Wednesday. A spokesman said it did not comment on books as a matter of principle, but that the King was mindful that 'fraternal grief can cloud reason' and affect judgement and memory, even years after a loss.

Royal Aide Challenges Earl's Account

Dame Julia Cleverdon, a former adviser and longtime associate of the King, said on Sunday that the claims did not reflect 'the language or the behaviours of a man I've known for 40 years'. She rejected the suggestion that he was elated, saying he had been devastated by Diana's death.

Echoes of Diana in Harry and Meghan Coverage

In a BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg at Althorp, the Northamptonshire estate where Diana is buried, the earl was asked whether his sister would 'identify' with the scrutiny facing his nephew Prince Harry and Meghan.

He said tabloid articles about Diana and about the couple 'can be really, really unpleasant', and that it was a 'pity' to see 'echoes of that' now. Spencer recalled that Diana had been 'really brought low' by sustained criticism.

'I'm not here to speak for Harry and Meghan,' he added, 'but for anyone who's being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life.'

The book, which has already contained highly critical claims about members of the Royal Family in published extracts, chronicles Diana's childhood, her marriage to Charles and the aftermath of her death.