King Charles, Earl Spencer clash over Diana death once again

Buckingham Palace has hit back at claims by the late Princess Diana's brother that King Charles III acted cruelly after her death in a car crash in 1997 — the latest of many criticisms leveled at the king by his former brother-in-law, Earl Charles Spencer, in recent decades.

The dispute is liable to overshadow a public engagement on Thursday, when Charles will meet with various AI executives in Scotland to appeal to them to take care in their work.

Earl Spencer, Diana's elder brother, has written a new book being serialized in the Daily Mail newspaper, in which he alleges that Charles told him in an angry phone call, "rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough," days after Diana died aged 36.

"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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss," a palace spokesperson said late on Wednesday.

Charles and Diana had gone through an acrimonious separation prior to her death in 1997 and relations between the two Charles' were already at rock bottom prior to the late-night tragedy in Paris.

In the book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," which is due to be published in full next week, Spencer repeats his assertion that he called for Princes William and Harry — then aged 15 and 12 — not to walk in the massive public funeral procession for their mother on September 6, 1997.

Spencer claims that Charles subjected him to a "stream of anger" after he raised this objection.

"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!'," Spencer writes.