King Charles issues fiery response to Princess Diana’s brother over claims in new book

LONDON — Buckingham Palace has issued a rare and unusually forceful denial after claims made by the brother of the late Princess Diana that King Charles III said his first wife would soon be forgotten in the days after her death.

In a soon-to-be published memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the emotional days in the aftermath of Diana’s 1997 death in a Paris car crash at the age of 36.

One excerpt published Wednesday alleges a heated exchange with the then-Prince Charles over whether Princes William and Harry — then 15 and 12 — should walk behind their mother’s coffin in the funeral procession.

Spencer says he expressed that Diana would not want them to endure such an ordeal, and claims this was met with a “stream of anger” from Charles. The aristocrat writes that Charles “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.”

In response, Buckingham Palace issued a forceful statement denying the claims and suggesting that grief for his older sister may have impacted Spencer’s memory.

“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,” said the statement, released Wednesday.

Diana’s 1997 funeral procession is etched into modern memory.

Her brother and two young sons were among those who walked solemnly behind her coffin as it passed through central London.