Earl Spencer says William and Harry knew of Charles’s alleged Diana remark
Earl Spencer has said Prince William and Prince Harry would not be surprised by his claim that King Charles once said Diana would soon be forgotten after her death. The allegation, contained in Spencer’s forthcoming memoir, has prompted an unusually strong response from the Palace, which questioned the accuracy of his recollection.
Spencer said the alleged exchange occurred during an argument about whether William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, should walk behind their mother’s coffin in 1997. He believes his funeral eulogy, particularly its assertion that Diana’s qualities would “never be extinguished”, directly rebutted Charles’s reported remark, while denying that references to other undisclosed material about the King were intended as threats.
- Earl Spencer says William and Harry already knew about his allegation.
- He claims Charles said Diana would soon be forgotten.
- The Palace has questioned the accuracy of Spencer’s account.
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Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and became the subject of unprecedented global mourning. Her funeral was a major state occasion watched by millions around the world, and she left two young sons, Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12.
Earl Spencer is Diana's brother and delivered the eulogy at her funeral, which became one of the most remembered funeral speeches in modern history. In a forthcoming memoir, he claims that King Charles, then Prince Charles, said Diana would soon be forgotten, allegedly during a disagreement over whether the young princes should walk behind their mother's coffin.
Spencer's account has drawn a notably strong response from the Palace, which has questioned the accuracy of his recollection. He has also suggested that William and Harry would not be surprised by his claim, implying they may have been aware of Charles's alleged remark at the time of the funeral.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Spencer's account merits credibility because he is naming himself as the source, risking substantial reputational damage were the claim demonstrably false. His recollection appears specific and temporally grounded to a documented moment of family tension—the funeral arrangements—and his eulogy's celebrated assertion that Diana's qualities would "never be extinguished" does functionally rebut the alleged remark, suggesting genuine connection to the episode. The emotional gravity of the funeral and the princes' distress would naturally engrave such a comment onto memory; after nearly three decades, Spencer's consistency and his willingness to state this publicly under his own name indicates he believes it to be accurate.
The case against
The Palace's direct challenge to Spencer's recollection reflects an institutional view with access to its own records and those who were present. Memory over thirty years is demonstrably unreliable about precise wording and context, particularly in emotionally charged moments where people may later retrofit narrative meaning onto events. Spencer's memoir, by its commercial nature, creates incentive for provocative claims, and his statement that William and Harry would "not be surprised" does not constitute their corroboration—only Spencer witnessed the alleged private exchange. Without independent witnesses or documentation, this remains an unverifiable claim made by one party with a publishing stake in its impact.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “This will not be a surprise to them’: Earl Spencer suggests William and Harry already knew about his claim Charles said ‘we’ll forget about Diana soon enough’ after her death”.