With Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer making a series of astonishing claims about the King in a new book about his sister’s life, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond says the allegations are ‘brutally hostile’
I was pleased when Earl Spencer announced he was going to write a book about his sister. I was looking forward to reading an authoritative and affectionate portrait of the woman who was once the most famous in the world.
And it probably is an affectionate portrait — we shall see when it is published — but from the extracts so far it is clearly also a character assassination of the King. It is brutally hostile and fantastically rude.
I have no reason to disbelief Earl Spencer’s account of his memories – he’s a historian, journalist and author of some repute. He’s also quite charming to meet in person.
But neither have I any reason to doubt the Palace’s rare and turbo-charged riposte that “grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory“. It is a version of the late Queen’s “recollections may vary“ – with bells on.
I think the Palace was right to put out a statement in the face of such damaging accusations. They had no choice but to challenge Earl Spencer‘s claim that Prince Charles, as he was at the time, said after Diana’s death “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.“
And though they haven’t commented further, it’s obvious that the King would also wholly dispute that he sounded “giddily elated… like a lottery winner“ when he rang his ex brother-in-law on the night Diana died.
That is certainly not the memory I have of Prince Charles during those exceptionally difficult days when he looked like a broken man after flying to Paris to bring his ex-wife’s body home. He also insisted that she should be given the ceremonial funeral and respect he felt she deserved.
Earl Spencer‘s book seems to me to be spiteful and unnecessary. Who does it help to rake over bitter memories of a traumatic tragedy? Do William and Harry really have to witness another blistering family row? Do they want to be made to relive the agony of their mother’s death and that painful walk behind her coffin? What good can that do?
Just after the first anniversary of Diana’s death, William and Harry, then aged 16 and 13, issued a dignified joint statement appealing to the public and the media to let their mother finally rest in peace.
They said that reminders of the tragedy brought “nothing but pain to those she left behind“ and that their mother would want people to move on. Earl Spencer has done precisely the opposite.
The King must be in despair – when will the drama ever end? And, as we know that Harry, at least, has remained close to his uncle Charles – he and his family stayed at his home last month – it further complicates his tentative reconciliation with his father. Yet another touchy subject to be avoided, yet another stumbling block in their fragile relationship.
It all seems so pointless – and tasteless.
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