File photo: Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles at their wedding
Spencer writes that he was at his home in Cape Town with his children when he learnt that Diana had been killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
After a series of calls confirming her death, Charles called Spencer, according to the memoir. He says Charles told him he had informed William and Harry of their mother’s death in their bedrooms at Balmoral. Looking back, Spencer says he suspects Charles may have been thinking about how Diana’s death could free him to marry the woman he loved, an interpretation that forms part of Spencer’s own recollection of the conversation.
Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, is set to release a memoir that makes a series of deeply personal claims about his sister’s relationship with King Charles, alleging that the then-Prince Charles sounded “giddily elated — like a lottery winner” when he called after Diana’s death in 1997 and that he once told her, shortly after their engagement, “Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we? The allegations appear in Spencer’s forthcoming memoir titled ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister’, which is being serialised ahead of its publication. The book draws on Spencer’s recollections of his sister’s life, marriage and death nearly three decades ago.