Original Summary

Earl Spencer has told the BBC writing his book about sister Princess Diana, which has made headlines for its criticism of King Charles, was his "duty...as an eyewitness to history". In an interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg ahead of the memoir's release on Tuesday, Earl Spencer said he wanted "to put things down once and for all that were true". Among claims made in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister about the King, who was then the Prince of Wales, was that he said "we'll forget her soon enough" during an argument over whether Princes William and Harry should walk in Diana's funeral procession. In a strongly worded response, Buckingham Palace said the King was "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss". Here are the key moments from Earl Spencer's interview, which include his first account of how he was told about Diana's death and criticism of press coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Earl initially told Diana crash was 'not too serious' Earl Spencer was in South Africa when Princess Diana died in a Paris car crash in the early hours of 31 August 1997, along with close friend Dodi Fayed and the driver of the car. He told the BBC he got a call in the middle of the night from his sister Lady Jane Fellowes, who said Princess Diana had been in a crash but "it's not too serious". But then he "kept getting more and more distressing calls" from his sister. "And then my sister Jane said, 'I'm afraid she's died.' It started... as a little prang, and then it became a broken leg, perhaps a head injury, and then death." Charles had 'giddy tone' after Diana's death Describing the hours after her death, Earl Spencer said he took a call at his home in Cape Town from Prince Charles, who told him how he broke the news to Princes William and Harry at Balmoral Castle. "I felt there was a sort of giddy tone," he told the BBC. "I'd had a lot of calls that day from people who cared, who were stunned... and I just felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana's death that really jarred with me." In his book, Earl Spencer compares his tone to like a "lottery winner" and says he suspects the prince's reaction was based on how this event would free him to marry the woman he loved, his future wife Queen Camilla. When asked by Kuenssberg if he could be sure that is what Prince Charles was thinking, Earl Spencer said: "I cannot be sure, I'm saying that's what I assume from the tone is a possibility." Princess Diana: My Sister's Story. The full interview with Laura Kuenssberg is available on BBC iPlayer and will be broadcast on BBC One at 18:30 BST on Sunday Comments 'will not be a surprise' to William and Harry Earl Spencer told the BBC he had been discussing funeral arrangements with a palace official, who said it had been agreed Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother's coffin. Unhappy, he said he told the official it is not what his sister would have wanted, before the conversation came to an end. Soon after, the earl says he took a call from Prince Charles, who asked him about his opposition to it. "I said, 'Well, of course not, sir, she wouldn't want it'. And then he said, 'Well, I walked behind Lord Mountbatten's coffin.' And I said, 'Yes, but you were 30 and he wasn't your mother'." He then claims Charles went "ballistic... and ranted for a while" about the Spencer's sense of duty not being adequate enough before "he said 'We'll forget her [Diana] soon enough'." "I really was so stunned and after a stunned silence I said 'I can not believe you just said that' and I hung up on him", the earl told Kuenssberg during his sit down interview at his Althorp estate. PA Media / Princes William and Harry walked in the procession behind their mother's coffin Responding to the Palace's statement pushing back on the story, Earl Spencer said: "I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said. "I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage in my life. "I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said. And I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said. "I don't hear him saying he didn't say that." The earl said he told "close friends and family" about the "monstrous" comment. When asked if people should believe him or the King, he said: "Well, I'm telling the truth... what else would have made me hang up on the King that day?" On what Princes William and Harry might think of the comments being brought up nearly 30 years later, he added the words "will not be a surprise" to the brothers. He also said his renowned funeral eulogy, in which he said his sister's qualities would never be "extinguished from our minds", was a "direct rebuttal" of the prince's comments. 'I know lots of things about the King' not in the book Talking about his motivations for writing the book, Earl Spencer, aged 62, said it was his "duty... as an eyewitness to history" and as someone in the "final season of my life" with his parents dying in their sixties. "I'm aware of mortality and I wanted to just put things down once and for all that were true," the historian and journalist explained. "This is not a threat, it's a fact, I know lots of things about the King which I chose not to include in the book because they were not relevant." When put to him that the statement sounded like a threat when it involved potentially damaging information, he said: "No, not at all a threat, it's just the reality." Kuenssberg questioned why he included an account of a conversation in which his sister told him Prince Charles was in love with his valet - a claim Earl Spencer said was improbable - and asked if he was motivated in including some of these allegations to create interest to sell the book. "It's in the context of a conversation where Diana is telling me that her marriage is over," the earl replied. "It's a brother's tribute

中文概览

中文标题： BBC采访要点：厄尔·斯宾塞为关于国王的指控辩护

厄尔·斯宾塞称，写关于戴安娜的书是他作为历史目击者的职责；他称戴安娜去世后查尔斯来电语气轻快，并称查尔斯曾说“我们很快会忘记她”。白金汉宫回应称，国王明白兄弟悲痛会遮蔽理性、判断和记忆。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：英国王室与戴安娜回忆录争议要点，属综合情报。
  • 信息来源：英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间：2026/9/20 23:03:42