Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have found themselves dragged into the controversy surrounding Charles Spencer’s new book.
Next week will see the release of Swan Song: Diana, my Sister. But already the royals are reeling from some of the explosive claims made by Charles regarding the late Princess.
Neither William nor Harry are believed to have had forewarning about the contents – but Harry is known to be closer to their maternal uncle, and stayed with him back in July prior to his move back to the UK.
It’s not known how he is reacting behind closer doors to his claims, nor how he feels about being brought into the row – by Charles himself.
Harry and Meghan coverage ‘echoes’ Princess Diana‘s
Earl Spencer told the BBC in an interview set to be aired on Sunday evening that Harry and Meghan’s treatment at the hands of the media has “echoes” of what happened to his sister Diana.
He described press coverage of the couple as a “cancerous influence in their life” and said it would be “beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example”.
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg at his Althorp estate, Earl Spencer was asked if he believed Diana would “identify” with the scrutiny the Sussexes face.
“If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant,” he replied.
“And I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example.
“I’m not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who’s being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life.”
He said he saw Diana’s “tears of despair” when describing the impact of media coverage on her, adding she was “very, very sensitive to criticism”.
Charles insists he is not on Harry’s ‘side’
Charles further said that his sister – who married the then-Prince Charles in 1981 – was “really brought low by all that criticism”, describing it as a “pity” to see “echoes of that now” in the treatment of his nephew Harry and wife Meghan.
© WPA PoolHe also said he thought there was a media perception that he was “on Harry’s side” but insisted: “I’m on my deceased sister’s sons’ side, both of them and if either of them wanted anything, then I’d be equally there for them.”
Charles accused of ‘overshadowing’ William and Harry’s grief
According to Katie Nicholl – author of the book The New Royals: “It’s hard to know how they’re feeling because ultimately, [Earl Spencer’s book bombshell is happening…] at a moment in time nearly 30 years on, when they want their mother’s memory laid to rest, they want her legacy honored, and continued in their charity work…
“To have it overshadowed with arguments, fallouts, rifts… that are now resurfacing three decades on, can surely not be what any of them want.
“And also, one has to imagine that for the King – these statements have come on the eve of a very important official engagement at a time of great flux and uncertainty for the Royal Family, when the King is trying his best to keep his tiller on an unsteady ship – this must come as quite a blow. I do understand that the Palace were bracing themselves for an explosive book, which very much seems to be the case.”
Reconciliation, however, seems unlikely. As Katie points out, it’s simply “not a priority” for Prince William, who is said to be unable to forgive his younger brother for comments he made about the royal family – in particular, Princess Kate.
Charles faces backlash over his Diana claims
One of the most shocking claims from Diana’s brother concerns King Charles’s reaction to her death. The Earl wrote: “I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he 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 a separate passage, he claimed that then-Prince had sounded “giddily elated”. He wrote: “Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”
There has been a huge backlash to the Earl’s version of events, and it prompted Buckingham Palace to release a rare, sternly-worded rebuttal. “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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
Has Earl Spencer burnt his bridges with William and Harry?
But what about Earl Spencer’s relationship with his nephews moving forward?
Speaking on HELLO!’s Right Royal Podcast, HELLO!’s Royal Editor, Emily Nash, said: “Well, to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think he’s particularly close to William. We know Harry stayed with him back in July when he was in the UK.
“So they do have a somewhat closer relationship, but it puts Harry in a difficult situation because, however much he may like to wear his heart on his sleeve when he talks about his mother, he’s been very passionate about being attached to her legacy and wanting to bring that into pretty much everything he does; on the other hand, we know he’s trying to reconcile with his father. So where does this leave him? He can’t very well support what his uncle is saying.”
She continued: “But William is the person, I think, maybe in the most difficult situation, because whatever his feelings behind the scenes, he has to keep the show on the road. This is his future and his family’s future. And if you’re lobbing a grenade at the institution… Really? Because it’s not just the King who’s being accused of things here, it’s the whole palace machinery. And of course we know from everything that happened around the Panorama scandal, William is sick of people capitalising on his mother’s memory to make money. So I do wonder what he feels about this.”
Charles Spencer has now gone on to accuse the King of ‘gaslighting’ him over his claims in the book.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, the earl denied that he wrote his bombshell memoir because he was motivated by money and said his late sister would be ‘cheering from the rafters’ at his book.
Referring to the Palace’s strong rebuttal, he added: “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King.
“It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said.
“I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place.”
Charles also discussed the alleged conversation in Sunday’s BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg.
According to the earl, the disagreement concerned whether William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin.
He alleged that the then-Prince of Wales became angry and criticised the Spencer family’s sense of duty. “[The King] went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened,” he said.
He continued: “And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s going to pull himself together and say something more appropriate’.
“And then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.” Asked whether he had evidence of the alleged remark, Charles said he had shared his account with people close to him at the time.
“I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous,” he said. He added: “I’m telling the truth.”
Charles Spencer recalled his concern for Prince Harry
In another extract from the memoir, serialised in the Daily Mail, Spencer described his concern for Harry on the day of Diana’s funeral.
The service took place on September 6, 1997. Harry was 12 and William was 15 when they walked behind their mother’s coffin alongside their father, their uncle and their grandfather, Prince Philip.
Charles recalled being struck by how young Harry looked, describing him as “tiny, and slight, and bereft”. He remembered thinking his nephew was “too small to be doing this”.
His account also covered the train journey from London to Althorp after the service.
“My chief memory of that train journey is of being concerned at the lack of obvious care for Harry, as he decompressed from the ghastliness of the morning,” he wrote.
“He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him. “But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”
Read the full article here
