King Charles responds to Princess Diana claim after Earl Spencer alleges explosive comment following her death

King Charles has made a rare public response to explosive claims from Princess Diana’s brother about his behaviour in the days following her death.

The allegations appear in Earl Spencer’s forthcoming book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which details an alleged heated exchange between the two men following Princess Diana’s death in 1997.

Earl Spencer claims the now-King told him “we’ll forget her soon enough” during an argument over whether Diana’s young sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, should walk behind their mother’s coffin.

Buckingham Palace responded to the claims on Wednesday, suggesting grief could affect a person’s reason, judgement and recollection of events decades later.

Princess Diana was 36 when she was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. Her partner Dodi al-Fayed also died after their vehicle crashed while being pursued by paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.

According to Earl Spencer, the alleged confrontation with King Charles centred on plans for Prince William and Prince Harry, who were 15 and 12 at the time, to take part in their mother’s funeral procession.