King Charles ‘sounded giddily elated’ after Princess Diana’s death, brother Earl Spencer claims in new book

Earl Spencer has made fresh claims about King Charles’ reaction to the death of his sister Diana, Princess of Wales, alleging the then-prince appeared unusually upbeat during a phone call in the hours after the 1997 tragedy.

The deeply personal allegation appears in Earl Spencer’s forthcoming memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is due to be released next week.

Recalling the devastating hours after Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, Spencer claims King Charles “sounded giddily elated” when the pair spoke.

He went further in describing his recollection of the conversation, writing: “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.”

Spencer was living in Cape Town, South Africa, when he was woken in the middle of the night by a phone call from his sister Jane alerting him to Princess Diana’s car crash.

As further calls came in and the devastating news of her death was confirmed, Spencer said King Charles contacted him.

According to the memoir, the then-Prince of Wales told Spencer he had broken the news to his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, in their bedrooms at Balmoral that morning.

The claims come after Buckingham Palace strongly rejected the portrayal of King Charles contained in an earlier extract from the book.

That extract alleged King Charles told Spencer in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death: “We’ll forget her soon enough.”

In a rare response to the memoir, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “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.”

Buckingham Palace has pointed back to that statement following the publication of the latest excerpts.

Representatives for Prince Harry have declined to comment on the book.

Spencer’s memoir also delves into Princess Diana’s turbulent marriage to King Charles, which ended in divorce in August 1996, a year before her death.

He claims a friend of Princess Diana told him that on the eve of the couple’s July 1981 wedding, King Charles had told his bride-to-be he was “very happy to marry her, but… not actually in love with her”.