Key takeaways from BBC interview as Earl Spencer defends claims about King

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 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."

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'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."

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.