Business as usual for King and senior royals after pushback to Spencer claims

The King’s continued as normal following the Palace’s pushback against claims made by Earl Spencer (Aaron Chown/PA) PA Wire Josh Payne 4 minutes ago The King and senior royals continued with business as usual, with public appearances following Buckingham Palace’s “unprecedented” pushback against explosive claims made by the brother of Diana , Princess of Wales.

Charles, the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Princess Royal all carried out public engagements on Thursday after excerpts of Earl Spencer’s new memoir were published in the Daily Mail.

The book – Swan Song: Diana, My Sister – alleges the King told Diana’s brother “we’ll forget her soon enough” after her death in 1997, and that Charles subjected the Earl to a “stream of anger” after he insisted Diana would not have wanted Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk in her funeral procession.

The palace hit back at the claims with a short statement, saying “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.

Commenting after the excerpts were published on Wednesday, a palace spokesman 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.”

There was no further reference to the row as the King warned of the “existential dangers” of AI systems falling into the wrong hands, as he addressed tech leaders in Edinburgh on Thursday.

Charles addressed bosses from some of the world’s leading AI developers – Nvidia, Anthropic and OpenAI – about the future of artificial intelligence.

The King continued business as usual as he spoke at a meeting of AI leaders (Jonathan Brady/PA) PA Wire He called on tech leaders to ensure that as AI is developed, “our humanity remains sacred”.

The King told a summit at Dumfries House that the new technology should be in the “service of humanity, community and the natural world”.

William and Kate also carried on with business as usual as the Princess of Wales showed off her shinty skills after declaring “I want to give it a go” during a visit to the Scottish island of Bute.

The Duke of Sussex is also expected to make his first public appearance after he, along with his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, returned to the UK from the US last month.

The Duchess of Edinburgh’s visit to Zambia and the Princess Royal’s attendance at the opening of a new history centre at the German military cemetery in Staffordshire were among other royal engagements on Thursday.

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine and author of Catherine And Diana, The Women Who Shaped The Monarchy, told the Press Association the palace’s response to Earl Spencer’s claims was “unprecedented”.

The royal commentator said: “It’s unprecedented as far as I can think. It’s very unusual, let’s say. Very unusual.