Ex-Aide Defends King Charles Over 1997 Diana Remark Claim as Palace Rebuts Spencer Book
Updated
Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Sep 17
Ex-Aide Defends King Charles Over 1997 Diana Remark Claim as Palace Rebuts Spencer Book
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Sep 17
Summary
Julian Payne, King Charles’s former communications secretary, said the monarch was “absolutely emphatic” that staff must respect Diana’s memory, disputing Charles Spencer’s claim about a 1997 phone call.
In an excerpt from Spencer’s book Swan Song, due Sept. 22, Diana’s brother says Charles told him after her Aug. 31, 1997 death, “We’ll forget her soon enough,” during a heated argument over William and Harry walking behind the coffin.
Buckingham Palace unusually responded that grief can “cloud reason” and “color memory,” while a source close to the king said the alleged remark was out of character for a man “paralyzed with grief.”
The palace source also said Charles pushed for a full state-style funeral and a royal standard on Diana’s coffin despite their 1996 divorce, underscoring the sensitivity of the renewed dispute nearly 30 years later.