Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, has made a series of explosive allegations about King Charles and the final years surrounding his sister’s life and death.
His memoir includes claims about Charles and Diana’s marriage, Diana’s personal struggles, and tensions within the Royal Family.
Earl Spencer Claims Charles Sounded Giddily Elated After Diana’s Death
Perhaps the biggest jaw-dropper in Earl Spencer’s memoir comes from what he says happened just hours after Princess Diana’s death. Spencer recalls being flooded with phone calls, with many people barely able to offer their condolences. Charles, however, allegedly sounded very different.
Spencer wrote: “He sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.” Charles reportedly told him that he had already broken the news to William and Harry in their bedrooms at Balmoral. Spencer remembered the whole exchange as “strangely matter-of-fact, given the enormity of the disaster.”
Spencer also shares his own theory about why Charles allegedly reacted that way. He writes: “Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved.”
It is a huge claim. But it remains Spencer’s personal recollection and interpretation of that private conversation, not an independently established account of Charles’s thoughts.
Related: King Charles Finally Responds To Charles Spencer Claim About Princess Diana
Diana Allegedly Heard Charles Was Not In Love With Her Before Their Wedding
The memoir then rewinds to another painful moment, this time right before Charles and Diana’s wedding. Spencer claims Diana confided in a close friend that Charles told her, “He was very happy to marry her. But he was not actually in love with her.” Hearing something like that the day before a royal wedding is quite the bombshell. It’s especially considering the massive public attention surrounding the couple at the time.
Diana’s doubts apparently did not appear overnight either. Spencer alleges that only two months after getting engaged, she became worried enough about their relationship to consider ending it. According to him, their father told Diana that pulling out was impossible because she had already made such an enormous commitment.
Earl Spencer Details Diana’s Struggle With An Eating Disorder
Spencer also opens up about an incredibly difficult period in Diana’s life, claiming she told him that she had been “in the throes” of an eating disorder for five months by her wedding day. He says Diana “recoiled” at photographs taken after her engagement because she believed her 5 ft 10 in frame looked heavier than she wanted.
Spencer also alleges that Charles squeezed her waist days after their engagement and remarked, “Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?”. Diana later told Spencer her waist dropped from 29 inches to 22.5 inches between the engagement and the wedding.
The memoir also questions how Diana’s care was handled during that period. Spencer claims her problems became worse after her medical care moved away from her longtime family GP and close family friend Mike Bloomer. Instead, Dr John Batten, then 58 and Queen Elizabeth II’s physician since 1974, took over her care. Spencer presents that change as another key part of what Diana was dealing with behind the palace doors.
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Spencer Claims Diana Contemplated Ending Her Life
One of the memoir’s most heartbreaking revelations concerns Diana’s mental health in the years before her death. Spencer claims his sister considered suicide more than once and traveled on several occasions to Beachy Head, England’s highest chalk sea cliff, while experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Spencer writes: “It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head. It’s the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all.” According to him, thoughts of William and Harry ultimately stopped Diana from going any further. He adds: “Her love for her sons stopped her from going further.”
Spencer Alleges Serious Palace Tensions Before Diana’s Funeral
Things apparently became tense behind palace doors while plans for Diana’s funeral were coming together. Spencer, who acted as the Spencer family’s main point of contact for the arrangements, claims there were “very serious tensions” between Queen Elizabeth II’s team and then-Prince Charles’s team. The situation allegedly became so strained that no Royal Family member dealt with Spencer directly about the arrangements, with those conversations instead “farmed out” to a courtier.
Spencer offers his own explanation for where some of that tension came from. He links it to “the heir to the throne’s growing frustrations at being a middle-aged man still waiting to reign.” It is another striking line from the memoir, though it reflects Spencer’s own assessment of the situation rather than an independently established explanation for the tensions.
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