King Charles III and Prince William are furious over the allegations in a new memoir by Princess Diana’s younger brother, royal commentators say, with the monarch reportedly in damage control mode since “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” landed in bookshops on Sept. 22, 2026.
Kinsey Schofield, host of the YouTube show “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered,” said the anger inside both royal households is running along different lines. The king, she said, is genuinely angry at what she characterized as an assault on his character decades after Diana’s death, though she noted he has spent years being cast as the villain of the Diana story.
“For Prince William, there is an additional sense of betrayal,” Schofield told Fox News Digital. She pointed to the eulogy Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, delivered at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 6, 1997, in which he vowed that Diana’s “blood family” would carry on her legacy in raising her two sons — a speech widely read at the time as a swipe at the royals. Now, Schofield said, William is watching that same uncle reopen the most painful chapter of his childhood while leveling damaging claims at his father.
British royal expert Hilary Fordwich said William is not close to his uncle, and that sources have told her the prince is furious. William was 15 and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was 12 when they walked behind their mother’s coffin. William is now 44; Harry is 42. King Charles is 77.
What Spencer Alleges in the Memoir
Spencer writes that he argued by telephone with the then-Prince Charles over palace plans for the boys to join the funeral procession, telling him Diana — killed in a car crash in Paris at 36 — would not have wanted her sons put through it. He says the prince went ballistic, accuses him of contempt for his ex-wife, and claims he sounded giddily elated, like a lottery winner, after her death. Spencer alleges the call ended with Charles telling him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”
After excerpts appeared ahead of publication, Buckingham Palace issued a rebuttal unusually blunt by the standards of the royal household: “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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.”
Spencer has stood by his account, insisting to the BBC that he is telling the truth. Of the palace’s response, he asked: “Is he furious or is he embarrassed?” In the BBC’s 2017 documentary “Diana, 7 Days,” William and Harry described the decision for them to walk in the procession as a group decision reached by the family.
The book also says Diana tried to break off her engagement after discovering Charles had bought a bracelet for Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, and later tried to back out of the wedding, telling her father it was clear Charles did not love her. Spencer writes that his father was appalled and said a commitment of that size could not be abandoned. He says his sister had suicidal thoughts and more than once drove to the chalk cliffs at Beachy Head on England’s south coast, considering ending it all. Like his nephew Harry, Spencer holds the paparazzi responsible as the leading cause of her death.
Harry’s Reaction Deepens the Rift
Spencer revealed that Harry was completely fine with the book even before it came out — a disclosure that reportedly stung William most of all. Harry is said to have been largely unfazed by the memoir, while his brother is described as unable to understand how Harry could back a book so damaging to their father. Harry and Meghan Markle are also reportedly working on a Netflix documentary about Diana, and sources say William is bracing for further fallout from it.
Reviews and Slow Early Sales
The reception has been mixed at best. The Telegraph gave “Swan Song” two stars out of five and dismissed it as a monument to its author’s ego, while The Times of London likened the row to a Shakespearean blood feud between two aristocratic houses. Broadcaster Piers Morgan has threatened to sue over allegations in the book. Despite prominent displays in London bookshop windows, early sales were not brisk; the 28-pound ($37.43) hardback was offered at half price in some shops on release day.
Spencer, who has long clashed with the royals over their treatment of his sister, says he was moved to write the first extended account of her life after being inundated with interview requests as the 30th anniversary of her death approaches in August 2027. Charles, then 32, married 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1981; the couple divorced in 1996, and he married Camilla a decade later. For William, Schofield said, the stakes are not only personal: the institution his uncle is attacking is the one he will one day inherit.