King Charles III, photographed at Windsor Castle in July 2023, is at the center of a memory dispute over Diana. Credit: White House.
Released on September 22, 2026, in the United Kingdom, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is the new Charles Spencer memoir about his sister. He questions the future king’s behavior after Diana’s death, which Buckingham Palace disputes. Twenty-nine years after the funeral, the clash centers on a private conversation. It also concerns the passing down of a family story that became a global event.
An Accusation and a Response Over Memory
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer and Diana’s younger brother, places the disputed exchange in the buildup to the September 1997 funeral. In his account, he opposed plans for William and Harry to walk behind their mother’s coffin. The princes were 15 and 12 at the time. He felt Diana would not have wanted to put them through that ordeal.
The author says Prince Charles flew off the handle on the phone before assuring him they would soon forget Diana. That alleged line, reported by the Associated Press among others, remains contested by Buckingham Palace. It cannot be presented as a saying of the king independently verified as authentic.
In its statement, also reported by the agency, the Palace notes its usual restraint regarding books about the royal family. It argues that grief over a sister can affect judgment. Sorrow would also reshape memories, even years later. This response calls Spencer’s testimony into question without offering a detailed reconstruction of the call.
The controversy began with the release of excerpts before the book’s publication. Published by Michael Joseph, part of Penguin Random House, the book runs 384 pages in its U.K. edition. Its scope covers the siblings’ childhood, Diana’s public life, and the week she died.
What Spencer Maintains, What He Interprets
In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg for the BBC, Charles Spencer stood by his version. He says he remembers the exact words used and says he told close friends about the exchange at the time. This confidence states his position as a witness; by itself, it does not provide independent confirmation of a conversation between the two men.
The Charles Spencer BBC interview also makes it possible to distinguish memory from interpretation. The Earl refers to another call, made in the hours after Diana’s death. He describes a lightness of tone that offended him. But when he attributes thoughts about his future with Camilla to the Prince, he acknowledges he cannot be certain.
That nuance concerns the intentions he assigns to his former brother-in-law. It does not amount to a retraction of his claim about the words spoken during the disagreement over the funeral. To conflate the two would be either to harden his accusation or, conversely, to make him abandon a version he continues to defend.
In 1997, A Family Statement Already Public
Diana died in Paris on August 31, 1997, at 36. Her marriage to Prince Charles, celebrated in 1981, ended in divorce in 1996. On September 6, 1997, William and Harry walked behind her coffin. Their father, their uncle Charles Spencer, and their grandfather, Prince Philip, accompanied them. The participation of the two teenagers is part of that day’s public record. The private discussions that came before it are a different matter of proof.
At Westminster Abbey, Charles Spencer had already given his sister’s memory a significance beyond a family tribute. In his eulogy on September 6, 1997, he promised that the Spencers would help educate William and Harry. He wanted to preserve their openness to the world while affirming respect for their royal future.
The speech also celebrated Diana’s commitment to the sick and the marginalized. It also condemned the way the press treated her. Spencer presented a figure whose influence did not depend on a royal title. His remarks were therefore a statement about what should be passed on from his sister.
In 2026, he tells the BBC that the ending of that speech directly answered the words he attributes to Prince Charles. The 1997 text clearly shows his refusal to let her be forgotten. It does not, however, establish the private origin he now gives that phrasing.
Rediscovering Diana Before The Princess
The official excerpt published by Penguin on September 21 shifts the focus to the years before the marriage. Charles Spencer recalls a teenager whose humor and self-assurance were emerging within the family circle. He specifically mentions a visit by Prince Charles to Althorp in 1977, when he was dating their older sister Sarah.
Another episode describes Diana visiting her brother, who was a student at Eton, in November 1980. According to Spencer, photographers followed her all the way to the school. The lunch they shared becomes, in his account, a brief pause away from that attention. Readers see the making of a celebrity through the perspective of the younger brother watching his sister become a press subject.
That viewpoint gives the book its autobiographical interest. The Spencer family, meals, visits, and routines come before the royal figure. But emotional closeness also shapes the narrative: the witness chooses the scenes, recounts the dialogue, and interprets the reactions. Intimacy offers a particular perspective, without guaranteeing the accuracy of every memory.
The Tribute Put To Critical Review
In her review of Swan Song, published on September 22 in the Guardian, Emma Brockes notes the tenderness of some passages devoted to Diana. She also criticizes the space taken up by the author’s own grievances. Her judgment focuses on that tension between the portrait of the lost sister and the brother telling the story.
The question of accuracy has already produced a separate example from the clash with the Palace. In a statement from his spokesperson, Spencer admitted an error involving Piers Morgan. He had wrongly credited him with leading the Daily Mirror when intrusive photos of Diana were published in 1993. Morgan did not become editor until 1995. The Earl apologized to him on that point.
That acknowledged mistake does not resolve the other claims in the book. It underscores the need to examine separately a verifiable date, a reconstructed dialogue, and a presumed intention. The dispute with Charles III concerns precisely those last two categories, while the Palace’s response challenges the accuracy of the memory.
Spencer also presents this book as his final personal contribution to the story of Diana’s life. On the BBC, he says he wants to set down his version before stepping back from speaking publicly about it. The title Swan Song also describes his role as author. He wants to leave a family testimony that readers, critics, and historians can compare with the other traces of that life.