Royal family news live: Earl Spencer accuses King of ‘gaslighting’ him after palace’s response to explosive book claims

Royal family news live: Earl Spencer accuses King of ‘gaslighting’ him after palace’s response to explosive book claims Princess Diana’s brother has insisted he is ‘telling the truth’ about his bombshell allegations - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Earl Spencer has accused the King of gaslighting him over claims in his bombshell memoir that Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after Princess Diana died. The earl has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister Diana that prompted the response from Buckingham Palace, which said “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”. Now, the earl has accused the King of gaslighting him and called the response a “rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote” – the late Queen’s response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s allegations in their Oprah Winfrey interview, The Mail on Sunday reports. “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King,” Earl Spencer told the newspaper. “It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said. Buckingham Palace is bracing for a new TV interview with Earl Spencer set to be aired by CBS News on Sunday. When is Earl Spencer's book due to be released? Earl Spencer’s book titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is set to be released globally on Tuesday. However, the pages have been serialised by the Daily Mail, leaking some of the most explosive allegations ahead of publication. An interview with Diana’s brother and BBC broadcaster Laura Kuenssberg will also be released on Sunday evening, in which more revelations are expected. Prince Charles ‘had no place at his his ex’s funeral’ Earl Spencer recalled his sister’s funeral as a “a form of mental torture,” stating that he believed neither Prince Charles, or Princes William and Harry should have been in attendance. Sharing his feelings on the funeral procession, one passage read: “What was Prince Charles actually doing there? I thought at one moment. “This ex-husband, from a marriage that had collapsed so bitterly four years before and finally ended in divorce a year earlier, surely had no place at his ex’s funeral. “Supporting his sons was the reason given for his prominent place, but what were the boys doing there, anyway? It all seemed mad to me. “I was anxious that I could not look sideways to check how Harry was doing. But at one point I found us marching briefly out of sight, under a massive arch. Relieved that nobody could see us here, I quickly leant across to Harry, and gave him an encouraging hug. ‘Well done, Harry!’ I said. ‘You’re doing bloody brilliantly!’” King Charles 'saddened that old sorrows are being dragged back up', says friend The kind is “saddened that the sorrows of old are being dragged up again”, a friend who has been with him this week has told The Sunday Times. The row between Buckingham Palace and Earl Spencer, whose bombshell claims about King Charles’ conduct before and after Princess Diana’s death have sent shockwaves through the royal family, is rapidly deepening. One aide told the outlet: “The King was rather more concerned about the future of mankind than the unkind claims of one man picking at the scars of the past.” Another friend, speaking of Spencer’s claim that he had written his memoir to “to tell the truth about Diana”, responded: “That’s like an arsonist trying to sell you a fire hose and about as convincing as all those others close to Diana who’ve cashed in on her confidences over the years. “Why couldn’t they all have just let her rest in peace? That would have been the decent thing to have done.” They added to the Times: “It is an irony lost on no one except perhaps the author that a man who once accused the media of hounding Diana to the grave has now peddled in the public bazaar what little remained of her privacy.” Earl Spencer accuses King Charles of 'gaslighting him' over book claims Earl Spencer has accused the King of gaslighting him after Buckingham Palace pushed back against explosive claims that Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after Diana, Princess of Wales, died. The earl has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister Diana that prompted the response from Buckingham Palace, which said “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”. Now, the earl has accused the King of gaslighting him and called the response a “rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote” – the late Queen’s response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s allegations in their Oprah Winfrey interview, The Mail on Sunday reports. He said: “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King. “It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said. “I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place.” He also said “Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book”. Charles Spencer’s book is Diana’s unfinished business – Harry’s documentary will finish it As Buckingham Palace hits back at the claims of King Charles’s reaction to the death of Diana, Dan Wakeford, former People editor and founder of the Celebrity Intelligence website, looks at why her brother is publishing his tell-all now, and how the next 12 months will be about settling scores. This book is Diana’s unfinished business – Harry’s documentary will finish it Charles called Diana 'chubby' after engagement, claims Spencer's memoir: recap Diana suffered from an eating disorder which worsened after Charles called her “chubby,” Earl Spencer has claimed in his bombshell memoir. In an extract from his book, serialised in the Daily Mail, the Earl claims that ahead of his sister’s wedding, Prince Charles had squeezed Diana’s waist and said, “Oh, a bit chubby here, aren't we?” The earl said his sister found the comment "devastating," later telling him that her "waist shrank from 29 to 23 and a half inches between her engagement and her marriage," which were five months apart in 1981. Watch: Charles went 'ballistic' in phone call row over Diana funeral arrangements, claims Earl Spencer Queen says books have 'life-enhancing power' in speech after release of Earl Spencer's memoir The Queen has spoken of her love for books that have a “life-enhancing power” after a series of allegations were made about the King in extracts from Earl Spencer’s memoir about the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. The Queen was welcomed by Lord William Burlington, the chairman of The Chatsworth House Trust, who said it was “a huge thrill” to collaborate with The Queen’s Reading Room for a second consecutive year. Camilla gave a speech in the Painted Hall and said being at Chatsworth House, which has a library of over 17,000 books, was “like coming home”. She told the guests: “I created my Reading Room simply because, like all of us here, I love books and their life-enhancing power and I want to share that love with others. “In those early days, I had no idea if anybody would be interested but six years on, we are a global community of millions from over 180 countries, swapping recommendations, undertaking research and donating thousands of books to women’s refuges and homeless shelters.” Camilla’s speech about her love for reading comes after Earl Spencer made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling the life of his sister Diana that prompted an “unprecedented” response from Buckingham Palace who said, “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”. Earl Spencer further claimed that the King sounded “giddily elated… like a lottery winner” when he rang the earl following the princess’s death. Diana contemplated ‘ending it all’, memoir claims - ICYMI In passages of his bombshell book, Earl Spencer spoke of how his sister contemplated “ending it all” before her death. He said she drove “more than once” to the cliffs at Beachy Head in East Sussex and was “contemplating ending it all”, adding that “her love for her sons stopped her from going further”. The book reads: “It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all. “Her love for her sons stopped her from going further.” Comment: Charles should have listened to his mother – ‘Never complain, never explain’ By ignoring the late Queen Elizabeth’s famous motto in the row over Earl Spencer’s new book about Diana, the King has been seriously wrongfooted, says Harry Mount. Charles should have listened to his mother – ‘Never complain, never explain’ Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments