King Charles Reportedly Told Princess Diana’s Brother “We’ll Forget Her Soon” Just Days After Her Death

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Princess Diana's brother's new memoir, Swan Song , comes out next week, but new revelations published in the Daily Mail today are already shocking. Namely, days after Princess Diana's death, then-Prince Charles reportedly told Charles Spencer "rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."

The two men had a fight over the decision to have Princes William and Harry, then 15 and 12, walk in the funeral procession for their mother . The Mail notes , "The Earl says he insisted to the then Prince of Wales that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to endure such a public ordeal. It is claimed Charles then questioned the Spencer family's sense of duty before saying his ex-wife, whose death sparked a global outpouring of grief, would soon be forgotten."

"Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped," Spencer reportedly writes in Swan Song . 'I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death. 'Rest assured,' he hissed, 'we'll forget her soon enough!'"

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in reaction, "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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."

Prince Philip was reportedly instrumental in the decision to have the young boys walk in the funereal cortège. "I seem to remember him saying that in fact, it was a question of, 'If you'll do it, I'll do it,'" Princess Anne said in 2021 after her Philip's death. "And that was him as a grandfather saying to them, 'If you want me to be there, if that's what you want to do and if you want me to be there, I will be there.'"

Prince William, too, said in Diana: 7 Days , a BBC documentary, "It wasn't an easy decision, and it was a collective family decision to do that." Prince Harry later said he thinks it was the wrong choice. "I don't think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don't think it would happen today," he said in 2017.

Scheduled for release on September 22, 2026, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister will cover Diana's life through her brother's eyes. "As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana's behalf and do so in an openly positive way," Spencer said in a statement when the book was announced last month . "I hope this book will be of interest to the many who still cherish the memory of Diana when she was alive, and I would be delighted if those too young to remember her in her heyday feel—after reading this—that they 'get' who she really was: a one-off, dynamic character, full of love, charisma and self-doubt, who gave life a hell of a go, and left the world a far better place, despite exiting the stage while still so young."

The Mail reveals that Swan Song "includes a string of further extraordinary claims about Diana's failed marriage to King Charles and the tumultuous aftermath of her tragic death in a car crash in Paris in 1997." Four copies of the book were stolen yesterday in the Netherlands .