Zürcher Nachrichten - UK king braces as memoir by Diana's brother goes on sale

Almost three decades after Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, people remain fascinated by her life and tragic death.

"Swan Song: Diana, My Sister", a memoir written by Diana's younger brother, has been published by Penguin and translated into 12 languages.

But extracts serialised in the British tabloid the Daily Mail over the past few days have triggered sensational headlines.

Spencer has said he wrote the book to "speak on Diana's behalf" and correct "untruths that have become accepted over time".

"Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book, I have no doubt about that," he told the Mail on Sunday at the weekend.

Published excerpts claimed her ex-husband Charles, then Prince of Wales, and now the king, told Spencer in a phone call shortly after Diana's death: "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."

Her death, aged just 36, sparked an outpouring of grief in Britain for the woman dubbed "the people's princess".

And it triggered accusations that the then monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, failed to respond swiftly with empathy and understanding.

Spencer claimed Charles had "sounded giddily elated, like a lottery winner" at the news of Diana's demise.

And he said Charles "went ballistic" after he insisted Diana would not have wanted her sons, princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to walk behind her coffin in her funeral procession.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson issued a rare reaction from the 77-year-old king, saying: "His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."

- 'Gaslit by king' -

"The king is plainly furious, Buckingham Palace almost never issues any statement like that," BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg said during a Friday interview.

"Those are exactly the words he said," Spencer assured her, adding: "I don't hear (King Charles) saying he didn't say that."

Spencer criticised the palace's implication that his grief had affected his recollection, telling The Mail on Sunday: "It is not every day you wake up to find you've been gaslit by the king."

He also dubbed it a "rather poor imitation" of the palace's response to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan's claims of royal racism five years ago -- which was that "recollections may vary".

Charles and Diana's tumultuous marriage between 1981 and 1996 was regularly featured in British newspapers.

And Spencer reveals Diana had at times contemplated suicide, driving down to Beachy Head, a notorious clifftop in southern England where people used to deliberately fall to their deaths.

But her love for her sons "stopped her from going further," he writes.

Spencer also recalled Diana told him she and Charles were divorcing because he was "in love with his valet", adding he did not ask why "she would believe such an improbable thing".

Charles later married his long-time mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, who is now the queen.

- 'Vindictive' -

But royal experts have questioned some of the book's claims.

Royal biographer Robert Hardman wrote on X that he witnessed Charles, rather than elated, "distraught and in tears" at Diana's funeral.

Andrew Morton, author of the 1992 book "Diana: Her True Story," in a comment in The Times wrote that Spencer's claims about the phone call with Charles were "incendiary and disputed".

While royal commentator Jennie Bond told the BBC the memoir was a "vindictive account".

Spencer, 62, has worked as a US television journalist and calls himself an historian.

He inherited the Spencer family's stately home Althorp, where he and Diana grew up. She is buried on an island in the grounds.

After her death, he accused the media of having "blood on their hands" and in his raw eulogy at Diana's funeral, he vowed to always look out for her two sons.

But he did not mention her beau Dodi Fayed, who was also killed in the Paris crash, even though in the memoir he praised the son of Harrods owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed, for being "kind to Diana".

But in a shocking claim, Spencer wrote Diana had felt "revulsion" for Mohamed Al-Fayed who had squeezed her buttocks and said "in a leery, suggestive tone, 'and in Egypt, father-in-law gets first go'."

Spencer also told the BBC the media's "cancerous influence" on Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, recalled Diana's hounding by the British press.

O.Pereira--NZN