Prince William ‘Absolutely Furious’ and ‘Firmly on His Father’s Side’ Over Charles Spencer Memoir
Prince William might be staying silent in public, but privately, he’s reportedly fuming over his uncle’s tell-all memoir about the late Princess Diana.
Charles Spencer slams King Charles in ‘Swan Song’
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, has penned Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which The Guardian described as a “furious exercise in score-settling.” And one of the biggest scores Diana’s younger brother has to settle involves his former brother-in-law, now King Charles III.
In Swan Song, Spencer claims that the then-Prince of Wales was giddy over his ex-wife’s death, and that he told her grieving brother in a phone call that people would “forget her soon enough.” He also relates a tense debate over the role that Prince William and Prince Harry would play in their mother’s funeral, with Spencer arguing that they should not be forced to walk behind their Diana’s coffin in a public procession. (He lost that battle.)
After excerpts of the book were published in The Daily Mail, Buckingham Palace issued a rare rebuttal.
“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,” read the statement.
Prince William is ‘firmly on his father’s side’
King Charles has made no additional comment on Swan Song. Prince William and Prince Harry – who recently returned to the U.K. after six years in California – have also remained silent. Yet William is not taking the book’s publication lightly, royal commentator Mark Dolan said on the Daily Expresso podcast.
“My royal sources tell me that William is absolutely furious about the book, that he doesn’t have a good relationship with his uncle, and he’s firmly on his father’s side,” Dolan said.
“He’s disgusted by what’s in this book, which anyone that’s right-minded would be,” he added.
Harry is another story. Like his elder brother, the Duke of Sussex has not made his feelings about the Earl’s book public. But his “deafening” silence is apparently an “act of war” against the royal family, in Dolan’s view.
“The book contains these allegations, and Harry says nothing. You can only interpret, therefore, that he supports the content of the book,” Dolan claimed. “It means that he supports an attack on his father, a man that he’s trying to build bridges with. Make it make sense. It’s nuts to go over the claims in the book.”
In recent days, reporters have tried to ask both Harry and William about Swan Song. The estranged brothers were separately in London for different events on September 21 and 22. While journalists threw out questions regarding the book, both Harry and William avoiding answering, noted People.
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