Princess Diana’s brother has opened the royal family’s vault of secrets—and the revelations are explosive.
Charles Spencer’s new memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, comes out Tuesday and delivers a string of startling revelations about the late princess and the royal family.
From extraordinary claims about King Charles and Queen Elizabeth II to allegations about Diana’s troubled childhood, her doomed marriage and the aftermath of her death, Spencer’s new memoir paints a deeply personal picture of life behind palace walls.
These are some of the most jaw-dropping allegations to emerge from Spencer’s memoir:
Charles allegedly vowed Diana would be forgotten “soon enough”
One of the most explosive claims in Spencer’s book centers on an alleged phone call with Charles in the aftermath of Diana’s death.
Spencer says the then-Prince of Wales became enraged during a dispute over the funeral, with the brothers arguing over whether William and Harry—then just 15 and 12—should walk behind their mother’s coffin.
According to Spencer, Charles accused the Spencer family of having “no sense of duty” and launched into an angry tirade about Diana and the enormous public reaction to her death.
Spencer claims Charles then delivered a chilling warning: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!”
He says the remark revealed what he regarded as Charles’ “pent-up contempt for Diana” and his apparent frustration that the public had been so deeply affected by her death.
Buckingham Palace has rejected the allegation, saying the king 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.”
But Spencer has stood by his account. In a BBC interview, he insisted he was “telling the truth” and said the words attributed to Charles were exactly what he heard.
“I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said,” Spencer said.
“I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”
Spencer has described the alleged remark as “monstrous.”
Charles and Queen Elizabeth allegedly made shocking remarks after Diana’s death
Spencer claims Charles sounded “giddily elated—like a lottery winner” during a phone call after Diana was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997.
He also alleges the prince was “strangely matter-of-fact” as he told Spencer that he had already broken the devastating news to his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Looking back, Spencer writes: “Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not.”
Spencer alleges that Queen Elizabeth’s initial response to news of Diana’s Paris car crash was equally striking. According to his account, the late monarch asked, “What is she up to now?”—apparently unaware at the time that Diana had died in the accident.
Prince Charles and his fiancee, Lady Diana Spencer, with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on March 7, 1981.
Fox Photos/GettyDiana allegedly told her brother that Charles was in love with his valet
Charles Spencer says Diana told him “My husband is in love with his valet,” a term for a royal’s personal manservant, after revealing her plan to divorce Charles.
In the memoir, Spencer describes Diana asking him to lunch at a fancy London restaurant and telling him she was going to seek a divorce. He warned her against it, and she replied: “But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.”
The aide is not named in the book, but allegations about a romantic relationship between Charles and his closest aide, Michael Fawcett, date back decades.
The claims first emerged in 1996, when George Smith, a former royal valet, alleged that he had been raped by a prince’s aide during a mental-health crisis and had separately witnessed an incident involving a royal family member and a senior servant.
Charles denied the allegations and questioned Smith’s credibility, citing his history of post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism.
Charles allegedly told Diana he wasn’t in love with her—and called her “chubby” the day before their wedding
Spencer says Charles told Diana the day before the wedding that “she needed to know he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her.”
“Diana had to absorb that hammer blow while also feeling certain that Prince Charles was entering their marriage with his heart elsewhere,” Spencer added.
He also said before their wedding, the prince at one point squeezed her waist and remarked, “Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?”
Diana allegedly tried to call off her wedding to Charles but was pressured to continue by her father
Diana allegedly wanted to call off her wedding to Charles after realizing he did not love her—but Spencer claims their father told her it was too late to back out.
According to Spencer, Diana reached that breaking point after Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday celebration, where Charles allegedly ignored her. Spencer says the treatment left Diana “deeply hurt, confused and increasingly concerned.”
He claims that after the party, Diana told their father she could not marry Charles when it was so obvious he did not love her. But her father allegedly insisted that the wedding could not be canceled at that stage.
Diana allegedly contemplated suicide
According to the memoir, on more than one occasion, Diana drove herself 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.”
Diana told her brother her home looked “like a funeral parlor” two months before her death
Spencer recalls that his final meeting with Diana came on her 36th birthday, when the siblings unexpectedly crossed paths while dining at London’s Tate Gallery.
Earlier that day, Diana had laughed about the flood of birthday flowers filling her home after a family member sent her a bouquet.
“I’ve been so lucky! My house is so full of gorgeous flowers that the place looks like a funeral parlour!” she joked.
The remark would take on an eerie meaning just weeks later. Spencer writes: “Now here I was, just two months later, trying to write something suitable for her funeral.”
Diana’s father allegedly shared a “romantic connection” with Queen Elizabeth
Spencer makes the extraordinary claim that his father was romantically involved with the future Queen Elizabeth II before she married Prince Philip in 1947.
According to Spencer, Lord Mountbatten, Philip’s uncle, brought the relationship to an abrupt end by allegedly intervening and ordering Spencer’s father to stop the “nonsense.”
“Perhaps Mountbatten was clearing the way for his nephew, Prince Philip,” Spencer writes.
He claims his father ultimately did as he was told—but never forgave Mountbatten, whom Spencer says he “loathed... with a passion.”
Charles allegedly wanted his mother to step down from the throne and make way for him
Spencer claims Charles’ frustration at waiting for the throne was so intense that people in his inner circle believed he wanted Queen Elizabeth II to abdicate.
According to Spencer, Charles was increasingly resentful of “being a middle-age man still wanting to reign.” He also alleges the tension spilled into the royal household, with friction developing between Elizabeth’s staff and Charles’ team around the time of Diana’s funeral.
Spencer recalls another revealing exchange involving Charles at their father John’s funeral in 1992, after he died of a heart attack aged 68.
He claims Charles told him he was “lucky” to have inherited his position so young.
“You’re just so lucky—you know, inheriting when you’re so young!” Charles allegedly told him.
Spencer says Charles then launched into an angry complaint about his parents continuing to treat him like a child despite being 43, allegedly stamping his foot to drive the point home.
Diana may have had undiagnosed ADHD
Spencer believes Diana’s childhood struggles with concentration may have been linked to ADHD, a condition he says she was never assessed for.
He points to reports from her school years describing persistent difficulties with attention and learning. As early as kindergarten, one teacher reportedly observed that Diana had a short attention span and struggled to stay focused.
Spencer says the same pattern appeared in later school reports, with teachers repeatedly noting problems with concentration and warning that it “hampers her progress.”
Diana and her brother allegedly endured physical abuse from two childhood nannies
Spencer describes a disturbing part of his and Diana’s childhood, claiming the siblings were subjected to physical abuse by two of their nannies.
He alleges that neither child told their parents, John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer, and Frances Spencer, about what was happening. One nanny allegedly punished them by striking their open palms with a wooden spoon.
But Spencer portrays the second nanny as even more brutal, claiming she would sometimes slam their heads against a concrete wall outside the bathroom adjoining the nursery.
“The result was dizzying, throbbing pain and bewilderment,” he writes.
Despite what he describes as the cruelty they endured, Spencer says neither he nor Diana was “broken by the cruelty”, and that both remained “strong-willed children.”
Diana allegedly lashed out at her father after his secret second marriage
Spencer recalls a bitter family rift over his father’s second marriage, claiming Diana reacted furiously after discovering he had secretly married Raine McCorquodale in 1976.
He says he and Diana had managed to accept their father’s girlfriends following their parents’ 1969 divorce, but the siblings allegedly “intensely disliked” Raine, whom Spencer describes as a “gold-digger.”
According to Spencer, Diana learned of the marriage by reading about it in a newspaper and confronted their father. He claims she slapped him across the face, declaring: “That’s for the pain you’re causing us all.”
Spencer says the family tensions continued after their father suffered a stroke in 1978 and his health declined. He alleges Raine then prevented his children from visiting him, instructing his nurses not to allow them access.
Raine McCorquodale’s second cousin once removed, Neil McCorquodale, married Diana’s eldest sister, Sarah, in 1980 and the couple went on to have three children together.
Diana allegedly found romance with an American politician after her divorce
Spencer hints at an extraordinary chapter in Diana’s post-divorce love life, claiming an unnamed American politician pursued her and saw her as the ultimate trophy wife.
According to Spencer, the “powerful, ageing American suitor” told Diana that marrying her would virtually guarantee his victory in a presidential race.
Spencer says Diana was more intrigued by the prospect of becoming first lady than by the “elderly” politician himself, writing that she was “titillated” by the possibility.
