A new memoir from Earl Spencer is bringing one of the royal family’s most painful chapters right back into the spotlight. In“Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,”Diana’s brother claims that King Charles told him, during a phone call after Diana’s death in 1997,“Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!”Spencer also alleges Charles showed“pent-up contempt for Diana”and was horrified by how deeply the world mourned her. According to Spencer, he told Charles“I can’t believe you just said that”and hung up. Buckingham Palace declined to comment when Page Six reached out.
If the claim sounds familiar, that’s because this era of royal history never really leaves the conversation. Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997, and the global outpouring of grief that followed became its own cultural moment — flowers stacked outside Kensington Palace, Elton John rewriting“Candle in the Wind,”and a monarchy suddenly forced to answer for how it treated the woman who had been, for years, the most famous person in the world.
Nearly three decades later, Diana is still very much present. Her style gets recreated on TikTok, her interviews get clipped and rewatched, and her sons keep her charity work alive. So a claim that she’d be forgotten“soon enough”lands with a heavy dose of irony. Whether the palace ever responds or not, this one is going to keep buzzing for a while. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Princess Diana?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.