King Charles III said to have "sounded like a lottery winner" after Diana's death, book excerpts say
Excerpts from Charles Spencer's forthcoming book say the then‑prince sounded "delighted" after Diana's 1997 death; the palace says grief can colour memory.
New excerpts from a forthcoming book by Charles Spencer claim that King Charles III "sounded like a lottery winner" immediately after the 1997 death of his first wife, Diana. Spencer writes that the then‑prince appeared "delighted" at the time, a reaction Spencer suggests reflected the belief that the tragedy might free Charles to remarry.
Spencer's portrayal and a palace response
Spencer recounts speaking with Charles shortly after Diana's death and contrasts the king's behaviour with the shocked, grieving calls he received from others. "Unlike others who called me and were shocked, could barely articulate their sympathies and offered help, he sounded stunnedly delighted, like a lottery winner; I remember thinking that at the time. Looking back now, I suppose the prince's first reaction was that this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than to mourn the loss of the one he did not love," Spencer writes.
The book also includes passages in which Spencer says Diana visited places on England's south coast known for suicides, but that her love for her sons, William and Harry, "stopped her from going further." "It is a sad fact that, in later years, Diana drove more than once to Beachy Head, England's highest cliff, while contemplating ending it all," he writes.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. A year earlier Diana told the BBC: "there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," a remark widely understood as referring to Charles's relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he later married in 2005.
Buckingham Palace issued a measured reply after the first extracts were published, saying through a spokesperson: "While as a matter of principle we do not comment on books, His Majesty is aware that the pain of bereavement can cloud the mind, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."
Photo: DPA)
