Earl Spencer said he was gaslit by King Charles III over comments made after Diana, Princess of Wales died. The accusation is back on Sunday front pages as the book he is preparing on Diana moves into view, and Buckingham Palace has answered by saying fraternal grief could colour memory.
Spencer also denied that he is writing the memoir for money. He said Diana would be cheering from the rafters at the book, a line that places the publication squarely in the frame of family memory rather than a commercial exercise.
Buckingham Palace and memory
The response from Buckingham Palace draws a direct line between grief and recollection. By saying fraternal grief could colour memory, it challenged the certainty of Spencer’s account without addressing the specific comments he says were made after Diana’s death.
That leaves the dispute centered on a narrow factual question: what, exactly, was said, and how should it be read more than two decades later. Spencer’s accusation turns on the meaning of those remarks, not on a general disagreement about Diana’s legacy.
Sunday front pages
The Mail on Sunday ran the headline, “It's not every day you get gaslit by the King,” putting Spencer’s complaint at the front of the weekend coverage. The story then moved into other Sunday front-page items, including a separate report that unnamed friends of the King called Spencer a hypocrite who is peddling Diana's privacy.
The same front pages also carried unrelated stories about Christian Brueckner, Kemi Badenoch, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Wayne Rooney, Nkechi Simms, Neil “Razor” Ruddock, illegal knives and Vijay Rangarajan. Those items sit beside Spencer’s claims in the coverage, but the immediate issue for readers is the argument over what was said after Diana died and how Spencer says it will be addressed in print.
Diana's book
Spencer’s book about Diana is due to be published, but no date has been given in the facts available here. For readers following the dispute, the next development is the book itself: it is the platform on which Spencer is laying out his account, and the place where the gap between his version and Buckingham Palace’s statement will be tested again.
