A new book by Charles Spencer, the younger brother of the late Princess Diana, went on sale Tuesday, making headlines around the world with damning allegations about Diana's former husband, now King Charles III.
The book, titled "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," is published globally by Penguin and has been translated into 12 languages.
Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, has long clashed with the royal House of Windsor over its treatment of his sister. The memoir triggered a royal row even before it went on sale, after pre-published extracts drew a rare public rebuttal from the king.
Among the most striking claims, Spencer alleges he argued with the then-Prince Charles over palace plans for Princes William and Harry to walk behind their mother's coffin during her 1997 funeral procession. William was 15 at the time and Harry was 12.
Spencer says he told Charles that Diana would not have wanted her sons to undergo the ordeal. He claims the prince "went ballistic" during the argument and told him: "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."
Spencer also accuses Charles of sounding "giddily elated" and "like a lottery winner" when he called him following Diana's death, and of having "contempt" for his ex-wife.
In the book, Spencer also reflects on the aftermath of the funeral for the young Harry, describing him as looking "tiny, and slight, and bereft." He wrote: "He needed Diana's hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him. But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control."
Spencer said he wrote the memoir to set down his own thoughts and memories about Diana "once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths."
Following the release of excerpts last week, Buckingham Palace responded with a strongly worded statement, considered rare by the measured standards of the royal household.
"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," the statement read.
Spencer has stood by his claims, insisting he is telling the truth. Responding to the palace's statement, he asked: "Is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?"
When asked whether the press treatment of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan mirrors the way the media treated Diana, Spencer said: "(Diana) was really brought low by all that criticism. I suppose it's a pity when I see echoes of that now."
Charles, then 32, married 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer in a lavish ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1981. The couple divorced in 1996. Diana died a year later, aged 36, in a car crash in Paris while being pursued by paparazzi. Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.
At Diana's funeral, Spencer delivered a searing eulogy in which he vowed that her "blood family" would carry on her "imaginative and loving" legacy in raising her two sons. The speech was widely regarded as a pointed rebuke to the royal family.
Some critics have questioned why Spencer felt the need to revisit the pain and trauma some 30 years on. The aristocrat said he wanted to record his own account of his sister's life and death definitively.
