Earl Spencer's Diana book opens old wounds royals would rather forget - BBC News

Earl Spencer’s memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister reveals ongoing tensions within the royal family stemming from Diana’s death, including alleged callsous reactions and strained relationships with Charles and Camilla, provoking Buckingham Palace to publicly dispute some claims. The book, coming on the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death, risks reopening painful wounds and complicating the royals’ efforts to rehabilitate their public image.

# Earl Spencer's Diana book opens old wounds royals would rather forget - BBC News Published: 2026-09-18T23:05:58.120000+00:00 Source: bbc.co.uk (bbc.co.uk) Language: en ## Story Earl Spencer's Diana book opens old wounds royals would rather forget - BBC News # Earl Spencer's Diana book opens old wounds royals would rather forget Image source, Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images By Sean Coughlan Royal correspondent 1 hour ago The legacy of the shocking death of Diana, Princess of Wales, is still the rawest of wounds for the royals, as demonstrated by the no-holds-barred memoir from her brother Earl Spencer. It might be almost 30 years ago, but Buckingham Palace's unusually angry rebuttal to the book's allegations of a callous response to his ex-wife's death from the then Prince Charles shows how much this still matters. That late summer in 1997 was a moment when the Royal Family looked out of touch, lacking in empathy for Diana's loss, and at peril of losing public support, as people laid siege to the palaces with flowers. While the royals dealt with their own private grief, they were also facing a reputational disaster, at risk of becoming the focus of public dismay at the sudden death of the "People's Princess" in a car crash in Paris. Image source, Liba Taylor/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Image caption, An outpouring of public grief saw flowers laid outside palaces and Diana's homes "It was a very febrile mood. Everyone was taken by surprise by the strength of feeling, and the strength to which the Royal Family was unpopular. The palaces were deemed…

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