Nearly three decades after Princess Diana’s death in Paris, her younger brother, Charles Spencer, has released a memoir titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, on September 22, 2026. The explosive book details private conversations, engagement doubts, and royal tensions, immediately prompting a rare and firm rebuttal from Buckingham Palace.
Almost thirty years after the world mourned the Princess of Wales, the disputes surrounding her marriage, tragic death, and historic funeral have returned to center stage. Earl Charles Spencer published his memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, marking the first time he has spoken openly and at length about his famous sister, according to publishing details from Penguin Random House.
Spencer maintained that he felt a duty as an eyewitness to history to place his recollections on the public record. Yet the volume has instantly ignited a war of words with the British monarchy, drawing a swift, pointed rebuke from the royal household that broke with its usual tradition of silence.
Funeral Arguments and Buckingham Palace’s Rare Rebuke
Among the most explosive claims in the memoir is an alleged telephone argument between Spencer and then-Prince Charles while arrangements were being finalized for Diana’s September 1997 funeral. Spencer strongly objected to Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, 12, being required to walk behind their mother’s coffin.
According to his account, when a senior aide to Queen Elizabeth told him that Prince William, 15 at the time, and 12-year-old Prince Harry would take part in Princess Diana’s funeral procession, he replied, That's not going to happen.
He alleges that minutes later Charles called to discuss the matter, noting he had walked in the procession for his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten in 1979. When Spencer said Charles was 30 years old at the time, the prince allegedly “went nuts. Charles, whose divorce with Diana was finalized in 1996,
unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death,Spencer wrote. Spencer allegedly responded,
I can’t believe you just said that,” and hung up.
The discussion turned heated before Charles allegedly asserted that Diana would be forgotten soon enough. Speaking to the BBC, Spencer insisted that those were exactly the words the prince said, adding that he recounted the exchange to relatives and friends immediately afterward because he considered it extraordinary.
Buckingham Palace issued a strongly worded statement in response, noting that His Majesty remains mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss, as reported by the Associated Press and outlets reaching the Palace.
“Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”
Earl Charles Spencer, speaking to the BBC
Doubts Before the Wedding and Troubled History
The memoir also looks back at the months before Diana married Charles in a lavish ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. Spencer writes that his sister tried to break off her engagement after discovering that Charles had bought a bracelet for Camilla Parker Bowles. Diana also attempted to back out of the wedding entirely after feeling ignored by her fiancé at a belated birthday celebration for Prince Andrew.
When Diana approached their father to declare she could not marry a man who did not love her, her father was appalled and said it was impossible to pull out of such an enormous commitment at that advanced stage. Spencer further writes that Diana told a close friend Charles informed her shortly before the ceremony that although he was happy to marry her, he was not actually in love with her. During the same period, Spencer reveals, Diana experienced suicidal thoughts and more than once drove to the chalk cliffs at Beachy Head on England’s south coast to consider ending her life.
The release of the book has drawn mixed reactions from the public and critics alike. In central London, the 28-pound hardback was displayed prominently in shop windows, though initial sales were not brisk and some stores offered it at half price. Mary Scheible, a retired pharmacist visiting from Atlanta who was married the same year as Charles and Diana, purchased a copy, noting she wanted to hear her brother’s perspective on the story.
Literary Reception and the Upcoming Anniversary
Critical reception in Britain has proved sharp. The Telegraph awarded the book two out of five stars, panning it as a monument to Spencer’s ego rather than an intimate portrait of his sister. Meanwhile, The Times of London observed that the memoir expands far beyond defending Diana, launching a Shakespearean blood feud between two aristocratic houses in a Montague-versus-Capulet drama.
Spencer was motivated to complete the project with August 2027 marking the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel crash in Paris alongside Dodi Al-Fayed. Penguin Press noted in an August 20 release that the author aimed to speak on his sister’s behalf to counteract untruths that have become accepted over time.
The book’s distribution faced its own logistical hurdles when Penguin Random House confirmed that four copies were stolen from a parked truck in the Netherlands while en route from the printer to a warehouse. As serialization in the Daily Mail continues alongside public debate, readers and royal watchers will monitor whether further excerpts emerge ahead of the memoir’s wider reception.