5 explosive claims in new book by Princess Diana’s brother

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Only a few extracts from a new book by Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, have published so far. But they have sparked a firestorm for Britain’s royal family , dredging up painful memories of Diana’s unhappy marriage to King Charles III, and provoking a rare, forceful rebuke from Buckingham Palace.

“While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, 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,” a palace spokesperson said in a statement.

CNN has not seen the book “Swan Song” ahead of its publication, but a spokesperson for Penguin Random House has confirmed the passages quoted by the Daily Mail , which is exclusively publishing excerpts from the book, are accurate.

These extracts contain several revelations about Charles and Diana’s marriage, as well as the then-Prince of Wales’ reaction to her death.

Here’s what you need to know about the book before its release next week:

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Perhaps the most incendiary allegations in these extracts are Spencer’s memories of how Charles reacted to Diana’s death.

He details that fraught night on August 31, 1997, tracing the moment from when news first emerged of Diana’s fatal car crash in Paris, his frequent phone calls with his sister Jane, to when he rang his former brother-in-law after learning Diana had died.

In that call, Spencer says Charles “sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner.”

“Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not,” Spencer claimed.

During a later call between the two men, as they argued whether Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin at her funeral, Spencer says Charles unleashed “a stream of anger,” before briefly stopping.

“I assumed the pause signaled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he 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.

“‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’ ” Spencer wrote. “ ‘I can’t believe you just said that,’ I said flatly, before hanging up.”

Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

Spencer also details his perception of his sister’s unhappy relationship with the then-Prince of Wales, and even claims that Diana tried to break off the engagement after Charles had “shown next to no interest in her” at his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 21st birthday party.

“Immediately after that evening of escalating heartbreak, Diana went to see my father,” Spencer wrote. “She told him she could not go through with marriage to a man who clearly did not love her.” Her father refused to allow Diana to break the engagement, Spencer said.

That incident came shortly after Diana had found a bracelet Charles bought for his now-wife Queen Camilla, Spencer claimed.

And on the day before their wedding, Charles told Diana “she needed to know that he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her,” Spencer wrote, citing a story his sister had told a “close friend.”

Just days after the couple’s engagement announcement, Spencer claims Charles squeezed Diana’s waist and said, “Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?”

Diana, who suffered from bulimia, found that comment “devastating,” Spencer said.

“She would later share with me that her waist shrank from 29 to 23½ inches between her engagement and her marriage,” Spencer wrote.

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On the day of Diana’s funeral, Queen Elizabeth II offered to restore the “HRH” title she had lost following her divorce to Charles, Spencer claimed.

The letters, which stand for “His or Her Royal Highness,” are used to denote specific senior royals. The late Queen had declared a year before the tragedy that the HRH style would be taken away in the event of a divorce – as was the case for Diana and Sarah Ferguson following her divorce from then-Prince Andrew.

Spencer said Diana was “dreadfully hurt” by the “petty and vindictive” removal of that title, and he decided to reject Elizabeth’s “well-meaning” offer as a “consolation prize.”

“I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award,” he wrote, recalling a conversation he had with the Queen’s private secretary, Robert Fellowes. “That’s very kind of the Queen, of course. But what’s the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana’s dead.”

CNN’s Lauren Kent and Billy Stockwell contributed reporting

乔治·德克尔/赫尔顿档案馆/盖蒂图片社

目前仅公布了戴安娜王妃的弟弟查尔斯·斯宾塞伯爵新书的部分节选，但这些节选已在英国王室引发轩然大波，唤起了人们对戴安娜与查理三世国王不幸婚姻的痛苦回忆，并招致白金汉宫罕见的强硬谴责。

“虽然我们原则上不对书籍发表评论，但陛下深知，兄弟相残的痛苦会蒙蔽理智，影响判断，并以他人无法察觉的方式扭曲记忆，即使在失去亲人多年之后也是如此，”王室发言人在一份声明中表示。

CNN在《天鹅之歌》出版前尚未看过这本书，但企鹅兰登书屋的一位发言人证实，《每日邮报》（独家刊登了该书的节选）引用的段落是准确的。

这些摘录包含了有关查尔斯和戴安娜婚姻的几项爆料，以及当时的威尔士亲王对她去世的反应。

以下是本书下周发行前你需要了解的信息：

Jayne Fincher/戴安娜王妃档案馆/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

这些摘录中最具争议的指控或许是斯宾塞对查尔斯对戴安娜去世的反应的回忆。

他详细描述了 1997 年 8 月 31 日那个令人焦虑的夜晚，追溯了从戴安娜在巴黎遭遇致命车祸的消息传出，到他与妹妹简频繁通话，再到得知戴安娜去世后打电话给他以前的姐夫的整个过程。

斯宾塞说，在那通电话中，查尔斯“听起来欣喜若狂——就像中了彩票一样”。

斯宾塞声称：“现在回想起来，我怀疑王子当时的第一反应一定是更多地考虑这件事如何能让他自由地娶他所爱的女人，而不是珍惜失去一个他不爱的女人。”

在两人后来的一次通话中，当他们争论威廉王子和哈里王子是否应该在母亲的葬礼上走在棺材后面时，斯宾塞说查尔斯“怒火中烧”，然后短暂地停了下来。

“我以为他停顿了一下，是为了让自己冷静下来，但随后他对着电话发泄了我一直认为是他对戴安娜积压已久的蔑视，以及他对全世界因她的死而如此震惊的恐惧，”斯宾塞写道。

“‘放心吧，’他嘶嘶地说，‘我们很快就会忘记她！’”斯宾塞写道。“‘我简直不敢相信你刚才会说出这种话，’我冷冷地说完，就挂断了电话。”

Jayne Fincher/戴安娜王妃档案馆/Getty Images

斯宾塞还详细描述了他对姐姐与当时的威尔士亲王之间不愉快关系的看法，甚至声称，在查尔斯王子的弟弟安德鲁·蒙巴顿-温莎的 21 岁生日派对上，查尔斯对戴安娜“几乎没有表现出任何兴趣”，之后戴安娜试图解除婚约。

“在那晚痛苦不断升级之后，戴安娜立刻去找了我的父亲，”斯宾塞写道。“她告诉他，她无法嫁给一个显然不爱她的男人。”斯宾塞说，她的父亲拒绝让戴安娜解除婚约。

斯宾塞声称，那件事发生在戴安娜发现查尔斯为他现在的妻子卡米拉王后买的一条手链之后不久。

斯宾塞写道，在婚礼前一天，查尔斯告诉戴安娜，“她需要知道他很高兴娶她，但他实际上并不爱她”，斯宾塞引用了他姐姐告诉一位“密友”的故事。

就在这对夫妇宣布订婚几天后，斯宾塞声称查尔斯捏了捏戴安娜的腰，说道：“哦，这里有点胖，不是吗？”

斯宾塞说，患有暴食症的戴安娜觉得这番话“令人崩溃”。

斯宾塞写道：“她后来告诉我，从订婚到结婚，她的腰围从 29 英寸缩减到了 23.5 英寸。”

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斯宾塞声称，在戴安娜王妃的葬礼当天，伊丽莎白二世女王提出恢复她因与查尔斯离婚而失去的“殿下”头衔。

这些字母代表“殿下”，用于指代特定的王室高级成员。已故女王在悲剧发生前一年曾宣布，如果王室成员离婚，将取消“殿下”的尊称——戴安娜王妃和莎拉·弗格森在莎拉与当时的安德鲁王子离婚后就失去了这一头衔。

斯宾塞表示，戴安娜对“卑鄙且带有报复性”的剥夺王位称号的行为感到“非常伤心”，因此他决定拒绝伊丽莎白“出于好意”的“安慰奖”。

“我感觉自己凭直觉就知道她会如何看待这项追授的奖项，”他写道，回忆起与女王私人秘书罗伯特·费洛斯的一次谈话。“女王当然非常仁慈。但罗伯特，现在颁这个奖有什么意义呢？我的意思是——戴安娜已经去世了。”

CNN的劳伦·肯特和比利·斯托克韦尔对此报道亦有贡献。