Earl Spencer claims late Queen responded 'tetchily' to Diana crash - as he doubles down on call with Charles

Earl Spencer has doubled down on the explosive claims he makes in his upcoming memoir about the King's behaviour after the death of his sister, Princess Diana.

The allegations were made in the book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail - and is due to be published next week.

In an excerpt from the book about the events following his sister's deadly car crash in 1997, the earl claims that the King told him "we'll forget her soon enough", which Buckingham Palace responded to with an unusually punchy public statement.

In an interview published on Friday, Earl Spencer insisted, however, that he was "telling the truth" about the phone call.

"I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said," Earl Spencer told the BBC, adding he had only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles.

"I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now," the earl said.

"Genuinely, that is what he said. I don't hear him saying he didn't say that."

Royals latest: Diana's brother's new claims

Earl Spencer also shared new details from the call, saying the King went "ballistic" and accused his family of lacking a sense of duty after the earl insisted Prince William and Prince Harry should not walk behind their mother's coffin during the funeral procession.

The King then "stopped", the earl added, which made him think he was going to "pull himself together and say something more appropriate".

But it was then that the King said Diana would be forgotten "soon enough", according to the earl.

Earl Spencer added: "I really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, 'I cannot believe you just said that', and I hung up on him."

On Wednesday, after the first excerpts were published, the Palace said in a statement: "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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."

Regarding the King's reaction, the earl said: "Is he furious or is he embarrassed?"

"They've sort of smudged that one, haven't they?" he said. "They've said that recollections may vary."

Asked whether he has "evidence" of the King's comments, the earl said: "I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous."

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In an excerpt from the memoir published on Friday, the earl revealed he was "concerned" over the well-being of his nephew during and after Diana's funeral.

The princess's brother said he worried about the "lack of obvious care" for the 12-year-old who, he said, "needed Diana's hugs... and they would forever be denied him".

Instead, the prince was "allowed to spin out of control", Earl Spencer added, writing that "a more caring hand" might have helped him cope while growing up.

"I could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft, Harry looked," the earl said.

"Too small to be doing this, I thought, and wondered how on earth this heartbroken child could bear the ordeal of that moment, or how he could possibly be expected to deal with the agony that the day ahead would insist upon."

Diana's brother also shared what he said was the late Queen's first reaction to Diana's traffic accident in Paris: "When the Queen had heard the first news of Diana's being in a traffic accident, she had asked, 'What is she up to now?'

"This, before the seriousness of it all became clear."

After Diana's death, Queen Elizabeth had, however, offered via her private secretary to give Diana her HRH style back, the earl adds, in a part that was reported before the publication of the full excerpt.

Sky News has asked the Palace for a response to the full excerpt.

Five days after Diana's death in Paris on 31 August 1997, the Queen paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast, saying no one who knew the princess would ever forget her.

Earl Spencer's revelations have, however, been questioned.

"Those comments just do not, and I promise you, do not add up. It absolutely does not make sense," Grant Harrold, who worked for Charles while he was the Prince of Wales, told Sky News.

Mr Harrold said, in his opinion, the claims have "more to do with selling books".

Sky News' royal correspondent Laura Bundock said the revelations pose a greater risk to the King than Earl Spencer at a time when the Royal Family has come under increased scrutiny.

Bundock said the claims constituted "blistering broadsides" and may "reignite one of the most traumatic and damaging episodes in recent royal history".

Since Harry and his wife, Meghan, returned to the UK last month, they have been involved in a public feud with the Palace about their status. Their children have moved schools after issues were raised by their security team.

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