Earl Spencer stands by Diana memoir as Piers Morgan demands action over disputed claims

Charles Spencer has defended his new memoir about Princess Diana after a factual error concerning Piers Morgan prompted an apology, while Morgan says he is still pursuing legal action over the passage.

The dispute has added another layer of controversy to Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which was published on September 22 and contains a series of deeply personal claims about Diana, her marriage to the then-Prince Charles and the aftermath of her death in 1997.

Spencer says he is “not rattled”

Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine on September 23, Earl Spencer said the backlash surrounding the memoir had not affected him.

“It hasn’t rattled me at all,” he said, while insisting that the book was intended primarily as a tribute to his sister.

Spencer said there had been considerable focus on criticisms he was alleged to have made, but argued that his 350-page account was fundamentally a celebration of Diana from the perspective of her brother.

“As a brother I have every right to write about my sister,” he said, adding that Diana “loved a compliment”.

Spencer also rejected the idea that the memoir was intended as an attack on the Royal Family.

“My job in this book was to celebrate Diana,” he said. “It was impossible to give the full story of Diana’s life without putting in context certain things.”

He added that if he wanted to write a “hit piece” about the Royal Family, he could do so, but said that was not his purpose.

Piers Morgan disputes claims about his role in Diana photographs

One of the most immediate disputes concerns Morgan, who was wrongly linked in the memoir to the publication of intrusive photographs of Diana taken at a gym.

Spencer’s book describes a conversation before Diana’s 1997 funeral in which newspaper editors were allegedly contacted and told they were no longer invited.

He wrote that Morgan, then editor of the Daily Mirror, was the only person who sounded “surly” when Spencer withdrew the invitation.

The memoir then connected Morgan’s reaction to photographs of Diana exercising in a leotard that had been taken using hidden cameras and published by the Sunday Mirror on November 7, 1993.

That connection was incorrect. Morgan has pointed out that he did not join the Daily Mirror until October 1995.

Spencer subsequently acknowledged the mistake and apologised to Morgan. His statement said that, while he continued to stand by his account of the conversation itself, his assumption linking Morgan to the 1993 photographs was wrong.

Morgan says the error is serious

Morgan has rejected Spencer’s apology as sufficient and has said he is pursuing legal action against both the Earl and the book’s publisher, Penguin.

He argues that the disputed passage falsely associates him with what he described as one of the most serious invasions of Diana’s privacy.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Morgan questioned the reliability of other claims in the memoir following Spencer’s admission that the passage about him was inaccurate.

He said the disputed claim was not a minor mistake because it directly accused him of involvement in the publication of the photographs.

Morgan has also called for the offending material to be removed from copies of the book and said any damages he receives would be donated to the King’s Trust.

The dispute has therefore continued despite Spencer’s public apology. Morgan maintains that the account of his reaction during the funeral call is also wrong, while Spencer continues to stand by that part of his recollection.

Spencer continues to defend his account of King Charles

The dispute with Morgan is separate from the much broader controversy surrounding Spencer’s claims about King Charles.

In Swan Song, Spencer recounts events surrounding Diana’s death in Paris in 1997 and the days leading up to her funeral.

Among the most contentious claims is his allegation that King Charles, then Prince Charles, sounded “giddily elated” when Spencer was told about Diana’s death.

Spencer also alleges that Charles told him, “We’ll forget her soon enough,” during a disagreement concerning the funeral procession and whether Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin.

The Earl has stood by those claims.

Asked on Lorraine whether he still supported everything he had written about the King, Spencer said the material had been presented in context and insisted that he had not set out to produce an attack on Charles.

He also accused Buckingham Palace of “gaslighting” him in its response to his recollections.

Buckingham Palace has previously rejected Spencer’s account, saying that “fraternal grief” had clouded his judgment.

The funeral remains a central part of the memoir

Spencer’s account of Diana’s funeral is one of the book’s most emotional sections.

He recalls being deeply affected by the decision to have William and Harry walk behind their mother’s coffin and describes his own opposition to the arrangement.

His account also includes his recollection of conversations with members of the Royal Family in the aftermath of Diana’s death.

Spencer says his final eulogy at Westminster Abbey, including the promise that Diana would never be “extinguished from our minds”, was influenced by what he alleges Charles had told him about Diana eventually being forgotten.

The claims have become a major focus of the controversy surrounding Swan Song, with Buckingham Palace taking the unusual step of responding publicly to Spencer’s allegations.

Spencer says the book was not written with Harry’s involvement

The Earl also rejected suggestions that Swan Song was produced as a book “by committee” or that Prince Harry had been involved in shaping its contents.

Spencer said he discussed the project only with his wife while he was writing it.

He then told Prince Harry, Prince William and his sisters about the book at the same time as the Press.

That account is consistent with Spencer’s later comments that neither of Diana’s sons knew about the memoir before he informed them. He has also described the book as a personal account from a brother’s perspective rather than a coordinated attempt to settle scores with the Royal Family.

A memoir centered on Diana

Despite the controversy, Spencer has repeatedly stressed that Diana is the central subject of the book.

He said the difficult material involving the Royal Family was necessary to tell the story of her life fully.

The memoir, published on September 22, is Spencer’s detailed account of his relationship with Diana, her life in the public eye and the events surrounding her death nearly three decades ago. The publisher describes it as the story of Diana’s life and death told from her brother’s perspective.

Spencer’s defence is that the difficult passages cannot be separated from the wider story of Diana’s life.

“My job in this book was to celebrate Diana,” he said.

At the same time, the memoir’s allegations about King Charles and the dispute with Morgan have ensured that its publication has become a major source of tension around the Royal Family.

For now, Spencer says he stands by the book, apart from the acknowledged error concerning Morgan, while Morgan says the legal dispute will continue.