Piers Morgan has threatened legal action against Earl Spencer and the publishers of his new memoir after disputing claims about his involvement in the publication of photographs of Princess Diana.

The dispute centres on a passage in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which was released on Tuesday, September 22, and in which Spencer recounts his efforts to keep newspaper editors away from Diana’s funeral in 1997.

Morgan says Spencer’s account contains a fundamental error: the photographs at the heart of the allegation were published nearly two years before Morgan joined the Daily Mirror.

Morgan disputes Spencer’s account of the 1993 photographs

In his memoir, Earl Charles Spencer describes contacting tabloid editors before Diana’s funeral to withdraw their invitations, following years of intense press attention surrounding his sister.

According to Spencer’s account, Morgan was among those he contacted. Spencer recalls Morgan as being particularly unhappy when told he would not be attending the funeral, writing that he “snarled with annoyance” before ending the call.

Spencer also suggested that Morgan’s reaction may have been connected to photographs of Diana exercising in a gym that were published in the Sunday Mirror four years before her death.

The photographs, taken while Diana was wearing a leotard, had previously become a major controversy because they were taken secretly at a London gym. The episode was one of several instances of intense press intrusion into Diana’s private life.

Spencer’s memoir links Morgan to the publication of those photographs and suggests that he may have felt guilt over them.

Morgan strongly rejects that account.

Piers Morgan says the timeline does not add up

Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the broadcaster argued that the dates surrounding the photographs directly contradict Spencer’s version of events.

The Sunday Mirror published the gym photographs on November 7, 1993. Morgan says he did not join the Daily Mirror until October 1995.

At the time the photographs appeared, he says, he was working on a showbusiness column for The Sun, the Daily Mirror’s rival newspaper.

Morgan therefore argues that he could not have been responsible for the Mirror‘s publication of the photographs.

He described Spencer’s account as “bullshit” and said the error was particularly significant because it concerned basic facts about his own career.

“The photographs which he says that I published were printed by the Sunday Mirror on November 7, 1993. I joined the Daily Mirror in October in 1995.”

Morgan went on to say that he was working for The Sun when the photographs appeared, placing him away from the Daily Mirror and its coverage of the story.

Morgan questions the wider contents of the memoir

Morgan also questioned what the disputed passage means for the credibility of the rest of Spencer’s book.

“If Earl Spencer can be so incredibly, defamatorily wrong about such basic facts involving me,” Morgan said, he questioned “why should we believe anything else he puts in this book?”

The disagreement comes as Swan Song: Diana, My Sister receives considerable attention for Spencer’s account of his sister’s life, her marriage to the future King Charles and the events surrounding her death in 1997.

The 384-page memoir, published by Penguin Books, focuses on Spencer’s personal memories of Diana and the final week of her life.

Other sections of the book have already prompted controversy, particularly Spencer’s recollections of King Charles following Diana’s death.

Spencer claims that Charles appeared unusually elated after the crash and recalls him saying that people would “forget her soon enough”. Buckingham Palace has responded by noting that grief can affect memory and judgment.

Legal action now threatened

Morgan has gone beyond publicly challenging Spencer’s version of events and says his lawyers will become involved.

During his programme, he said Earl Spencer and the book’s publishers would be hearing from his lawyers. Morgan wants the passages concerning him and the photographs removed from the book.

He also said he wanted a donation made to the King’s Trust, arguing that the alleged falsehood had caused damage.

Morgan had already announced on social media that he was taking legal action against Spencer and his publishers over what he described as “demonstrable lies” in the memoir.

The dispute therefore centres on two separate accounts of the same period: Spencer’s recollection of contacting newspaper editors before Diana’s funeral and Morgan’s account of where he was working when the controversial gym photographs were published.

The dates cited by Morgan are central to his challenge. The photographs appeared in the Sunday Mirror on November 7, 1993, while he says he joined the Daily Mirror in October 1995.

Swan Song is now officially released

Earl Spencer’s memoir was released in full on September 22, bringing to publication an account he has described as his own memories and perspective on Diana.

In the book, Spencer revisits their childhood together, Diana’s marriage and the circumstances surrounding her death. He has also addressed the intense media attention that surrounded his sister during her lifetime and his concerns about the treatment of her memory after her death.

The Morgan dispute adds another contentious episode to a memoir that has already reopened arguments surrounding Diana, the Royal Family and the press.

As of the book’s release, a representative for Earl Charles Spencer had been contacted for comment on Morgan’s threatened legal action.