Earl Spencer has accused King Charles of gaslighting him after Buckingham Palace pushed back against explosive claims made in a new memoir about his late sister Diana.
A PR battle is brewing over the book following claims by Spencer that Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” shortly after the Princess of Wales’s death.
Buckingham Palace hit back with a statement claiming that grief can “cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory”.
Everything you need to know about the Russian elections
The pro-Putin ruling United Russia party retained its decisive majority in the national parliament, near-complete election results showed on Monday, while the anti-war Yabloko party appeared to have won a tiny foothold in one regional parliament.
The background
- Vladimir Putin had cast the three-day election to the State Duma – the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 – as a test of support for the war.
- Elections for some regional parliaments and governors were held at the same time.
- In a tightly controlled political system, which critics say does not tolerate genuine dissent, few surprises were expected.
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A closer look at the results
With over 95 per cent of the vote counted, Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission, said United Russia had won a resounding victory with 57.83 per cent, up from the 49.8 per cent that it won in the last parliamentary election, in 2021.
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What else you need to know
- United Russia was set to control 355 seats or nearly 80 per cent of the 450-seat Duma, a total that includes results in individual constituencies.
- That would maintain its constitutional majority – enabling it to pass laws and initiate amendments to the constitution without support of other parties.
- Pamfilova said three other parties had made it into parliament – the Communists with 13.81 per cent, the ultra-nationalist LDPR with 8.98 per cent, and the New People party with 7.96 per cent.
read the i paper’s latest analysis
What Putin’s paranoia will lead him to do next
“Stalin knew how to run Russia and how to get respect. Vladimir Putin could learn something from him.”
The BBC has removed several sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look on iPlayer after deciding some of the comedy show’s material “no longer works today”.
Controversial material removed
The sketch comedy show, starring comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb, originally ran for four seasons between 2006 and 2010.
However, some material has been removed, including scenes featuring war re-enactors in Blackface, a joke about Jimmy Savile and a sketch about a contestant on a makeover show wearing a burka, reported.
What did the BBC say?
This is a 20-year-old sketch ; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones still work today not the ones don’t.
bbc spokesperson
Flights disrupted across north of UK – what you need to know
Flights across the UK – particularly Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England – are facing disruption due to a “technical issue” with air traffic control.
Here is everything you need to know – including the airports affected.
What caused the problem?
Nats, which runs air traffic control, has said the issue at its Prestwick centre in Ayrshire is “now fixed”, and that it is working to “safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can”. It said the glitch was a “connectivity issue with part of our systems network”.
Second failure in two weeks
This is the second failure at Nats in less than a fortnight.
But it said this most recent disruption has “nothing to do” with the software defect that led to the cancellation of 2,000 flights across the UK earlier this month.
EasyJet said this “once again calls into questions the resilience of Nats’ systems”.
Airports report disruption
Airports across the UK have reported varying degrees of disruption. They include:
- and – Arrivals and departures.
- – Issue causing some delays.
- – Experiencing “some delays”.
- – Urging passengers to contact their airline.
- – Experiencing some delays and cancellations similar to other airports.
- – Experiencing “some disruption” and “working closely” with Nats to resolve the issue.
- – Warns that there “will be disruption” to both arrivals and departures.
Cindy Crawford’s son Presley Gerber dies in rehab aged 27
Presley Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, has died at the age of 27.
The former model died on Sunday at a rehab facility, according to the Los Angeles county medical examiner. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
A closer look at the detail
Gerber, who was the eldest child of the celebrity couple, and brother of model Kaia Gerber, had spoken openly about his mental health and drug use in recent years.
His sister mentioned his “decade-long struggle with drug addiction” in the September 2026 issue of .
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Mental health struggles
Having struggled with mental health, depression and some other things that come along with that, I think that whether I help one person or a hundred people get out of that place that I was in at one point in my life, that’s all I need to do.
Speaking to podcast in 2023, Gerber hoped that sharing his story would help others suffering with mental health issues.
Life in the limelight
- Gerber had been a model like his mother and younger sister Kaia, making his runway debut for Italian label Moschino aged just 16.
- He went on to model for brands including Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and Bottega Veneta.
- Gerber posted a video about undergoing drug withdrawal treatment in the months before his death, though the cause of his death was not disclosed.
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Family asks for privacy
- Allie Jenkins, a representative for Crawford and her husband Rande Gerber, told : “The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time.”
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Badenoch pledges to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists
Kemi Badenoch has promised to revive a tax-free shopping scheme for tourists by reversing a post-Brexit rule change.
The decision to scrap the VAT refund scheme for international visitors in 2021 left the UK “less competitive” than many other European holiday destinations as the country left the EU, the Tories said.
Business chiefs hail ‘pro-growth’ policy change
Badenoch said the policy was letting down businesses.
Business chiefs, including the bosses of Fortnum & Mason and Paul Smith, hailed the policy change as “pro-growth” and “pro-jobs”.
Losing out to ‘rival cities’
We have iconic retailers, inventive designers and brilliant manufacturers, but they are being let down by a tax policy that is chasing their customers away. Holidaymakers are choosing rival cities in other countries for the simple reason that it saves them money.
Kemi badenoch, lEADER OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY
A closer look at the detail
- Spending by visitors remains 8 per cent lower than before the pandemic – despite numbers returning to pre-Covid levels, according to 2024 estimates from tourism agency VisitBritain.
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Treasury: ‘UK visitors can claim VAT’
Almost every European country offers tax-free shopping for tourists, except the UK – although the minimum spend varies.
A Treasury spokesperson said “visitors can still claim VAT relief where the items purchased are shipped directly to their home country as exports” and that it is working to “welcome 50 million international visitors a year to the UK by 2030”.
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All the latest Earl Spencer revelations as royal row continues
A war of words has broken out after Earl Spencer made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir about his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is due to be published on Tuesday. Here are some key claims made in excerpts from the book released so far.
‘We’ll forget her soon enough’
Spencer claims he and Charles argued over arrangements for his sister’s funeral in 1997 and the King told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough”.
Spencer has also said he believes the relationship between the press and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “echoes” the way the media treated his sister.
Other key claims made
- Spencer has written of how Charles’s phone call following the car crash in 1997 “sounded strangely matter-of-fact”.
- “[Charles] sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time,” Spencer writes.
- In another extract, Spencer told of his memories of the funeral, and his concern for Harry, after he observed a “lack of obvious care”.
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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.
Buckingham Palace spokesman
King accused of gaslighting
Spencer has accused the King of gaslighting him and called his response a “rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote” – the late Queen’s response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s allegations in their Oprah Winfrey interview, The Mail on Sunday reports.
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Watch more from The i Paper
Diana’s brother said that response was “below the belt”, telling the BBC: “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King.”
Will Spencer’s claims hurt Charles’s public standing? With the help of royal commentators and PR experts, The i Paper assessed the most potentially damaging allegations.
Lauren Beeching, a crisis communications specialist, pointed out that “none of us” could know what was said between Spencer and Charles in private. Yet some of the earl’s claims could still be “reputationally difficult” for the King, she added.
Claim: Charles had ‘giddy’ tone after Diana’s death
Charles sounded “giddily elated – like a lottery winner” on a phone call with Earl Spencer after Diana’s death, the Earl alleged in his book.
“I felt there was a sort of giddy tone,” he told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Dai Davies, head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command between 1994 and 1998, said Spencer’s memory of the phone call “could be suspect”.
He added: “Speaking to protection officers at the time, the impression was that Charles was totally devastated. But unfortunately, some people might listen to [the claim]. It won’t do Charles and the Royal Family any good.”
Some people will accept the Palace’s argument that grief “colours” memory, said royal correspondent Richard Fitzwilliams. “But it could be potentially damaging, because of how cherished Diana is,” he added.
Beeching pointed out that “none of us” could know what was said on the phone call. Yet the claim could still be “reputationally difficult” for Charles, she added.
“A disputed sentence can be denied,” said the PR expert. “Describing someone’s tone creates an impression of their emotional state, and that is much harder to unpick once it is in somebody’s head.”
Claim: Charles said ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’
The then prince of Wales was angered about Spencer’s objection to William and Harry walking behind Diana’s coffin at the funeral procession, the Earl also alleged.
Spencer claimed that the King said to him over the phone: “We’ll forget her [Diana] soon enough.”
Fitzwilliams said it was possible that the alleged phrase “could stick for some people” and was potentially damaging, regardless of its truth. “It could genuinely anger some people,” he added.
“Diana is still part of the popular imagination, an icon, with a unique blend of magic for many people. So what will young people think? That’s the test for Charles and the Palace.”
However, Fitzwilliams added: “Clearly Earl Spencer loathes Charles and wants some kind of revenge. It doesn’t mean everything is made up. But I think people will see it as a deliberate attack, so will take that into account.”
Davies said he did not think Charles “would have said something so callous to someone he didn’t know very well”, adding: “A lot of people will take it with a pinch of salt.”
Claim: Diana said Charles ‘in love with valet’
Diana made a sensational suggestion of her own when explaining to her brother why she wanted a divorce, Spencer claims in his book. The Princess of Wales allegedly told him that “my husband is in love with his valet”.
The experts are scathing about this one – arguing that the claim undermines Spencer’s credibility. They dismissed the idea that it could cause any PR problems for the King.
“That sort of claim is rubbish, there’s no basis for it,” said Fitzwilliams. “It was a bad mistake to include something silly and sensationalist like that, because it weakens his claims.”
Beeching added: “If people start asking, ‘How could he possibly prove that?’ they may start asking the same question about everything else in the book.” Davies said: “I regard it as total salacious. It undermines his credibility to include a claim like that.”
Claim: there was a ‘lack of obvious care’ for Harry
Spencer said he was worried about the “lack of obvious care” for Prince Harry, then 12, in the aftermath of Diana’s death.
“He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him,” he wrote. “But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”
Fitzwilliams said the claim fitted with “the picture Harry has already painted” that he had not been properly supported by the family. “But I think the public is used to that, so I don’t think it will cause any eyebrows to be raised.”
However, Beeching said it could be potentially damaging because it “overlaps with an account the public has already heard from Harry himself: “From a reputational perspective, when two people give accounts which appear to overlap, each can make the other feel more credible to the public.”
Claim: Queen reacted ‘tetchily’ to Diana crash
In his book, Spencer also makes a claims about Queen Elizabeth II. “When the Queen had heard the first news of Diana’s being in a traffic accident, she had asked tetchily, ‘What is she up to now?’” he wrote. “This, before the seriousness of it all became clear.”
The royal experts are dismissive of such a claim. “It’s not corroborated,” said Davies. “It’s totally unnecessary gossip to claim something like that.”
Fitzwilliams added: “It just doesn’t seem like a claim like this was worth making. I don’t think it would change anyone’s view of her [the late Queen].”
He said he did not think Spencer’s allegations would prove “especially damaging to support for the monarchy”.
Beeching advised the Palace to keep quiet and suggested that a “prolonged” dispute with Diana’s brother was “very unlikely to be a communications battle the Palace benefits from”.
Spencer defends his claims
Spencer, responding to the Palace’s pushback on his claims about what Charles said to him after Diana’s death, told the BBC: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
He said he had only ever had two phone call with Charles in his life. “I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said,” he added. “I don’t hear him [Charles] saying he didn’t say that.”
Asked by Kuenssberg about why he included the account of a conversation with Diana in which she claimed that Charles was in love with his valet, Spencer said: “It’s in the context of a conversation where Diana is telling me that her marriage is over.”
He added that Diana “deserves honesty so that’s what I’ve delivered”.
Spencer denied he was being vengeful. “I don’t hold resentments,” he told CBS . “I’m not a vengeful, resentful person. I’m just an eyewitness to history.”
In its statement, the Palace said: “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.”
Earl Spencer was approached for comment. The Palace declined to make any further comment.