Earl Spencer’s Diana book opens old wounds royals would rather forget

The Earl Spencer’s new book about his sister Diana has reignited old wounds within the Royal Family, according to a BBC News report. The book, which contains fresh claims about the days and hours after Princess Diana’s death in 1997, has opened up old quarrels that the royals would prefer to have left in the past.

The book and its claims

Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, has spoken exclusively to the BBC about the claims he makes in his new book. In a wide-ranging interview, he discussed what he says happened in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death, including a phone call in which he says Prince Charles “went ballistic”.

The claims touch on a period that remains deeply sensitive for the Royal Family, nearly three decades after Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris. The interview and the book have prompted a new round of public discussion about the relationship between Spencer and his royal in-laws, and about what was said and done in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

The Palace has responded to some of the claims, with a spokesperson commenting that “grief can colour memory” – a remark that has itself become part of the story. The BBC’s report suggests that the book has reopened conversations that many in the institution would rather have closed.

Why it matters

The relationship between the Spencer family and the Royal Family has been fraught ever since Diana’s death. Earl Spencer’s eulogy at her funeral in 1997 was widely seen as a rebuke to the institution, and tensions have surfaced periodically since. Any new account from a close family member of Diana’s is bound to attract intense public interest and to reopen questions about how the Royal Family handled the aftermath.

The book also comes at a time when the Royal Family is navigating its own set of challenges and public scrutiny. Fresh claims about the period immediately after Diana’s death – a defining moment in modern British royal history – are unlikely to be quietly absorbed. They feed into a broader narrative about the institution that continues to play out in the media and in public discourse.

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For the public, the Spencer family’s perspective on Diana’s life and death has always had a particular resonance. It is a view from inside the family, from someone who knew her as a sister rather than as a public figure, and that gives it a credibility and emotional weight that other accounts may lack.

What happens next

The book is now in the public domain, and the claims it contains will be picked over by journalists, biographers, and the public. The BBC’s interview with Earl Spencer is likely to be one of several discussions of its contents in the coming days and weeks.

The Palace’s response – brief and measured – suggests it is treating the book as a personal account rather than as a factual challenge to be contested in detail. Whether that approach holds will depend on what further claims emerge and how the family chooses to respond to them.

For the Spencer family, the book represents an opportunity to set out their version of events in their own words. For the Royal Family, it is a reminder that the aftermath of Diana’s death is not a closed chapter, and that new accounts from those closest to her will continue to surface and to provoke discussion.