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                    "Earl Spencer has doubled down on his bombshell claim that King Charles said of Diana, Princess of Wales, \u201crest assured, we\u2019ll forget her soon enough\u201d days after her death, saying he is telling the truth.The alleged comments, revealed in Charles Spencer\u2019s memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, prompted Buckingham Palace to issue an extraordinary statement suggesting Diana\u2019s brother had misremembered events, saying \u201cthe pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise\u201d.In an interview with the BBC, Spencer stood firm in his recollection, telling Laura Kuenssberg: \u201cI can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.\u201dResponding to the palace\u2019s statement, Spencer said: \u201cWell, is he furious? Is he furious, or is he embarrassed?\u201d When asked about the inference that his memory was coloured, Spencer said: \u201cThey\u2019ve sort of smudged that one, haven\u2019t they? They\u2019ve said that recollections may vary.\u201dDiana died in a car crash in 1997, at the age of 36. Photograph: Simon Kreitem/ReutersSpencer said the call was one of two he had with Charles in his lifetime and said he told his friends and family members at the time about the comment \u201cbecause it was so monstrous\u201d.The alleged comment was revealed on Wednesday in an extract from the memoir published in the Daily Mail. The comment by the then prince was allegedly made during a heated argument over funeral arrangements. Spencer says it reflected Charles\u2019s \u201cpent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death\u201d, the Daily Mail reported.Among other claims in the book are that Diana told a friend on the eve of her wedding to Charles that he said he was happy to marry her, but was not actually in love with her.On Friday, the second extract from the memoir was published. Spencer writes Charles was \u201cpolite and formal\u201d on the day of Diana\u2019s funeral and says Prince Philip told him to look ahead while walking in unison alongside his nephews and former brother-in-law.\u201cIt was hellish, entering that tunnel of grief, particularly because we were unable to put a face to it by looking at the individuals in the crowd,\u201d said Spencer of the procession.From left: Prince Philip, Prince William, Charles Spencer, Prince Harry and King Charles, then a prince, walking in Diana\u2019s funeral procession. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/APIn the extract released on Wednesday, Spencer says he insisted to Charles that Diana would not have wanted her sons, Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, then 12, to walk in her funeral procession. In the end, her sons walked behind her coffin, which William later called \u201cone of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever done\u201d.Spencer wrote that when one of Queen Elizabeth\u2019s most senior aides told him in the days before the funeral that William and Harry would take part in the procession, he responded: \u201cThat\u2019s not going to happen.\u201dskip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut minutes later he received a phone call from Charles, who insisted it should. It was during the ensuing argument between the two men that Charles allegedly made the comment, with Spencer writing: \u201c\u2018Rest assured,\u2019\u201d he hissed, \u2018we\u2019ll forget her soon enough!\u2019\u201dSpencer wrote that he was stunned and took a few seconds to reply, writing: \u201c\u2018I can\u2019t believe you just said that,\u2019 I said flatly, before hanging up.\u201dSpencer also claimed that Diana \u201cnever would have wanted\u201d her sons to walk behind her coffin, to which Charles allegedly replied: \u201cThat\u2019s the problem with your family. They\u2019ve got no bloody sense of duty.\u201dSwan Song is due to be published globally next Tuesday \u2013 in the UK by Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House.Four copies of the Dutch-language edition were reportedly taken from a truck while it was en route from the Dutch publisher\u2019s printers to their warehouse in the Netherlands.Diana, who died aged 36 after a car crash in Paris in 1997, would have turned 65 on 1 July this year.Buckingham Palace did not issue a statement responding to the BBC interview, but on Wednesday a spokesperson said: \u201cWhile 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.\u201d"
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