King Charles’ statement against Diana means much worse: ‘Wanted to undermine credibility’

‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!’ is a statement that is running laps across the British media as of late. But that’s not the full excerpt – there is far more, and one of them exposes what the Earl Spencer thinks of his former brother-in-law.

The first claim in its actuality has been shared in a piece for The Daily Beast and reads as follows, “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.”

Author Tom Sykes also spoke about this at length in his piece for the outlet, right under the full statement. His point of view starts off with the words, “courtly phrasing notwithstanding, the message is brutally clear: the sovereign is calling the 9th Earl Spencer a crazy liar, albeit one whose ‘memory’ has been “cloud(ed)’ by ‘fraternal grief.’”

He also says, “while this statement has echoes of that, it undoubtedly goes much further by seeking to undermine the credibility of the named individual making the claims.”

While in a later part he did note that “one can quite understand why the palace felt they couldn’t let this one ride,” whats pertinent to mention is that later admissions by Palace aides took on a less harsh tone. Some were seen telling The Telegraph, the alleged comment was “just not in his nature and it certainly wasn’t in his nature at that time, when he was a man absolutely grief-stricken.” They even admit he was “paralyzed with grief” and per Mr Sykes the King’s people claim he “defied protocol by insisting that Diana be afforded a full state-style ceremonial funeral, and that her coffin be draped in the royal standard as it returned from Paris to London.”

However, according to the Editor-at-Large, it was Tony Blair who told the royals they should give Diana a state funeral.

What Else Did Earl Spencer Say?

Not only was this a point of contention, but when it was time for the funeral arrangements to be made, one of the late Queen’s most senior aides told the Earl that William and Harry, (then 15 and 12) would walk behind their mother’s coffin. To that he replied, “That’s not going to happen,” in his upcoming book but according to Mr Sykes, “minutes later, he claims, Charles rang him, insisting he had walked behind Lord Mountbatten’s coffin in 1979. When Spencer pointed out that Charles had been 30 at the time, not a child, the prince ‘went nuts’ and questioned the Spencer family’s ‘sense of duty’.”

An excerpt of the book relating to this moment reads, “Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped. I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death. ‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”