Royal row between King Charles and Earl Spencer

[Viviennemary]

Buckingham Palace said they don't usually comment but they can't stay silent. Apparently Prince Charles said at the time of Diana's death rest assured we'll forget her soon enough. Which is pretty horrendous. Charles has more or less said grief had clouded Earl Spencer's judgement and memory.

I don't know why he has waited nearly 30 years to come out with this.

This reminds me of when Harry's ghostwritten "Waagh" book came out and the most "scandalous" nugget was selected to promote it - the story where William allegedly pushed Harry into the dog bowl and snapped his necklace. I suspect this is the most "scandalous" nugget in Spencer's book and so the Mail chose it to promote their serialisation. The Diana funeral was always going to be the most allegedly "public interest", media-promoted part of the book and shame on Spencer for allowing his book that is supposedly about his sister as a beloved person to be defined by it.

I wonder what Spencer's three ex-wives and estranged children would have to say about him!

Would you take young children to see their mother’s dead corpse? I absolutely would not.

Spectacular bit of gaslighting by KC in the palace response

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmvgyp871j03o

Charles Spencer that upstanding pillar of virtue.
He who turned his sister away when she begged him for sanctuary
How many wives and children has he ploughed through?

The expert advice is to ask the children what they want. Although most people are not ghoulish enough to use the word corpse.
There is a lot of advice out there about how to help children with bereavement.
And they were not young children. They were 12 and 15.

Has anyone watched the speech C Spencer gave at Diana’s funeral ? I watched it recently and the huge crowds outside started to applaud him. Spontaneously.
I can just imagine the stony faced Windsors immobile in the church .
When the Windsors are finally kicked out it will that moment that will be identified as the beginning of the end .

I certainly believe Spencer’s account but if I had any doubt the pathetic response from Charles’ representatives absolutely proves it.

It’s the same old attempt to smear anyone who points out the truth. They are always ‘crazy’ and ‘confused’ but the Windsors - the pedophiles and pedophile protecting Windsors - are always ‘right’

Yeah get a new line Charles W - no one is buying it

Why are you repeating this lie?

I agree. Crazy and confused is their GP to excuse.
Diana was always painted as the crazy ex wife.

Yes? As long as the face isn't damaged.

four marriages and his exes have spoken about him in less than glowing terms. But he’s a convenient ally for the sulky H.

I absolutely would at least give my children the option. Death is part of life however much we like to keep it hidden.

Seeing my father laid out gave me immense comfort that he was indeed gone. Yes I was an adult but I think death is so final that children are entitled to see their loved on if they want to.

I think calling it a dead corpse is very dehumanising to the dead person.

Plus I think three of his children don't speak to him.

I’ll say one thing of the Royal Family, they never fall short in giving us things to gossip about.

This reminds me of when Harry's ghostwritten "Waagh" book came out and the most "scandalous" nugget was selected to promote it - the story where William allegedly pushed Harry into the dog bowl and snapped his necklace. I suspect this is the most "scandalous" nugget in Spencer's book and so the Mail chose it to promote their serialisation.

I agree, publicity around Spare was much more explosive than the book itself. There was nothing scandalous or terrible in it, it was actually very balanced. There were some minor revelations, certainly, but overall Harry wasn’t simply trashing his family.

I can certainly believe that the two men had a heated conversation but I find it hard to believe that KC would say this, and if he did it might have been an angry response to the Earl goading him. Who knows?

I’m sure I remember Jo Cox’s husband saying that he spoke to two psychologist friends in the immediate aftermath of her murder and they both were very firm that he let the children view their mother’s body. He said it felt very alien to him to do it but they said it was very important.

What an absolute arsehole Spencer is. Even if KC said this, and I absolutely can't imagine he would, why on earth repeat it. Doesn't he care about W&H and the media uproar this is causing

Spencer is a grubby little tabloid gossip like Harry. Shame on the pair of them cashing in on Diana.

I have read and seen both and you are incorrect. Spare is not hundreds of pages 'slagging off' the Royal Family Far from it. All posters pick up on is sausages, frozen todgers, lipgloss and not much else. There was much more to the book than that.
Harry spoke of his father very affectionately.
But yes, he was a 'spare' and yes he was treated very differently.

Anyway, this thread is about Earl Spencer and his book and not Harry. That is history.

As far as Charles Spencer, who knows what KC said and whether it was misconstrued. I imagine there was a tussle between the Palace and Diana's family (brothers and sisters). The Monarchy always wins, and I applaud Charles Spencer's speech at the funeral. It was very moving.

Exactly, let's hope someone does a tell all reveal about him and all the crap he's spouted.

I have memories of that time too and while there was an opinion that she was a good person doing good things, there was also an opinion that she was a loose cannon and quite messed up who was dragging the situation to an extreme. These two opinions weren't mutually exclusive and the same person could have them - this is in fact what I felt about her at the time.

As I've grown older and understand a bit more about how people are, I still like her but am also aware that she was highly manipulative of the media herself and deliberately performed a certain role of herself.

The outpouring of grief at the time of her death wasn't so much because she had been so beloved by the people but because she was a young mother who was full of life and that thread had been cut short so tragically and senselessly.

As for poor Harry (although we're rarely asked to feel the same sympathy for William) and Charles Spencer having to walk behind her hearse, isn't that what made her funeral almost a state funeral? Isn't that what made it "iconic"? The funeral would have been mostly forgotten if it hadn't been for that. That decision was a mark of honour for Diana - the hearses of Kings and Queens are followed by their children and siblings on foot.

As for relations between Charles and Diana after they separated, from what I understand they were going well and they were managing to put their sons and "duty" first before their own disagreements, as can be seen in how civilly they behaved with each other when they took William to Eton. If Diana had lived, then it's very likely they would have found a modus vivendi and worked out a way to do these sorts of public things together. The fact William was going to become King one day was very important for Diana and she wouldn't have wanted to mess things up for him.

Charles Spencer, who joked in his speech at his first wedding to Victoria Lockwood, who had anorexia, that he wanted a wife who would stick by him through thick and thin and , "those of you who know Victoria know that she's thick, and she certainly is thin".

He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work, despite his borrowed air of virtue from having been close to Diana.

No idea whether CW said those words or not. They were both grieving. They are both self centred men with bad tempers. Neither is trustworthy.

I agree.
And I’m no fan of Charles WM or Charles Spencer.

All this stuff about "the public thought the royal family were terrible for not returning to London" (as if the public would be seeing them out on the streets) reminds me of when the public were supposedly clamouring to see Catherine when she stepped back from public appearances after her abdominal surgery. No, the public weren't clamouring to see her - the press were creating a huge media frenzy, insinuating all sorts of nasty lies, and trying to use this to pressure William, because William usually ignores their pressure and this time they'd thought they'd got him.

exactly this.

we must have been watching and reading different shows/books then.