Earl Spencer says Prince Charles was excited and giddy after Diana died.

[Flufffluff11]

News articles today have released a new snippet from Earl Spencer's book.

Earl Spencer says Prince Charles was 'excited, elated and giddy' after Diana died.

What are your thoughts on this comment?

'His friends became worried about his mental state and reintroduced him and Camilla, '

If I was unhappy in my marriage, my friends wouldn't introduce me to another man

They might, if it was the mid-Eighties and you were apparently trapped forever in a deeply unhappy marriage because you were the future monarch and head of the Church, and the last sovereign to divorce was Henry VIII. And even he had to found an entirely new church to make it happen.

Context is everything.

Just shows that the Royal Family had privilege in ways, but they were trapped in other ways. They weren't free to marry who they wanted for a long time

Exactly, and in the mid-Eighties divorce for a future Sovereign was completely unthinkable, no matter how unhappy you were. They remained separated but still married for YEARS. I think the Queen would have been happy for things to remain that way, except that ultimately neither of them could stand it, as evidenced by the interviews they did (Dimbleby/Bashir). The Queen only gave permission for a divorce when the situation became completely untenable and they were broadcasting their misery on TV.

the last sovereign to divorce was Henry VIII. And even he had to found an entirely new church to make it happen.

Henry VIII wasn't divorced, his marriage to Catherine was said never to have been legal in the first place because of her prior marriage to Arthur, hence Mary being declared illegitimate.

George I was divorced, but the divorce happened before he became king and he never remarried.

There was a lot of dislike for Camila at the time, it was quite unthinkable that he would marry her and certainly the impression i had was that the Queen was against it.

I don’t believe he was “giddy and elated”

I think in a certain context he may have made the “we’ll forget her soon enough comment”

On balance though I don’t think Spencer’s word can be trusted.

Honestly it was only the queen and some aristocrats who thought they shouldn't divorce. The public didn't.

I think you're splitting hairs. There wasn't divorce in the modern sense during Tudor times; it was all annulments, which were really hard to get, hence H8 having to found his own church. The annulments added up to the same thing as divorce. We commonly talk about him having been divorced, even though technically you're right.

Good way to sell a book. I personally don't believe it yes she was a pain in his butt but she was the mother of his sons. I dont think many people would be that heartless.
If he thought it he is an intelligent man he wouldnt vocalise it where servants can hear

Yep

More than the money that the Royal Family have grabbed from us over the years?

Charles and Diana visited my home town, Chesterfield, in 1981. My mum joined the queues to see them. He went one side of the street and Diana the other. Charles talked to my mum and asked why everyone wanted to talk to Diana and not him so much. Mum said, Well she's pretty and new Sir

Honestly being pretty and new isn't enough. Sophie is pretty but never commanded this public attention. It's charisma.

I can imagine King Charle's being like that, he never loved Diana and didn't care for her. But we will never really know will we, it could have been Spencer's perception and everyone reacts differently to events like this. It is odd he's bringing it all up now, it's not like he needs the money so I don't understand what his motive is behind releasing this book and causing agro for the boys.

I'd assume the adrenaline and stress was dull pelt. regardless of what he thought of Diana, he would have recently or been about to tell his young sons their Mom was dead, he'd know the press were going or a out to go crazy, god knows what pressure from within the palace to handle this right and now he's phoning someone to tell them their beloved sister is dead. even if he and CS hated each other, I very much doubt he was giddily telling CS that Diana was dead in excited times of joy.

Both can be true. Being tired, confused and stressed is biologically very similar to being elated and giddy. When the difference is being judged at the end of a phone line by someone like Spencer who doesn’t like you, of course they are going to be bias towards the least flattering judgement.

Ultimately, Charles and Diana had an acrimonious divorce only a couple of years earlier. It would have been disingenuous of Charles to adopt the mantle of grieving widower.

Maybe Charles was tactless or maybe he was simply misinterpreted by an adversary - we’ll never know. It was 30 years ago, I’m not convinced anyone outside of Spencer’s publishers actually cares.

I don't know but this book sounds like a cracking great read and I have the day off tomorrow when it comes out. Looking forward to it

Henry never divorced anyone. It's such an annoying little snippet of information that practically everyone gets wrong. I have no idea why it's entered the national consciousness that he "divorced" two of his wives. They were annulled, and he annulled three marriages not two.
Massive difference. Divorce hasn't even replaced annulment so it's not even the modern equivalent. Annulments are still a thing even now.
Sorry, I know it's not really what this is all about but as a history teacher and lifelong history nerd, I just find it so irritating 😄

Henry never divorced anyone.

@Suchevilforebodings I was told I was splitting hairs when I pointed that out. Henry believed, or claimed to believe, that he and Catherine had never been legally married, hence Catherine's distress, at the implication she had been living in sin all those years, and Mary being declared illegitimate.

The one who was divorced was George I, years before he became King.

It's actually a really importance difference though. An annulment is the legal recognition that the marriage never happened because it was never valid.

A divorce recognises the marriage did happen, but ends it.

They are not synonymous and both still exist today, for different reasons.

Charles was by no means the first Royal to divorce anyway. Princess Margaret and Anne did it before him, and even Andrew sneaked his in a few months before Charles.

And of course Georgie, but he wasn't even a British royal at the time.

Sounds like a great way to sell a book! As if anyone would say that to the brother. As if someone would say that about the mother of their children. He’s seems like a deeply caring man. I imagine he has said somethings he regrets about her when alive in private, but I don’t believe he’d say that to her brother.

But there wasn't divorce in the modern sense in Tudor times. Today, it's an important distinction, but back then it was the only way of shedding a spouse and it added up to the same thing as divorce. As in, it let Henry make a new marital commitment.

Whether it's true or whether it isn't, Spencer bringing it up now, almost THIRTY YEARS later, when the King is elderly and clearly has terminal cancer, is just despicable. And it's very possible that he misheard or misinterpreted what the king said. Charles seems like an old romantic softie to me, having only loved one woman his whole life, and it speaks well of him that she's not someone of great beauty who's much younger than him. He clearly goes for personality. He is adamant that he did not go back to Camilla until five years later, after the marriage had irretrievably broken down.

And Diana must have been very, very difficult to live with. She very clearly suffered from a Cluster B disorder, and those are the histrionic ones. In Sally Bedell's book, she related how Diana would whack Charles around the head when he was praying before bed, and she has it on good authority that Diana slept with someone else first. Only then did he go back to Camilla.

I do not think that KC is a cruel man at all, but I do believe that Diana drove him to the edge. I was married to a Cluster B, and they are like deep, dark tar pits who suck you in and won't let go. Woe betide their spouse, because they tend to save it all for them. Diana's mental-health problems were not her fault, but I can imagine they affected Charles profoundly, especially being trapped like he was.

The Spencers really are awful people. Diana recounts in her tapes how she saw her father smack her mother in the face. Diana's paternal grandfather would hit his wife, too. The current earl has had more divorces than he's had hot dinners, at least two of his wives said he had multiple affairs, and his latest ex-wife said in court papers how much he'd bullied her. Diana had no problem using violence on people when she wanted to. She slapped her father in the face when he told her he was marrying Raine, and she pushed Raine down a flight of stairs, leaving her badly bruised. Falling downstairs can easily kill someone. Before her marriage, a man stood her up for a date, and she covered his car with egg and flour, which is famously damaging for car paint and really hard to get off once it's set. In addition, after she split from Charles, 600 calls were made to the married Oliver Hoare, and they were all traced back to Kensington Palace. Will Carling's wife, Julia Carling, cited Diana as the reason their marriage broke down.

And then we have Harry and his callous treatment of his family. And now Charles Spencer's treatment of King Charles.

The Spencers are a bad lot. King Charles's only mistake was marrying the wrong woman. As Prince of Wales, he could have been a total player, but he only ever wanted Camilla, and there are so many reputable reports that he only went back to her once Diana had driven him to the brink of utter despair, around five years in. I think he's a much better person than Spencer. Even if, under extreme stress and shock, Charles did say that, it was so long ago and I'm sure he regretted it. If it's true.

Regardless, I think Earl Spencer is a nasty, vindictive, spiteful man of bad character. Just like his royal nephew.