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King Charles III allegedly feared that Princess Diana's death would end up making him one of the main targets of blame for the tragedy. According to an account attributed to biographer Tina Brown, the then Prince of Wales allegedly said upon learning of his ex-wife's death: "Everyone is going to blame me" and "the world is going to go completely crazy."
These statements arise in the midst of a new dispute over how Charles reacted after Diana's death in Paris in 1997, according to accounts from Lady Di's brother, Charles Spencer, in the book Swan Song: Diana, my sister.
Brown's testimony contrasts with a version from Spencer, who maintains in his memoirs that Charles appeared “euphoric, like a lottery winner” after finding out about his ex-wife's death. However, that version has been publicly questioned by Buckingham Palace and by Tina Brown, author of the book The Diana Chronicles.
Brown maintains that her own sources described Charles in a very different way during the days following the accident. According to the journalist, the then-heir to the Crown was affected by a mixture of guilt, grief, anguish for his children, and self-pity.
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In a recent Substack blog post, she also asserted that Charles immediately understood that Diana's death could completely change public perception of him and Camilla Parker Bowles, his partner at the time.
Brown wrote on the blog: “I was told the future king believed the tragedy was, in fact, a disaster for his long campaign to achieve public acceptance of Camilla: ‘Everyone is going to blame me,’ he reportedly told his private secretary, Stephen Lamport. ‘The world is going to go completely crazy.’”
And she added: “He was right. The accusations turned against him. And Camilla became a very controversial figure for a time.” Charles feared the tragedy would destroy the efforts he had made for years to gain public acceptance for his relationship with Camilla.
For Charles, according to the account attributed to Brown, the concern was not limited to personal or public consequences: there was also the impact his mother's death would have on the two young princes, 15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry.
The dispute over both versions of what happened regarding Charles after Diana's death has escalated after Buckingham Palace publicly questioned some of Charles Spencer's recollections.
A spokesperson noted that grief over the death of a family member can affect the way a person remembers traumatic events. The Princess Diana's brother, for his part, has defended his version and maintains that he accurately remembers the conversations he had with Charles after Lady Di's death.
It is worth mentioning that in the passages of the memoir, Charles Spencer claimed that the then-prince was happy about Princess Diana's death and said that everyone would “soon forget” her during an argument over whether the teenagers should follow Lady Di's coffin.
[Publicidad]