Charles Spencer has accused King Charles III of showing shocking indifference to Princess Diana’s death in a new book that has prompted an unusual public response from Buckingham Palace.

The Earl Spencer claims the then-Prince of Wales sounded “giddily elated – like a lottery winner” when he spoke to him on the night Diana died in a Paris car crash in August 1997, according to extracts from his memoir published in the Daily Mail.

Spencer also alleges that Charles told him days after the crash: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”

The claims, published in Spencer’s book “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” due out next week, have drawn a rare public rebuttal from the palace.

Palace issues pointed response

Buckingham Palace broke with its usual policy of silence to respond to the allegations on Thursday.

“His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss,” a palace spokesperson said.

The carefully worded statement drew immediate comparisons to the late Queen Elizabeth II’s famous “recollections may vary” remark in 2021, when she responded to allegations of racism from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Royal observers noted the speed and strength of the palace’s response as highly unusual.

Funeral procession dispute

Spencer’s book details a heated phone call in which he says Charles subjected him to a “stream of anger” after he argued that William and Harry should not walk in their mother’s funeral procession.

The princes, then aged 15 and 12, ultimately did walk behind Diana’s coffin – a moment both have since described as traumatic.

“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,” Spencer writes in the serialised extracts.

Spencer also claims others in the palace “were relieved – indeed, pleased – that she had gone”.

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Former aide casts doubt on claims

Julian Payne, who served as communications secretary to Charles during the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in 2017, told the BBC he struggled to believe the king used such language.

“It’s just not language that I recognise,” Payne said.

Roya Nikkhah, royal editor at the Sunday Times, said the palace clearly felt it had no choice but to respond.

“It’s too big a claim. And they know with the serialisation there are days more of this kind of stuff coming and so they’ll be braced,” she told the BBC.

Diana died aged 36 when the car she travelled in crashed as the driver attempted to escape paparazzi photographers. Her death sparked massive public grief in Britain and criticism that the royal family failed to show proper emotion.

The tumultuous marriage between Charles and Diana, which lasted from 1981 to 1996, continues to captivate public interest decades later.