King Charles’ reaction after Princess Diana’s death was “not giddily elated” but marked by fear, guilt and grief, sources and biographer Tina Brown say, amid worries blame would hit him
King Charles’ “real” reaction in the days after Princess Diana’s death has been described as anything but “giddily elated”. A royal source insisted there was no sense of celebration but instead a man “terrified” by the enormity of what had happened and what would follow.
Moreover, Diana biographer Tina Brown also challenges claims made in Earl Spencer’s portrayal of Charles, saying her reporting found friends and staff remembered him as “almost out of his mind with guilt, grief, paternal anguish, and self-pity”.
He reportedly believed the tragedy would be a “disaster” for his long campaign to win acceptance for Camilla. Brown says the fear proved justified as blame did turn towards him and Camilla became “radioactive” for a time.
A royal source told Radar Online: “The recollection from people around Charles at the time is not of somebody celebrating. It is of a man suddenly confronting the enormity of what had happened and terrified about what would follow.
“There was grief for Diana, tremendous concern for William and Harry, and also a realisation that public anger could turn against him. Charles understood immediately that everything involving his mistress Camilla would now become vastly more difficult.”
Meanwhile, Brown shared: “In my own reporting for The Diana Chronicles, friends and staffers remembered how Charles, in the days after Diana’s death, was almost out of his mind with guilt, grief, paternal anguish, and self-pity.” The biographer wrote in a fresh Substack post that Charles worried Diana’s death would wreck his carefully laid plans to win the public over to his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, 79.
She stated: “I was told that the future King believed the tragedy was, in fact, a disaster for his long campaign to win public acceptance for Camilla. ‘They’re all going to blame me,’ he apparently said to his private secretary Stephen Lamport.
“’The world’s going to go completely mad.'” Brown further claimed: “He was right.
“The finger-pointing did turn on him. And Camilla became radioactive for a time.”
This comes after the release of Diana’s brother Charles Spencer’s release of his highly anticipated poignant memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. It marks the very first time Earl Spencer has spoken openly and at length in a book about his sister’s life, his personal memories, and the intense week following her death.
The memoir has already stirred considerable controversy even prior to its release. Certain pre-published extracts prompted a rare pushback from Buckingham Palace.
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