Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer and brother of the late Princess Diana, has been making waves following the release of his bombshell new memoir, Swan Song, which delves into his close bond with his sister and the aftermath of her death.
The 62-year-old shared fresh insight into the famous eulogy he gave at her 1997 funeral, which has since been hailed as one of the "greatest speeches of the 20th century" by The Guardian.
During his powerful speech, Charles condemned the tabloid media for hunting his sister, and pledged that Diana's "blood family" would protect her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, so that their "souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as [Diana] planned."
The Queen's reaction revealed
© Getty ImagesIn a conversation with Tina Brown about Swan Song, Charles revealed that Queen Elizabeth II was "gracious" about his fiery speech, despite the royal family reportedly being "incandescent" about his words.
"She was gracious enough to say that it was his sister's funeral, he could say what he wanted, and I thought that was remarkably good of her," Charles remarked.
"The Queen was always very good at saying the right thing, but I mean, obviously the other thing that certainly I found in the Diana Chronicle's reporting was that [the royal family] were absolutely, sort of incandescent really about it."
© Getty ImagesThe Earl's bold claim
Charles claimed in an interview on CNN: The Source that the royals tried to censor his eulogy ahead of time by sending "palace spies" to the funeral's rehearsal to vet the speech.
"As you went up to the pulpit to rehearse, you said that you saw figures emerging from the abbey's shadows and you write, 'Oh, my God,' about what you believed were palace spies," said CNN journalist Kaitlin Collins. "'I thought, they're here to check what I'm going to say.' So you actually said you forgot your eulogy."
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"I played the upper-class idiot and pretended I had left it at home, because I realised that they were trying to vet, perhaps veto, what I said. They didn't know what I was going to say," he replied.
Instead, he began to read a hymn before they cut him off. "I read one line. And they went, 'Enough.' So they were there to hear what I was going to say."
Charles theorised that he would've been barred from giving his eulogy altogether if they had heard the speech in full ahead of time. "I think [I would've been stopped]. I think there would have been an excuse that maybe time's too short in the service, and could you trim it a bit?"
"And I think there would have been red pens all over it. So I was very conscious that I hadn't written something intentionally inflammatory, but I knew I had to say those words on Diana's behalf," he concluded.
Harry's simple question
© WPA PoolAs for his nephews' reactions to the explosive memoir, Charles shared that he had informed William and Harry about the book before its release. "I haven't asked about approval," he said on CBS Mornings.
"Harry was sort of like, 'Is there anything in there that would be embarrassing to me?' I said, 'Absolutely not.' I'm very specific about people's privacy."
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