Earl Charles Spencer has revealed that Prince Harry is "completely fine" about his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, and has opened up about the conversation he had with his nephew before the book's publication.
Speaking on CBS Mornings, Earl Spencer was asked by Gayle King about how the moment went. "I don't know. I haven't asked about approval," he said. "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."
Harry's reaction to the book
Elaborating on the potentially awkward conversation, he told People that Harry turned out to be perfectly happy with the book that sent shockwaves through the palace.
"I can say that Harry is completely fine about it," he said. "I think they were actually worried where I was going up to with the book. It pretty much ends in 1997 with Diana's death, and there's a tiny postscript by the grave. So I think there was this, 'Gosh, what's he written about?'"
"And I think it's natural that people so in the public eye are concerned how they will come across in the book. But I could reassure both of them that they're, of course, in the book, but really as examples of two little boys who had the most exceptional mother; I'm not in any way compromising their privacy at all."
Family reactions and secrecy
He admitted that his sisters, Lady Sarah and Lady Jane, however, are "still digesting" the news. "I think they were hurt that I hadn't told them, to be honest. I said, 'I was going to hurt you either way, because I was either going to tell you and still write it how I wanted it. It wasn't going to be a committee effort,'" he said.
"I wanted them to be able to put their hand up and say, 'Well, we didn't know he was doing it,' in case there's backlash or whatever. So they're totally innocent parties in this. This is very much a brother's view."
The hereditary peer, who Diana had affectionately referred to as 'Carlos', also explained why he kept his work under wraps until shortly before publication. "I decided not to have anyone involved in the book, so no one knew about it except my wife, obviously, and the publishers," he said.
"I didn't tell any of the family until just before it was released publicly as a thing because I didn't want anyone to think - particularly with Harry, who people know I had to stay in the summer - that he was in any way involved in this. It was really important for me that they weren't."
Palace response and family ties
In a rare statement, Buckingham Palace responded to claims made in Swan Song about King Charles' reaction to Princess Diana's death, asserting: "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."
It comes after Prince Harry, Meghan, and their two children, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie, paid a summer visit to the Spencer family seat of Althorp where Meghan, 45, shared sweet pictures on Instagram of Lilibet and Archie exploring the grounds of their iconic grandmother's childhood home.
Diana, who was just 36 years old when she died in a car crash in Paris, is buried on a private island in the middle of an ornamental lake on the estate, which has been in the Spencer family for more than 500 years. In an interview with Lorraine on September 23, Earl Spencer reflected that, while the trip had been "lovely", it was also bittersweet.
He shared: "I saw the two little kids running around, and the sadness of not having… Can you imagine what a great-grandmother Diana would've been? Spoiling them rotten."
Harry, 42, is known to have a particularly close relationship with his maternal uncle, and it's understood that the 9th Earl turned to his younger nephew first after unreleased copies of Swan Song were stolen from a truck in the Netherlands. An insider told the Examiner: "Harry was one of the first people Charles called when his book was stolen. They rely on each other in a very father-son way at times."
It's a predicament Harry would likely have been able to empathise with. Back in 2023, copies of his explosive memoir Space were accidentally sold in Spain ahead of the global release date. Like Earl Spencer, Harry also knows what it's like to spark controversy by giving his side of the story.
