Earl Spencer's new book about his sister, Princess Diana, has reignited a war of words with Piers Morgan. The author has apologised to the commentator over a factual inaccuracy in Swan Song, but Morgan is now threatening legal action over another claim.
According to Earl Spencer, Diana made her feelings about Morgan clear in their private conversations. He writes: "Once, when I told her I had a particularly testing event coming up in my diary, she replied: 'Count yourself lucky - that's the same day I've got to have lunch with Piers Morgan.'"
Legal Threat Over Photograph Claim
Morgan has threatened to sue Earl Spencer over the claim that he was behind the publication of intrusive photos of Diana in the mid-1990s. The former newspaper editor has said the first edition of the book should be pulped.
The book claims Morgan was in part responsible for the publication of photographs taken by an allegedly hidden camera in a gym, featuring Diana working out in a leotard. However, the images were published by the Sunday Mirror nearly two years before Morgan became editor of the Daily Mirror. He was working at the Sun at the time the images were printed.
Apology and Legal Action
Earl Spencer admitted "his assumption was incorrect" and "apologises to Mr Morgan for this error". Despite this, Morgan says he intends to take legal action. He has said he will donate any damages he receives to the King's Trust, the charity founded by the then-Prince Charles 50 years ago which helps vulnerable young people.
The settlement Diana's lawyers came to in 1995 was never publicly disclosed, but it was believed that Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) paid Princess Diana's legal costs of about £1m and about £200,000 to charities of her choice.
Palace Response and Morgan's Reaction
Swan Song also features a number of allegations about the King, with Buckingham Palace releasing a rare, and strongly-worded, response. The Palace said the King was "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".
In the book, Spencer says the King told him "we'll forget her soon enough" soon after Diana's death. He also claims Charles "sounded giddily elated" after hearing of her passing.
Morgan launched a scathing attack on Earl Spencer. Speaking on GB News, he said: "Earl Spencer claims to be an historian and yet here he is historically disastrously wrong by publishing a seriously defamatory lie about me. And that lie remains in his book."
"Now, today, he's apologised to me personally, which is pretty unprecedented and said that he got it wrong. And as an historian, he says it's my duty to get it right. Okay, well, then pulp the book, take it off the shelves. Because at the moment, millions of copies of that book are around the world going on sale, being bought by people, containing a defamatory lie about me."
Morgan also claims he has a different recollection of a phone call shared with Spencer after Diana's death, calling the claims in the book "disgusting lies".
