King Charles Sounded “Like A Lottery Winner” After Diana’s Death, Earl Spencer Claims

The Explosive King Charles Claim At The Heart Of Earl Spencer’s New Diana Memoir

Earl Spencer Reveals What King Charles Allegedly Sounded Like After Diana Died

King Charles III sounded “like a lottery winner” during a phone call following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, according to an extraordinary new claim by her brother, Charles Spencer.

The allegation is Earl Spencer’s recollection and interpretation of the then-Prince Charles’s demeanour during a private conversation in the hours after Diana died in Paris in August 1997. It is not an independently established account of Charles’s emotional state, and Buckingham Palace has challenged Spencer’s recollections of that period.

The claim appears in Spencer’s forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is due to be published on September 22, 2026. Penguin Random House describes the book as the story of Diana’s life and death told from her younger brother’s perspective, nearly three decades after Spencer delivered his famous eulogy at Westminster Abbey.

What Earl Spencer Claims About Charles’s Phone Call

According to extracts from the memoir published ahead of its release, Spencer was in South Africa when news reached him that his sister had died.

Diana was 36 when she died on August 31, 1997, after the car in which she was travelling crashed in the Pont de l’Alma underpass in Paris. Her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul also died, while bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived. The Royal Family’s own historical account records that Diana underwent emergency surgery before being pronounced dead in the early hours of August 31.

Spencer writes that several people contacted him as the scale of the tragedy became clear.

But he says his conversation with Charles stood out.

He recalls the then-Prince of Wales sounding “giddily elated” and compares the impression he received to that of speaking to “a lottery winner”. Spencer also describes the conversation as unexpectedly matter-of-fact considering what had happened.

Charles reportedly told Spencer that he had already informed William and Harry of their mother’s death at Balmoral.

Prince William was 15 at the time and Prince Harry was 12.

The crucial distinction is that Spencer is describing how Charles sounded to him during the telephone conversation. There is no recording of the call cited in the reports, and Spencer cannot establish Charles’s private emotional state simply from his recollection of the conversation.

Spencer then goes further by offering his interpretation of what might have been behind the response.

Looking back almost three decades later, he writes that he suspects Charles may initially have thought about how Diana’s death could ultimately leave him free to marry Camilla Parker Bowles. That is Spencer’s interpretation of Charles’s motives rather than something Charles is reported to have said during that particular conversation.

Charles and Camilla married in April 2005, almost eight years after Diana’s death.

Buckingham Palace Challenges Spencer’s Account

Buckingham Palace has responded unusually strongly to claims emerging from Swan Song.

The Palace said it does not normally comment on books but stated that King Charles was conscious that intense grief could affect a person’s reasoning, judgement and memory, even many years after a bereavement.

The statement does not provide an alternative detailed account of the phone call.

Instead, it challenges the reliability of Spencer’s interpretation and memory of events.

That distinction matters because many of the most dramatic passages from the memoir concern private conversations for which the principal surviving participants appear to have sharply different positions.

Spencer has since stood by his broader account. Reports on September 18 said he maintained that he was telling the truth about another disputed remark he attributes to Charles during the days after Diana’s death.

A Second Explosive Allegation

The “lottery winner” recollection is not the only allegation from the book generating attention.

Spencer also claims that he and Charles later became involved in a bitter argument about arrangements for Diana’s funeral and whether William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin.

According to Spencer, he was strongly opposed to the young princes taking part in the procession.

During that dispute, Spencer alleges that Charles made another extraordinarily harsh remark suggesting Diana would soon be forgotten. Buckingham Palace’s response about grief affecting memory was initially issued as reports of that allegation emerged.

Again, the alleged comment comes from Spencer’s recollection of a private conversation and is disputed by implication through the Palace’s statement.

The funeral nevertheless became one of the defining public events of modern British royal history.

On September 6, 1997, William and Harry walked behind Diana’s coffin alongside their father Charles, grandfather Prince Philip and uncle Charles Spencer as the procession travelled towards Westminster Abbey.

Millions watched around the world.

Spencer then delivered a eulogy in which he paid tribute to Diana while delivering pointed criticism of the pressures she had faced during her life.

Diana’s Death Triggered Extraordinary Public Mourning

Any account of the Royal Family’s actions during that week has to be understood against the extraordinary public reaction to Diana’s death.

Diana had divorced Charles in 1996 after years of marital difficulties and intense media scrutiny, but she remained one of the most famous women in the world.

Following the crash, enormous crowds gathered outside royal residences.

Mountains of flowers accumulated outside Kensington Palace.

The Royal Family’s official biography of Diana describes “widespread public mourning” that culminated in the Westminster Abbey funeral on September 6.

The public response also placed the monarchy under intense scrutiny over how quickly and visibly it should respond to the tragedy.

Spencer’s new memoir revisits that already intensely analysed period from inside Diana’s family.

What Is Swan Song: Diana, My Sister?

Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is Charles Spencer’s account of growing up with Diana, her transformation into an international public figure and the circumstances surrounding the final period of her life.

Its publisher says the siblings were extremely close as children and that the book follows Diana through her marriage to the Prince of Wales, motherhood, royal life and the collapse of her marriage before turning to the week of her death.

The book is scheduled for publication on September 22, 2026, and the US edition listed by Penguin Random House runs to 384 pages.

Extracts published ahead of release have already generated international coverage.

They include Spencer’s recollections of Diana’s troubled relationship with Charles, disputes surrounding her funeral and his interpretation of attitudes towards his sister inside royal circles.

Why The “Lottery Winner” Claim Is So Significant

The allegation is explosive because it concerns one of the most scrutinised moments in the modern history of the monarchy.

It also directly contrasts with the public image of Charles during the aftermath of Diana’s death.

The official Royal Family account records that Charles travelled with Diana’s sisters to Paris and accompanied her coffin back to Britain following her death.

Spencer’s memoir attempts to describe what he believes was happening privately behind those public events.

But the evidential limits are important.

What can be established is that Spencer says Charles sounded unusually upbeat to him during the call.

What cannot independently be established from the published material is what Charles actually felt internally, why he sounded the way Spencer remembers or whether Spencer’s interpretation remains accurate almost 30 years later.

Buckingham Palace is effectively contesting precisely that point.

Charles And Diana’s Marriage

Charles and Diana married at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981.

William was born the following year and Harry in 1984.

Their relationship deteriorated publicly during the following decade, and they separated in 1992 before divorcing in 1996.

Both sides of the marriage became the subject of extraordinary international media attention.

Camilla Parker Bowles remained a central figure in coverage of the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s relationship.

Charles eventually married Camilla in 2005.

Spencer’s memoir now places that history directly beside his interpretation of the phone call he received after Diana died — arguing that Charles’s relationship with Camilla may explain the reaction Spencer believes he heard.

That remains Spencer’s conclusion, not an established fact.

Nearly 30 Years Later, The Argument Over Diana Continues

Diana’s death has remained culturally and historically powerful because the events surrounding it involve far more than the end of one royal marriage.

They encompass celebrity, the monarchy, media intrusion, public grief, family conflict and the treatment of William and Harry as children suddenly confronted with their mother’s death in front of a global audience.

Spencer’s latest account returns attention to the intensely private conversations that took place behind that spectacle.

His most extraordinary claim is not that Charles openly celebrated Diana’s death.

It is more specific — and more difficult to independently verify.

Spencer says that, when Charles telephoned him after Diana died, the future king sounded to him “giddily elated” and “like a lottery winner”.

Nearly three decades later, Spencer says that is how he remembers the conversation.

Buckingham Palace is challenging the reliability of that recollection.

And with Swan Song: Diana, My Sister about to reach readers, one of the most painful chapters in modern royal history is once again being argued over in public.