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When Prince Harry stepped out solo to attend the WellChild Awards on September 21, it was perhaps inevitable he would be peppered with questions about the latest royal drama on everyone’s lips – his uncle’s bombshell book.
With Earl Charles Spencer’s Swan Song: Diana, My Sister released just a day after the Duke of Sussex’s long-awaited charity appearance – and making stunning claims about King Charles – Harry simply couldn’t escape the scrutiny.
“Sir, have you spoken to your uncle in the last few days?” Harry was asked by waiting paparazzi as he bundled his way into the London awards venue, the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
“Are you looking forward to seeing him tonight?” another asked.
Harry ignored the questions, choosing instead to wave awkwardly and make his way inside.
However, while Harry clearly wanted attention focussed squarely on the good work of WellChild – a national UK children’s charity that helps seriously ill children and young people with complex medical needs – he must, perhaps, have expected the furore over his uncle’s book to overshadow proceedings somewhat.
The book contains a slew of claims about Harry’s father King Charles – including an allegation that, during an argument after Princess Diana’s death, Charles told a grieving Spencer that they’d “forget her soon enough”.
It should be noted that Charles responded to the claim via a palace spokesman, who said, “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 color memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
Despite the public response, naturally the damage has been done and Spencer himself has told of how Harry knew about the book in advance of its publication – albeit later in the process.
In an interview with People, the earl revealed he told his sisters, Prince William and Harry at “exactly” the same time.
“All I would say is one was…” he started, before tailing off. “So all four of them, I told them exactly the same time. And I can say that Harry is completely fine about it.”
Spencer told the publication that he was of the understanding that Harry and William may have held concerns about how he portrayed their father in the tome.
“I mean, I don’t want this to sound loaded, but there was an awful lot I could have put in and I didn’t,” Spencer shared.
“If I wanted to write a scandalous book about Prince Charles or King Charles as he is now, it would really be a jaw-dropper, but I’m not here to do that.”
Indeed, the relationship between Spencer and his sister’s former husband have long been strained.
And now, sources say the fact that Harry appears to have been leaning on his uncle since arriving in the UK with his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and children Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, has caused disquiet behind the scenes at the palace.
“The shocking things that Earl Spencer has accused the King of in his book have sent an absolute tidal wave through the palace,” the source tells Woman’s Day.
“They never answer these sorts of things but they had to respond, it was so upsetting for the King.
“His Majesty loathes Charles Spencer, they have never gotten along, so the fact that Harry is so close to him does give the King good reason to worry.”
However, for Harry – the source says – it makes “perfect sense” to forge a closer relationship with the Spencers who have been “nothing but warm and loving to him his entire life”.
“They’ve always tried to protect him, that’s why he’s got such a close bond with all of them – Charles, of course, but also his sisters Lady Jane Fellowes, lady Sarah McCorquodale, and all the others that are still left from his mum’s side of the family,” the source says.
“He says they have made him and his wife and children feel like they do have family in England in those moments when things have been at the lowest between Harry and his father and brother.”
Indeed, the insider goes as far as to say that Harry and Spencer “rely on each other in a very father-son way at times”.
“Harry is so grateful that he and Meghan and the children are always welcome at [Diana’s ancestral home] Althorp and there’s now talk that they might team up with the Spencers for some charity work and perhaps even some sort of collab for Meghan’s brand,” the source goes on.
But the chumminess, amid a backdrop of bombshell after bombshell in Spencer’s book is said to be making King Charles and Prince William “very uncomfortable”.
“There’s so much bad blood with Diana’s side of the family, of course it feels like Harry is siding with the enemy,” the insider says.
“Who knows what they’re planning together but the King is bracing for the worst.”
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