King Charles responds to criticism made by Charles Spencer, the brother of his late first wife, Princess Diana. In a rare public rebuttal, the king, through a spokesman, says grief can affect reason, judgment, and memory. The comments are made in connection with assertions Spencer is reported to make in a book soon to be published.
The dispute centers on Charles’s conduct in the days after Diana dies in 1997, when she was 36. Diana dies in a car crash in Paris while in the company of Dodi Fayed, after the car is reportedly being pursued by paparazzi. Both outlets describe the timing and subject matter of Spencer’s claims, and both note the king’s spokesperson-based response as an uncommon step.
While the sources focus on the same basic exchange and its context, they differ mainly in how much they detail the circumstances of Diana’s death and the publication timing of Spencer’s book. Neither outlet presents independent evidence on the merits of Spencer’s specific allegations in this excerpt.
