“Rest assured we will forget her soon enough.”

Words spoken by King Charles in the febrile days after the death of Princess Diana, according to her brother Earl Spencer, that have sparked yet another royal crisis. Words that now, if true, ring extremely hollow indeed, because almost 30 years since she died, Diana remains one of the most famous, beloved and emulated women in the world.

I know the rich are different but if King Charles actually said those words out loud then it takes selfish callousness to a whole new level. And if you add in the further claims by Spencer that Charles sounded “giddily elated – like a lottery winner” on the morning Diana died, you have a very disturbing image of the man who is now our King and of those courtiers closest to him, who Earl Spencer described as “relieved, indeed pleased” by the news of Diana’s death. This is jaw-dropping stuff. Interestingly though, the King issued a rare and firm rebuttal to the book earlier this week, including the line “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise”.

Of course, only the then Prince Charles and Charles Spencer know exactly what was said between them when they met to plan Diana’s funeral. Whether the King was in his right mind or not at the time, if he was so cruel, then it would go a long way to explain why Earl Spencer made that impassioned and visceral speech at Diana’s funeral, when he vowed defiantly that her blood family would make sure her son’s would not be “simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned”.

Listening to that speech today still gives me goosebumps, as........

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