Prince William stays out of Earl Spencer’s Diana book fight

Prince William and the Princess of Wales will not publicly enter Earl Spencer’s fight over his Diana memoir, royal sources say, putting duty ahead of another family airing of old wounds.

Royal sources report that William and Kate will refuse any public role in the row over Earl Spencer’s book about his sister, the late Princess of Wales, and will keep their views private. Their team will not engage material tied to the memoir. The couple is focused on royal and charitable work instead.

Kensington Palace declined to comment on the book. That silence is deliberate. William has no interest in turning private grief into another media cycle.

Spencer has spent recent days on U.S. television promoting the memoir, titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which has been serialised in the Daily Mail. He appeared on CBS Mornings in New York City and spoke to CNN about his place in the family. He also repeated a charge that has drawn a rare reply from Buckingham Palace.

Spencer doubles down on “those five words”

Spencer says the bitterest clash with then-Prince Charles came after Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in August 1997. The dispute, he claims, centered on whether William, then 15, and Harry, then 12, should walk behind their mother’s coffin in front of the world.

Spencer told interviewers he thought the idea was wrong. He says Charles saw it differently, and that the argument produced a line Spencer still calls “those five words.”

"He genuinely said that. I call it 'those five words'. And I told people close to me about it at the time. It was so shocking."

On the funeral dispute itself, Spencer was blunt.

"And it stemmed from our severe disagreement about whether William and Harry should, at the ages of 15 and 12, have to walk behind their mother's coffin in front of the world. I thought it was an absurd idea and completely wrong. He saw things very differently."

Fox News reported the fuller alleged line from the memoir: that Charles hissed, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!” Buckingham Palace answered with an unusual public statement. A spokesperson said His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment, and color memory in ways others do not recognize.

Spencer tied the moment to Charles’s temper, pointing to the later fountain-pen outburst after Charles became king. He described himself as a grieving brother who found the exchange shocking while saying he kept calm.

"We had a difference of opinion. I kept very calm. And we all know he has a temper. You may remember the scene where he loses his temper with a fountain pen when he's signing a document after becoming King. It was probably one of those moments for him. But for me, as a grieving brother, it was very shocking."

William will not replay the 2017 script

The book arrives as the family nears the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next summer. William has already decided he will not repeat the joint on-screen tribute he and Harry gave in 2017. That year, the brothers appeared together in the ITV film Diana, Our Mother: Her Life And Legacy for the 20th anniversary. In 2021 they stood together again at the unveiling of her statue at Kensington Palace.

Approaches for new anniversary programmes have come in. William held private talks last week at Kensington Palace with BBC director-general Tim Davie. He is weighing options carefully. He has ruled out another shared documentary of the 2017 kind for 2027.

Part of that choice is practical. Part of it is personal. A Sunday Times source said William does not want to be “pitted against each other” with Harry. He is also described as furious about Spencer’s book. Still, fury is not the same as a public campaign. He is choosing silence over score-settling.

Harry’s documentary interest and the uncle’s role

Harry is understood to have asked Diana’s friends and family, including Spencer, about a commemorative film ahead of next summer’s milestone. Spencer has not hidden his contact with that side of the family. He told CNN he remains an uncle first.

"I've always just been an uncle. They're men in their 40s now. I'm there if needed. It's public record that Harry came to stay with me with his family in July. So if I'm needed, I'm there, but I'm not in anyone's way."

Harry and Meghan returned to England last month after six years in America. That homecoming brought a public spat with Buckingham Palace over status, and their children changed schools after security concerns on the school run. The couple’s post-royal path has included high-profile media deals and political outreach that went nowhere, including failed bids for a California Senate seat and a White House meeting.

Royal author Omid Scobie, long associated with the Sussexes, has been filmed for an ABC News Studios project assessing whether any of this leads to reconciliation. He was skeptical that new projects change the core dynamic, especially with William.

"I can't see it making any difference, but one can always hope."

Scobie argued the public never looks away, claimed Charles has shown more warmth toward the Sussexes, and dismissed the idea that Kate can broker peace between the brothers.

"Regardless of whether you care about Harry and Meghan or the Royal Family, the reality is that the world can't stop watching."

"I think we've seen with Charles things have moved forward and that iciness has thawed out. There's a warmth there. With William, I don't see it will ever change."

"There's always this talk of Kate potentially being the peacekeeper, the one that could bring the two brothers together. If I've learned anything over the years from covering them, it's that Kate has very little to do with that relationship between the brothers."

William and Kate were recently pictured at the world premiere of Tom Cruise’s film Digger, a public schedule item that fits the pattern sources describe: show up for the work, stay out of the memoir war.

Palace pushback meets a media tour

Spencer insists he has spoken to a nephew since the book’s release and frames himself as available but not intrusive. Buckingham Palace has now put on record that grief can distort memory. Kensington Palace will not discuss the book at all. William’s line is clearer still: no public comment, no documentary rematch with Harry, no enlistment in Spencer’s television rounds.

Diana died nearly three decades ago. The funeral procession dispute, the alleged five-word remark, the 2017 joint film, the 2021 statue, Harry’s stay with Spencer in July, the Sussexes’ return last month, and Spencer’s New York promo swing all sit in the same long aftershock. William’s answer is not another interview. It is refusal to play.

Institutions hold when people in them choose duty over drama. William is making that choice in public by saying nothing at all.