During a special edition of the Daily Mail’s Palace Confidential, Richard Kay highlighted one story in Earl Spencer’s new memoir about Diana that he says he cannot make sense of.
Kay, who is now Senior Editor-at-Large, knew the late Princess of Wales both as a journalist and as a friend. Their relationship began while he was covering the royal family, and Diana often turned to him for advice as she navigated intense media scrutiny.
The Daily Mail has published extracts from Earl Spencer’s controversial memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, throughout the past week, ahead of the book’s release tomorrow.
The revelations led to an unusual response from Buckingham Palace after Spencer alleged that the then Prince of Wales told him, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!” during a disagreement about Diana’s funeral plans.
Although the Palace generally declines to comment on books, a spokesperson said His Majesty understands that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory”.
In conversation with Palace Confidential host Luke Blackall, Kay said he spoke to Spencer several times in the days following Diana’s death. Notes Kay made at the time suggest that some of what the Earl told him privately closely resembles the account later presented in the memoir.
One story in the memoir, set during the breakdown of Diana’s marriage, left Kay “mystified” and wondering why her brother chose to include it.
Extracts from Earl Spencer’s controversial memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, have appeared exclusively in the Daily Mail ahead of its publication tomorrow.
Yet it was another passage, dating from the period when Diana’s marriage was deteriorating, that particularly puzzled Kay and made him question Spencer’s motive for publishing it.
“Spencer is invited to meet his sister at San Lorenzo, famously one of Diana’s favourite restaurants,” Kay explained.
“They are sitting opposite one another when Diana suddenly tells him: ‘Carlos, I’m going to get a divorce.’”
Kay noted that Spencer does not provide a date for the exchange. According to the account, he responded by warning his sister to think carefully because the public could turn against her.
Diana then reportedly looked at her brother and said: “Carlos, he’s in love with his valet.”
“Carlos” was Diana’s childhood name for her brother.
A valet is a private manservant whose duties can include preparing a royal’s clothing, assisting with dressing and running a bath.
Spencer writes that Diana never identified the member of staff she was referring to. He also says he did not ask why she held what he considered to be such an unlikely belief.
Kay argued that the anecdote appears without enough background to explain it and suggested that readers would immediately begin speculating about the identity of the man involved.
“I’m honestly mystified as to why he felt that story needed to be included,” Kay told Palace Confidential.
“People will inevitably ask whether it was true. But the bigger question—and one I’m afraid I cannot answer—is why he chose to put it in the book.”
Kay said his personal theory was that Spencer may have included the passage as an act of retaliation, invoking the familiar idea that revenge is best served cold.
Spencer has since defended including the exchange, telling the BBC it came ‘in the context of a conversation where Diana is telling me that her marriage is over’.
Watch Kay’s full analysis of Earl Spencer’s memoir on Palace Confidential, available now on YouTube.
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