David Dimbleby Says Diana Was Deeply Resented at Buckingham Palace

David Dimbleby has said Princess Diana remains “deeply resented” at Buckingham Palace, as a fresh dispute over claims made by her brother, Earl Spencer, intensifies.

In his new memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised exclusively by the Daily Mail, Earl Spencer alleges that Prince Charles told him, “We’ll forget her [Diana] soon enough,” during a disagreement about Prince William and Prince Harry’s role in their mother’s funeral.

Buckingham Palace responded with what was described as an unprecedentedly forceful statement, suggesting that the Earl’s grief had affected his “reason, judgment and memory”.

Earl Spencer subsequently stood by his recollection, insisting that the passage in his book was accurate. “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said,” he said, as the royal controversy continued to grow.

Dimbleby, a veteran broadcaster who covered royal affairs for decades, said the Palace’s relationship with the late Princess of Wales remains fraught nearly 30 years after her death.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “Diana was the prime example of someone who didn’t act like the rest of the Royal Family – she was fresh, new and exciting to the public and they really adored her.

“And that was deeply resented in the palace. And still is. And this kind of tit for tat over who said what, and only two people know what was actually said just reignites all that.”

The broadcaster also recalled the widespread criticism of the Palace after Diana’s death, when many felt the institution had failed to grasp the scale of public grief and her extraordinary influence. He said the perception of a monarchy “behind the curve” was also explored in his 2025 documentary series, What’s The Monarchy For?.

‘And I think that’s the real problem,’ he added. ‘The monarchy is still not facing up to the biggest issues we dealt with [in the documentary]. 

‘About its wealth, its failure to pay tax, about its privileges, about the way it is going…. All those things get talked about but nothing ever gets done.’

Mr Dimbleby went on to describe the Royal Family as ‘a bit of a soap opera’, but warned against the monarchy becoming ‘trapped in this cycle of gossip’.

He added: ‘People are fascinated and I think whenever any tittle tattle reaches the public domain, people sort of think about it in terms of their own families. 

‘They all have problems and then suddenly… this family that is set up on a pedestal of being leaders of the country – they have problems too.’

The Earl on Friday insisted he is ‘telling the truth’ about his account of the phone call with Prince Charles in the days following the death of Diana. 

Speaking from his Althorp estate in Northamptonshire, Earl Spencer also questioned whether the official response showed whether the King was actually embarrassed.

And when pressed on whether he had evidence to back up the allegation, he said he told family and friends at the time what had been said ‘because it was so monstrous’.

‘I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life,’ the Earl told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

MORE STORY: Navajo Nation Flood Kills 3, Including Girl, 7, Before Birthday

‘I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now.’

Alluding to the Palace’s statement, he added: ‘Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.’

The Earl claims Charles ‘went ballistic’ and ‘ranted for a while’ after he tried to tell the future King that Diana would not have wanted William and Harry to walk in her procession.

‘And then he stopped and I thought, oh now, now he’s gonna pull himself together and say something more appropriate,’ he said.

‘And then, he said, “We’ll forget her soon enough.”‘

Earl Spencer added that the remark ‘stunned’ him, and that he hung up.

The book’s first astonishing extract made headlines around the world and is splitting society, with rival camps backing either side.

A second extract was published on DailyMail.com on Friday afternoon, in which the Earl alleges the Royals allowed a tormented Prince Harry to ‘spin out of control’ after his mother’s death.

Speaking of the day of the funeral, he writes: ‘I could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft, Harry looked.

‘Too small to be doing this, I thought, and wondered how on earth this heartbroken child could bear the ordeal of that moment, or how he could possibly be expected to deal with the agony that the day ahead would insist upon.’

The Earl also gives a heartbreaking account of how a friend drove him to Chapel Royal – a small place of worship across the road from St James’s Palace where Diana’s coffin was placed in the days before her funeral.

The passage reads: ‘I had come to sit with Diana, alone.

‘Dappled sunlight from the high stained-glass windows played across the coffin that both formed the focus of the room and presented me with the stark evidence of Diana’s death.

‘I sat down lightly beside it and began to talk to my sister for some time, expressing love and grief, and making promises on her behalf.

‘After a short while, I remembered that I had my eulogy in my pocket, and it occurred to me that I should read it to her.’