Prince Harry declined to answer questions about his uncle Earl Spencer’s incendiary new book during his first public appearance since returning to the UK with Meghan, although he acknowledged that the past few weeks had been “eventful”.
The Duke of Sussex appeared relaxed and smiling as he attended the first Invictus Spirit Awards at Greenwich’s historic Old Royal Naval College last night, amid a bitter public dispute involving King Charles and Diana’s brother.
However, his expression turned serious when a reporter called out on the red carpet: “Harry, Harry, how are you feeling about your uncle’s book?”
Harry, who attended without Meghan, appeared to hear the question but kept his gaze fixed ahead. He placed an arm around the shoulders of two veterans and did not respond.
Earl Spencer’s book, which is being serialised exclusively by the Daily Mail, has emerged as Harry and Meghan’s UK return unfolds. Sources close to the Duke say he was aware of the memoir but insist that he has not read it.
The Sussexes’ return has already brought a number of difficulties, including their decision to remove their children from school after two days because of security concerns connected to traffic.
Speaking in his first interview since returning, Harry said with a grin: “It’s great. It’s wonderful to be back on British soil and really nice to see so many old faces and friends. It’s been eventful, but we’re getting stuck into the work.
“The kids are in school. We’re happy. And, as I said, it’s great to be back on British soil and, yeah, looking forward to Birmingham next year.”
In his explosive memoir, Earl Spencer claims that Charles sounded “elated – like a lottery winner” after Diana’s death.
He further alleges that Charles said Princess Diana would soon be forgotten, and claims Diana had told him that her royal husband was in love with his valet.
Royal aides have acidly suggested that grief had clouded Earl Spencer’s ‘reason, judgement and memory’ in response to the book, while friends insisted Charles would never have spoken that way and consumed by grief when she died.
The moment Harry was asked, loudly, about his uncle’s book but he kept walking as he arrived in Greenwich for an Invictus event last night
Harry, pictured speaking on stage, later admitted his return to the UK had been ‘eventful’ but said his family is happy and the children are in school
Harry laughs with his friend James Corden
Dressed in black tie and wearing his military medals, the Duke of Sussex posed for photographs and then for selfies outside the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich on the banks of the Thames where the ceremony is being held.
At the awards ceremony this evening, the prince will celebrate the courage and commitment of people in the Invictus community.
Five prizes will be handed out – including the Resilience, Champion, Community and Movement awards – with a total of 14 individuals and organisations nominated.
Harry was seen posing with former England rugby union player James Haskell, who supported the launch of the Invictus Games, before going into the ceremony.
A host of famous faces including comedian James Corden, who opened the evening, chart topping singer Jess Glynn, who gave a headline performance and actor Ross Kemp were also in attendance.
Giving a speech at the awards, Harry spoke directly to veterans around the world.
‘I want to say this as one soldier to another: your service matters. What you gave in uniform matters,’ he said.
Earl Spencer’s book has sent shockwaves through the Royal Family. His incendiary claim that – days after Diana’s death in a car crash – Prince Charles said: ‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough’, triggered a war of words yesterday.
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The earl’s description of Charles’s alleged outburst prompted an extraordinary statement from the Palace, with royal aides questioning the veracity of his account and suggesting that grief can ‘cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory’.
The book’s first astonishing extract made headline around the world and is splitting society with rival camps backing either side.
In the first extract, published online yesterday and in today’s Daily Mail, the earl claims:
- The late Queen dramatically offered to restore Princess Diana’s royal title on the day of her funeral;
- Diana told her father she could not go through with the marriage to Prince Charles a month before the wedding – but he told her it was ‘impossible to pull out’;
- The day before the wedding Charles told Diana that while he was happy to marry her, he was not in love with her;
- Diana was so unhappy that she considered suicide and drove herself ‘more than once’ to Beachy Head cliffs in East Sussex;
- Charles sounded ‘giddily elated – like a lottery winner’ shortly after Diana’s death.
Announcing the book last month, Earl Spencer said that, ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next year, he wanted to write down his own thoughts and memories ‘rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others’.
Diana lost her HRH title after her divorce in August 1996 and was instead styled Diana, Princess of Wales.
Describing the Queen’s offer, made just hours after he delivered his defiant eulogy at Diana’s funeral, Earl Spencer writes: ‘When we had gone some miles, Robert beckoned me to follow him into a quiet corner of the carriage.
‘I have just received a call from Her Majesty …and she would like to offer Diana her HRH title back.’ Mr Fellowes died in 2024.
The earl later wondered whether he was right to reject the offer, and that ‘maybe Diana would have seen some point in having HRH carved on her tombstone’.
But he said he ‘had no doubt that the consolation prize was hollow, however well-meaning the Queen’s gesture’, adding: ‘The title should never have been removed during her life, in which case it would not have been necessary to offer it to her in death.’
The memoir provides, for the first time, Earl Spencer’s insight into his sister’s deeply unhappy 15-year marriage and the then Prince of Wales’s love for her rival Camilla.
He recalls that on the day of Diana’s magnificent wedding in July 1981, he visited her at Clarence House where he found her ‘sitting quietly in front of a mirror’.
‘Only much later would I discover that, as she confided to a close friend, her husband-to-be had told her the previous day that she needed to know that he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her,’ he writes.
The Earl, Diana and Charles at the Earl’s 21st birthday party in 1985 at the Mirabelle restaurant in London
The front cover of Charles Spencer’s book ‘Swan Song, Diana: My Sister’
Royal watchers were stunned by the Palace’s highly unusual response to Earl Spencer’s book.
In the statement, released on Wednesday night, it said: ‘While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.’
One royal aide later described the earl’s account to the BBC as a ‘demonstrably untrue claim’ about a deeply compassionate man.
Julian Payne, the King’s former communications secretary, yesterday said the King had told staff never to criticise Diana for years after her death.
Mr Payne, who worked for the then Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall for five years from 2016, including during the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘He was absolutely emphatic that we were to respect her memory and not undermine it in any way.’
The Palace declined to comment on the earl’s further claims last night.