BREAKING NEWS: Moment Laura Kuenssberg asks Earl Spencer ‘is King Charles lying’ – and his response
The BBC star headed to Althorp Estate to meet with Earl Charles Spencer.
Laura Kuenssberg grilled Earl Charles Spencer (Image: BBC)
BBC’s former political editor and presenter Laura Kuenssberg asked Earl Charles Spencer directly if King Charles is a liar – and his response left her speechless. The Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg star headed to Althorp Estate to grill Spencer on bombshell allegations made in his new memoir, Swan Song, for a BBC special called Princess Diana: My Sister’s Story.
Kuenssberg began by confronting him over allegations that King Charles said Diana would be “forgotten soon enough”, and sounded “giddily elated” after her death – allegations the Palace has denied. She said: “You know that Buckingham Palace has already said, with a degree of fury, that that didn’t happen.”
Spencer argued: “They haven’t, actually, Laura. They’ve sort of smudged that one, haven’t they? They said that recollections may vary.”
Kuenssberg clarified: “Well let me read you exactly what the Palace has said. They said, ‘His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.’ The King is plainly furious. Buckingham Palace almost never issues any kind of statement.”
But Spencer said: “Well, is he furious, or is he embarrassed? Because I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.
“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words that he said. I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”
Earl Spencer hit back at Buckingham Palace (Image: BBC)
Kuenssberg then put to him: “Which Charles are the public meant to believe? Are they to believe you, or are they to believe the King, the head of state of this country, who’s giving the impression – very forcefully – that this didn’t happen? Who are we to believe?”
And Spencer said simply: “I’m telling the truth.”
Kuenssberg pushed back: “So the King is giving an impression to the country that’s not true? Misleading people? Even lying?”
Spencer would only say: “I can hardly be responsible for what Buckingham Palace says. All I can tell you is what was said, and what I heard, and what shocked me.
“What else would have made me hang up on the King that day? It was something as outrageous as that slur against Diana.”
