EXCLUSIVE: GB News star shuts down Earl Spencer with angry four-word response
Former royal butler Grant Harrold has strongly challenged Earl Charles Spencer’s explosive claims about King Charles and Princess Diana, insisting his own experience inside the Royal Household tells a very different story.
The row centres on an allegation contained in Earl Spencer’s forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.
In an extract from the book, Diana’s brother claims the then-Prince Charles made a shocking remark while discussions were taking place over whether Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, should walk behind their mother’s coffin at her funeral in September 1997.
According to Spencer, Charles allegedly told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”
The claim is Spencer’s recollection of a private conversation and has not been independently established.
Grant Harrold, who previously worked as a royal butler, has now pushed back firmly against the allegation.
“The King certainly didn’t want Diana forgotten,” he said, adding four emphatic words: “I saw that firsthand.”
Grant Harrold Says Claim Left Him ‘Quite Shocked’
Speaking on The Royals Uncensored, Harrold described the claims emerging from Spencer’s memoir as extraordinary.
“This is a nuclear strike at the heart of the monarchy,” he said. “This is extraordinary, what’s come out.”
However, Harrold stopped short of claiming that no tense conversation could ever have happened between Charles and Spencer.
He acknowledged that an exchange of some kind was possible, but said what he personally witnessed after Diana’s death did not fit the picture being presented.
“I was quite shocked,” the 48-year-old said.
“Look, it’s completely possible that maybe it was an exchange of some kind, but I was around, especially in those days after Princess Diana had obviously died.”
Harrold continued that, based on his own experience, he believed Charles still cared about Diana.
‘He Certainly Didn’t Want Her Forgotten’
Harrold said there were personal reminders of Diana that remained present after her death.
He recalled that Charles continued wearing her wedding ring for a period and said other personal items and memories suggested Diana was still very much part of family life.
“He still wore her wedding ring as far as I could see,” Harrold said, adding that it was later removed after Charles remarried.
He questioned why those reminders would have remained if Charles truly wanted Diana erased from memory.
“Why would you keep those things, those personal things, around if you were telling the world that she’ll be forgotten?” he asked.
“He certainly didn’t want her forgotten, and I witnessed that firsthand.”
Harrold said the allegation left him both “angry and annoyed” because he believed it presented an unfair picture of what happened.
Buckingham Palace Also Responds
Buckingham Palace has also issued a rare response to Spencer’s claims.
A Palace spokesperson said the King was conscious of how grief can affect people’s memories and judgement.
“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,” the statement said.
The statement did not directly say whether the words attributed to Charles were spoken.
Instead, it appeared to question the reliability of Spencer’s recollection of events almost three decades ago.
The unusually direct response has added further attention to a book already generating intense discussion around Diana’s final days and the difficult relationship between her family and the Royal Household.
Diana’s Funeral at Centre of Dispute
Princess Diana died following a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Her funeral was held six days later at Westminster Abbey.
William and Harry walked behind their mother’s coffin alongside Charles, Prince Philip and Earl Spencer — an image that became one of the defining moments of the mourning period.
According to Spencer’s account, it was discussions surrounding the young princes’ involvement in that procession that led to the alleged argument with Charles.
His book claims the exchange
