Photo via BBC News

Watch: Earl Spencer says he felt Charles had 'giddy tone' during call after Diana's death

Read the original at BBC News ↗
Cite

Watch: Earl Spencer says he felt Charles had 'giddy tone' during call after Diana's death. (2026, September 20). BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c6q8jpxxv9k2o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

BBC News · collected 2026-09-20

Quick Summary

Earl Spencer claims that during a phone call with Prince Charles shortly after Princess Diana’s death, he detected what he described as a "giddy tone" in Charles's voice. In an interview with the BBC, Spencer said this lightness in Charles's tone about breaking the news to William and Harry struck him as inappropriate. Buckingham Palace responded by issuing a rare statement suggesting that grief can distort memory and judgment.
Written by AI on 2026-09-20, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In September 2026, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan moved their children, Prince Archie (aged seven) and Princess Lilibet (five), to a new school in Britain after just two days due to security concerns. The couple's spokesperson cited heavy traffic between their home and the original school as the reason for the move. This decision came shortly after Harry and Meghan returned to Britain from California, where they had lived for six years. Additionally, the family's publicly-funded security is currently being reviewed by a government committee known as Ravec (the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures).

Written for “Charles Spencer's Memoir Controversy” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 141 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Charles Spencer's Memoir Controversy
Entertainment · 142 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 12% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Charles sounded ‘giddily elated’ in phone call after Diana’s death, Earl Spencer claims Same event
Evening Standard
Hedges 5 of 20 claims Outlet record 64/100
King sounded ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death, Earl Spencer claims Same event
Evening Standard
Hedges 2 of 7 claims Outlet record 64/100
‘Elated’ King Charles sounded like ‘a lottery winner’ when Princess Diana died, her brother claims Same event
New York Post
Hedges 4 of 13 claims Outlet record 66/100
Charles ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother claims: ‘Like a lottery winner’; Buckingham Palace responds Same event
Times of India
Hedges 5 of 19 claims Outlet record 59/100
Charles 'Sounded Giddily Elated' Over Diana's Death: Earl Spencer Same event
NBC News
Outlet record 60/100
Princess Diana's brother claims Charles sounded "elated" after she died Same event
CBS News
Hedges 7 of 19 claims Outlet record 66/100
Princess Diana's brother claims Prince Charles seemed "upbeat" after she died Same event
CBS News
Hedges 2 of 2 claims Outlet record 66/100
'Is he furious or embarrassed?' Diana's brother stands firm on King Charles claim Same event
Times of India
Hedges 3 of 14 claims Outlet record 59/100
Charles 'sounded giddily elated' after Diana died, Earl Spencer claims Same event
BBC News
Hedges 3 of 17 claims Outlet record 68/100
Charles told Earl Spencer 'rest assured, we'll forget Diana soon enough' in incendiary phone call days after her death, claims devastating memoir Same event
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 2 of 26 claims Outlet record 69/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
8
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
1 of 8 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
68/100
BBC News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
142
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-20 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

BBC News · 4907 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)
2026-10-30
Manhunt under way for Tennessee killer who escaped prison through a fence
2026-10-20
'The French correction' and 'Labour cuts £2bn from Army'
2026-10-16
Sean 'Diddy' Combs moved to low-security facility in Pennsylvania
2026-10-06
Five reasons India's stock market is sinking even when its economy is growing
2026-10-03
Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike's failed execution, governor says
2026-09-21
Watch: BBC tracks down abusive teacher secretly released early

Who wrote this

No reporter is named on this article.

Topics

BBC BBC One BBC iPlayer Buckingham Palace Cape Town

Subjects

Earl Spencer PERSON · 4× Charles PERSON · 3× Diana PERSON · 3× BBC ORG · 2× BBC iPlayer ORG · 1× Buckingham Palace ORG · 1× Cape Town GPE · 1× Harry PERSON · 1× Laura Kuenssberg PERSON · 1× William PERSON · 1×

Narrative

In an interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, he said he took a call at his home in Cape Town from Charles, who told him how he had broken the news to Princes William and Harry at Balmoral Castle.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-20
🔮 In an interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, he said he took a call at his home in Cape Town from Charles, who told him how he had broken the news to Princes William and Harry at Balmoral Castle.
2026-09-20 · BBC News
Watch: Earl Spencer says he felt Charles had 'giddy tone' during call after Diana's death · assertive framing

Claims (8 extracted, 1 hedged)

Watch: Earl Spencer says he felt Charles had 'giddy tone' during call after Diana's death asserted
Charles → watch → death
Earl Spencer has said he felt there was a "lightness" in the tone of the then-Prince Charles during a phone call following the death of his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales. asserted
he → say → Wales
In an interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, he said he took a call at his home in Cape Town from Charles, who told him how he had broken the news to Princes William and Harry at Balmoral Castle. asserted
he → say → Castle
"I felt there was a sort of giddy tone," Earl Spencer told the BBC. asserted
Spencer → feel → BBC
"I'd had a lot of calls that day from people who cared, who were stunned... and I just felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana's death that really jarred with me." asserted
that → have → me
Buckingham Palace released a rare statement on Wednesday in response to claims made by Earl Spencer in his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is due to be published on Tuesday. uncertain
which → release → Tuesday
It said the King was "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". asserted
others → say → loss
The full interview, Princess Diana: My Sister's Story, is available on BBC iPlayer and will be broadcast on BBC One at 18:30 BST on Sunday. asserted
interview → broadcast → Sunday
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support
Terms · Privacy · beta v2.0.0
Articles to 2 Nov 2026