Prince William ‘Furious’ As Bombshell Reports Rock Royal Family

Prince William’s uncle promised to protect him after Princess Diana’s death. Now, royal commentators say Charles Spencer’s new memoir has left the future king furious as another fight over his mother’s memory spills into public view.

Spencer’s “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” published Tuesday, has put the royal family back on the defensive with allegations about King Charles III’s behavior after Diana died in a 1997 car crash.

British royal expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital that William isn’t close to his uncle and that sources described the prince as “absolutely furious.”

“His public silence regarding this matter is admirable,” she said. “The pain Spencer is causing William has backfired as he’s being accused of monetizing his sister’s memory.”

For William, the book touches both a childhood tragedy and the institution he will eventually lead, according to Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube’s “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered.”

“William now has to watch that same uncle reopen some of the most traumatic events of his childhood and hear extremely damaging allegations against his father,” Schofield said.

“And William isn’t just Charles’ son. He is the future king. The monarchy Charles Spencer is attacking is the institution William will inherit. William is also reasonably questioning how dredging up disputed private conversations from 30 years ago, attacking the current king and reigniting the ugliest chapters of the Charles and Diana story could be in his nephew’s best interests.”

Spencer alleges that Charles “sounded giddily elated — like a lottery winner.” Diana was 36 when she died.

He also describes arguing with the then-prince over plans for William, 15, and Prince Harry, 12, to walk behind their mother’s coffin. Spencer writes that Charles “went ballistic” and later hissed, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”

Buckingham Palace responded after excerpts appeared last week with an unusually pointed statement questioning Spencer’s recollection.

“His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,” it said.

Spencer has stood by his version of events. Asked about the king’s reaction, he told the BBC, “Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”

The Associated Press reported that some critics have questioned why Spencer chose to revisit the trauma nearly 30 years later. He said he wanted to record his memories of Diana, “once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths.”

Schofield said the fallout has hit Charles and William differently.

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“What I am hearing concerning the reaction around both households is frustration and anger, but for slightly different reasons,” she told Fox News.

“For the king, I think there is genuine anger at what amounts to an attack on his character almost 30 years after Diana’s death,” she explained.

“But Charles has also lived with being cast as the villain in the Diana story for decades. Unfortunately, being portrayed as the bad guy in somebody else’s version of this story is not new territory for him. For Prince William, there is an additional sense of betrayal. This is his uncle, who famously stood at Diana’s funeral and promised that her ‘blood family’ would protect William and Harry.”

The palace’s response going forward appears to be to keep working and let the publicity run its course, according to British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard.

Chard told Fox News that Buckingham Palace is “rattled, but they’re not panicking” over Spencer’s “verbal grenades straight at the palace gates.” She said members of the royal family are maintaining a united front privately while carrying out their duties.

“The strategy is clear: let the book have a few weeks of noisy publicity and just plow on with the job,” Chard said. “Sources say King Charles is saddened, yet angry, and sort of feels like a lamb to the slaughter facing never-ending character assassination. For Prince William, the pain cuts slightly deeper. It’s trauma stirred anew. Palace aides say his focus is on public work and protecting the family.”

An unnamed source told Radar Online that Queen Camilla is also trying to “lower the temperature.”

“She doesn’t believe anything is gained by continually reopening old wounds or allowing deeply personal disagreements about the past to develop into an increasingly hostile public battle,” the source told the outlet.

“Camilla is particularly conscious that there are different memories of what happened during an extraordinarily difficult period for the family. People experienced those events from very different perspectives, and she recognizes that emotions surrounding Diana are still exceptionally powerful.”

Author Christopher Andersen said Spencer’s allegations surprised him, although he would not rule out Charles having said something hurtful during an argument.

“Charles has a long history of lashing out, making rash and sometimes cruel, offhand statements,” Andersen told Fox News Digital.

“The king always resented being overshadowed by Diana during her lifetime, and now he was being totally eclipsed by her in death. There was lingering resentment there. It’s also clear the king knew that the public would blame him and Camilla for making Diana so desperately unhappy during her lifetime and, to some extent, for the extent, for the events leading up to her death.”

Andersen said Queen Elizabeth II “was in no mood” to see her eldest son remarry in the aftermath. Charles and Camilla, who had an affair during his marriage to Diana, married eight years later.

But Andersen said the accounts he gathered for his own book described a man overcome by grief.

“Just weeks after Diana was killed, I interviewed hundreds of sources in London and Paris for my book ‘The Day Diana Died,'” he said.

“They all remembered that Charles was absolutely devastated. ‘Crushed’ was a word I heard repeatedly when he first learned the news of Diana’s death. After years of famously battling as a married couple, they had finally found a kind of peace with each other following their 1996 divorce. They actually became friends.”

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Andersen questioned whether the remarks Spencer recalled hearing over the phone were those of “a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”

“King Charles’ world was crumbling all around him,” Andersen said. “Not only was the mother of his children suddenly gone, but at the time, Queen Elizabeth did not want the princess to have a public funeral. She refused to fly the flag at half-staff over Buckingham Palace in Diana’s honor. She did not even want to come back from her summer vacation at Balmoral. It fell on Charles’ shoulders to force his mother to show Diana the respect the British people felt she deserved.”

The author cited witnesses at Balmoral and the Paris hospital where Charles went to see Diana’s body.

“When Charles got the call at Balmoral that Diana had been killed, a staffer told me that the king let out a howl that sounded like a wounded animal, then burst into tears. Others described Charles at the time as being racked with sobs, his face streaked with tears.”

“I also interviewed the nurses at the Paris hospital who witnessed the moment Charles saw Diana’s body for the first time,” Andersen continued.

“He fell back, one of them told me, as if he had been struck by an unseen hand. They thought he was going to pass out. He then began to weep openly. Everyone was very surprised at how emotional King Charles was because they believed members of the royal family, and especially Charles, were cold and aloof. They did not doubt in their minds that he was shattered by his ex-wife’s tragic death.”

Schofield also challenged Spencer’s standing as an intimate observer of the family, contrasting his access with Prince Harry’s when he wrote his own memoir.

“Whatever you think of Prince Harry’s memoir, Harry was King Charles’ son, Prince William’s brother and a central participant in the family life he was describing,” Schofield said.

“Charles Spencer simply did not have that same proximity to the royal family or even, according to multiple accounts, to Diana throughout the final years of her life. There have been people within Diana’s circle who have challenged the impression that Charles Spencer was this constant, intimate presence in her life.”

Spencer continues to defend the book as it rolls out worldwide and is translated into 12 languages.

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