LONDON  –  King Charles III wanted all eyes on AI, as he prepared to host a major summit to discuss the controversial technology. But those hopes were shattered after a fresh royal scandal hit the front pages hours before Thursday’s meeting was set to start, threatening to overshadow the tech gathering and throwing the clan into turmoil. “Charles’s astonishing outburst days after Diana’s death,” the Daily Mail’s front page read, while the Daily Telegraph wrote, “Palace hits back at Diana’s brother.” Buckingham Palace issued a rare rebuttal on Wednesday after Charles Spencer, the brother of the late Princess Diana, said Charles had told him days after her death that “we’ll forget her soon enough,” according to an extract published by the Daily Mail from his forthcoming book. Spencer claims Charles – then Prince of Wales – launched into a “stream of anger” over the phone following Diana’s death, after Spencer argued his sister would not have wanted William and Harry to take part in her funeral procession. Fresh claims published Thursday in another extract by the Daily Mail alleged Charles “sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner” when speaking to Spencer on the night of Diana’s death. CNN has not seen Spencer’s upcoming book “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” ahead of its publication next month. It has reached out to the Palace regarding Thursday’s extract. The late Princess of Wales died in August 1997 after suffering internal injuries resulting from a high-speed car crash in Paris. Her sons, ages 15 and 12 at the time, walked in the funeral procession days later alongside Charles, from whom she was divorced. Spencer’s memoir casts back to a particularly sensitive period for the royals. Known as the “People’s Princess,” Diana was a beloved figure in the United Kingdom and around the world whose untimely death, age 36, stunned the nation. The royal family’s initial response to her death was criticized as overly insular, sparking a major constitutional crisis and widespread public backlash. In response to the memoir, Buckingham Palace called into question Spencer’s personal judgement following Diana’s death – an unusual intervention, even in the palace’s own words, and one which speaks to the scale of the crisis in the eyes of “the firm,” as the royal family is sometimes described.

 “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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,” a palace spokesperson said. For some royal observers, the firm’s response echoed the late Queen Elizabeth’s rebuke of several damning claims made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2021, after the couple left the UK for North America following their step back from royal life.  Extracts from the book also detail Spencer’s perception of his sister’s unhappy relationship with Charles, including allegations that she found a bracelet her then-fiancé had bought for Camilla, and later tried to break off the engagement. It also alleges Charles called her “chubby” just after their engagement, a comment Diana, who suffered from an eating disorder, found “devastating.” Many of these anecdotes have previously been reported by various biographers and outlets.