Earl Spencer has said the ending of his eulogy at Princess Diana's funeral was a "direct counter" to earlier remarks allegedly made by King Charles.

Charles Spencer ended his speech at his sister's 1997 funeral with: "We give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds."

In his book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Earl Spencer claims that the then-Prince of Wales said of Diana, “we’ll forget her soon enough” during an argument over whether Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin in her funeral procession.

The memoir also alleges the King “sounded giddily elated” when he spoke to the Earl after Diana’s death.

Buckingham Palace responded by saying 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”.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly on Wednesday (23 September), the Earl claimed that his eulogy ending was “A direct counter to the King saying 'we'll forget her soon enough.'"