King Charles, unusual reaction to Charles Spencer’s criticisms regarding his response after the death of Princess Diana: “The grief caused by the loss of a sibling can cloud reason, impair judgment, and influence memories”

King Charles of Britain responded on Wednesday, through a Buckingham Palace spokesperson, to criticism from Charles Spencer, the brother of his first wife, Princess Diana. The response concerns claims about the monarch’s behavior in the days following Diana’s death in 1997.

In a memoir due to be published, Spencer claims that Charles, then the heir apparent, told him, “Keep calm, we’ll forget her soon enough.” According to the British press, the remark was allegedly made during a discussion about Princes William and Harry, Diana and Charles’s minor children, taking part in their mother’s funeral procession. Spencer is said to have opposed them walking behind the coffin.

Buckingham Palace said that, although it does not usually comment on books, the pain caused by the loss of someone close can affect reason, judgment and memory, even many years later.

Diana died at the age of 36 in 1997, after the car in which she was traveling with Dodi al-Fayed crashed into a pillar in a tunnel in Paris. She and Charles divorced in 1996, following a marriage that began in 1981.