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Princess Diana’s brother is reopening one of the royal family’s most bitter chapters, claiming in a new memoir that she believed Charles was in love with a male servant.
Charles Spencer recounts the alleged exchange in “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” reviving a decades-old allegation that Charles’ office dismissed as entirely without foundation.
According to Spencer, Diana invited him to lunch at an upscale London restaurant and announced that she intended to seek a divorce. When he urged her against it, he writes, she offered a blunt explanation.
“But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.”
The excerpt serialized by the Daily Mail does not identify the valet, a personal servant. Spencer’s account describes what he says Princess Diana told him, rather than establishing that a relationship took place.
The allegation adds to a royal dispute already stirred by another passage in the book. Spencer claims Charles told him shortly after Diana’s death: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!”
Buckingham Palace responded with a pointed statement.
“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.”
The latest excerpt brings renewed attention to allegations that engulfed Charles’ household more than two decades ago, when speculation centered on longtime aide Michael Fawcett.
Fawcett secured a court order in 2003 preventing a British newspaper from publishing a claim identifying him as the servant allegedly involved in an incident with a royal. British outlets subsequently identified Fawcett as the person who obtained the injunction, without spelling out the underlying allegation.
The claims traced back to George Smith, another former valet in Charles’ household. In 1996, Smith alleged that an aide had raped him. Separately, he claimed to have witnessed an incident involving a royal and a senior servant.
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Charles’ private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, publicly rejected the allegations without describing them. He also challenged Smith’s reliability, saying the unnamed accuser “unfortunately has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and has previously suffered from alcoholism.”
Days later, it emerged that Peat had asked Charles’ press spokesman whether he believed Charles was gay or bisexual. The spokesman said it was “emphatically not the case.”
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Clarence House also publicly rejected the allegation as entirely without foundation.
A separate question concerned the household’s handling of Smith’s rape complaint. Peat’s inquiry, published in 2003, found no evidence of a deliberate cover-up but criticized the initial response to the complaints in the 1990s.
Fawcett’s years of service had already made him a familiar figure in Britain. He became known for putting toothpaste on Charles’ toothbrush after the royal broke his arm playing polo.
Bullying complaints prompted Fawcett’s resignation in 1998. He was subsequently brought back and promoted.
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
