LONDON (AP) — A new book published Tuesday by the brother of the late Princess Diana has made headlines around the world with its damning allegations about Diana's ex-husband, now King Charles III, and reopened decades-old wounds within Britain's royal family.
In “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” Charles Spencer alleges that he argued with the then-Prince Charles over palace plans for Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12, to walk behind their mother's coffin during her 1997 funeral procession.
Spencer says he told Charles that Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris at the age of 36, would not have wanted her boys to undergo the ordeal. He claims the prince “went ballistic” during the argument, and told him: "Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough." Spencer also accuses Charles of having “contempt” for his ex-wife and of sounding “elated” after her death.
After excerpts of the book were published last week, Buckingham Palace responded with a strongly-worded statement that's rare by the measured standards of the royal household.
“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 claims, insisting to the BBC that he is telling the truth. On the royal rebuttal, he asked: “Is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”
Charles, then 32, married 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer in a lavish ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1981. The couple divorced in 1996, and a decade later Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla.
Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, has long clashed with the royals over their treatment of his older sister.
Tensions between the palace and the Spencer family following her death were dramatized in the film “The Queen” and the Netflix series "The Crown."
In a searing eulogy at his sister’s funeral, Spencer vowed that her “blood family” would carry on her “imaginative and loving” legacy in raising her two sons. The speech was widely considered a swipe at the royal family.
At the time, many in Britain and beyond felt Queen Elizabeth II and the royals were too slow to acknowledge the global outpouring of grief over Diana's death and that the monarchy was deeply out of touch with the public mood.
The royals have spent decades putting that period of crisis behind them. The warmer, more personable approach of William and Harry — and, in recent years, the king — is a legacy of that time.
In his book, Spencer also criticized the royals for what he described as a “lack of obvious care” for the then 12-year-old Harry.
He recounted how “tiny, and slight, and bereft” his nephew looked after the funeral. “He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him,” he wrote. “But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”
Some critics have questioned why Spencer felt the need to revisit the pain and trauma 30 years on.
The aristocrat said he wanted to write down his own thoughts and memories about Diana, “once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths.”
Asked if the relationship between the press and Harry and his wife, Meghan, mirrors the way the media treated his sister, Spencer told the BBC: “(Diana) was really brought low by all that criticism. I suppose it's a pity when I see echoes of that now.”
Penguin Press said the book will be published globally and translated into 12 languages.
Britain's King Charles III gestures at The King's Foundation's Harmony in Food and Farming Summit, at the Foundation's headquarters in Cumnock, Scotland, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.(Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
FILE - Diana, Princess of Wales waves to the crowd as she leaves the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney Australia, Friday, Nov. 1, 1996. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - From left: Britain's Prince Philip, Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and Prince Charles walk outside Westminster Abbey during the funeral procession for Diana, Princess of Wales, Sept. 6, 1997. (AP Photo/Jeff J. Mitchell, Pool, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday its latest missile tests involved a new weapons system of “great significance,” with photos indicating it launched a missile previously described as hypersonic.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the weapon’s development would strengthen the country’s war readiness and give its enemies an “incurable headache,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. He did not describe what the weapon was.
Kim observed Sunday’s tests with his teenage daughter, widely seen as a potential successor.
South Korea’s military detected North Korea firing two short-range missiles three hours apart from the eastern coastal Wonsan area Sunday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles flew about 450 and 600 kilometers (280 miles and 370 miles) toward the sea, while Japan’s military said they landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.
The launches extended a recent run in military displays, including live-fire exercises and the commissioning of a new warship, as Kim continues to flaunt his growing nuclear program despite U.S. calls to revive diplomacy.
Following years of intensified testing, Kim now has an extensive arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles, including long-range weapons potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and shorter-range systems designed to overwhelm missile defenses in South Korea and Japan.
Among the weapons North Korea has tested in recent years are various missile systems fitted with purported hypersonic weapons, which are designed to travel at more than five times the speed of sound. Their speed and maneuverability are intended to help them evade regional missile defenses, but some experts have questioned whether they have consistently reached the speeds claimed by the North during tests.
KCNA’s photos of Sunday’s tests showed what appeared to be two missiles tipped with conical, finned vehicles being fired from launcher trucks. Kim is seen looking at a monitoring screen that identifies the missile as a Hwasong-11Ma, a system North Korea has previously described as hypersonic.
Graphics on the screen showed a missile trajectory overlaid on a map, along with figures for a speed of 2,146 meters (1.3 miles) per second, an altitude of 35.8 kilometers (22 miles) and a range of 908.2 kilometers (564 miles). The reported distance exceeded the flight range announced by South Korea’s military. Jang Do-young, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military was assessing the details from the North Korean report and cautioned that the North’s claims about missile capabilities “cannot be 100% trusted.”
The launches were the latest in a series of weapons demonstrations by North Korea even after U.S. President Donald Trump scaled back a joint military exercise with South Korea last month in an apparent effort to revive diplomacy with Kim, who has called such drills invasion rehearsals. Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, dismissed Trump’s overture, saying that shortening the drill would not change its “provocative, aggressive nature.”
North Korea has a long history of ratcheting up pressure on South Korea when it doesn’t get what it wants from the United States, and Kim Jong Un has recently taken a particularly hostile stance toward Seoul, suspending virtually all inter-Korean cooperation and dialogue and declaring the South a permanent enemy.
In a written response to questions by The Associated Press, liberal South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who favors engagement with the North, expressed hope Tuesday that a resumption of Trump-Kim diplomacy would help reopen dialogue between the two Koreas. He called for a practical, step-by-step approach to North Korea’s denuclearization, with incentives offered as Pyongyang makes progress toward eliminating its nuclear weapons.
Emboldened by his advancing nuclear arsenal and deepening ties with Russia and China, experts say Kim likely sees himself as having greater leverage in any renewed diplomacy with Trump. His government has said Washington must first drop its “hostile policy” — a term Pyongyang mainly uses to describe U.S.-led sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korea military drills — and abandon demands for North Korea’s denuclearization as a precondition for talks.
In this photo provided Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, center right, watches missile tests in an undisclosed location, North Korea Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, center right, watches missile tests in an undisclosed location, North Korea Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un attends a parade with his daughter in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Feb. 25, 2026 as the North wrapped up the Workers' Party congress. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
