5 hours ago
23
Piers Morgan has said he will sue Earl Spencer over “fabricated inaccuracies” and “examples of brazen falsity” in his book about Diana, Princess of Wales.
The earl has made a series of claims in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, including that King Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after she died, which has prompted a war of words between him and Buckingham Palace.
The book, which is out now, also contains allegations about Morgan, a former tabloid newspaper editor, who has strongly rebuked the claims.
Speaking on his YouTube show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, Morgan said: “Many allies of his majesty have called into question these facts, ever since the most salacious accusations were serialised by the Daily Mail.
“Many royal commentators and experts have lined up to say that they simply don’t ring true. The king himself issued a furious rebuke that is almost without precedent. But, in essence, this has all been about opinions. Recollections may vary, after all. Well, until now.
“Because I can exclusively reveal on Uncensored that Earl Spencer’s book contains fabricated inaccuracies which will strike to the heart of his credibility. Spencer recounts how he personally called round the tabloid newspaper editors to uninvite them from Princess Diana’s funeral, after they had all been invited. I remember this well, because I was one of them.”
Morgan read an extract from Spencer’s book, which claims the editor “snarled with annoyance before he hung up”. Spencer then alleges in the book that Morgan was behind the publication of photographs taken by an allegedly hidden camera in a gym of Diana working out in a leotard.
But Morgan told his audience on YouTube that the pictures were published in the Sunday Mirror nearly two years before he became editor at the Daily Mirror and when he was working at the Sun.
He said: “Well, this is all pretty extraordinary stuff, isn’t it? And very damning, particularly about me. I come across in the most despicable manner imaginable. There’s just one problem. It’s all bullshit and very, very easy bullshit for me to prove it.
“The photographs which he says that I published were printed by the Sunday Mirror on 7 November 1993. I joined the Daily Mirror in October in 1995. In fact, at the time of the gym pictures, I was doing a showbiz column on the Mirror’s arch-rival, the Sun. About as far removed from responsibility for the Mirror scoop as I could possibly have been.”
Morgan was the editor of the Mirror from 1995 to 2004.
He continued: “Earl Spencer was estranged from Diana and living in South Africa at the time of her death. As editor of the Daily Mirror, I had lunch with her at Kensington Palace with Prince William. After that, it wasn’t uncommon for her to call my office or for me to run stories by her … Ironically, by that time in her life I think I was probably talking to her more often than he was.
“My question, though, is this: if Earl Spencer can be so incredibly, defamatorily wrong about such basic facts involving me, well, why should we believe anything else he puts in this book?”
He later added: “In the meantime, Earl Spencer, you’ll be hearing – and your publishers – from my lawyers.”
Spencer has been contacted for comment via the PR agency representing his publisher, Penguin Random House.
