EXCLUSIVE: King Charles' 'Words of Fear' After Diana's Death Revealed

King Charles feared he would be blamed for Princess Diana's death and that the tragedy would send the world "completely mad," according to an explosive account challenging claims he reacted with elation to her shocking passing.

As RadarOnline.com readers know, Charles, 77, was then Prince of Wales when Diana, his former wife, died aged 36 following a high-speed car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Her brother Charles Spencer, 62, has now claimed in his memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, the future King sounded "giddily elated, like a lottery winner" after learning of her death – but it's an account that has now been disputed by Buckingham Palace and also challenged by the likes of Diana biographer Tina Brown.

A royal source claimed: "The recollection from people around Charles at the time is not of somebody celebrating. It is of a man suddenly confronting the enormity of what had happened and terrified about what would follow.

"There was grief for Diana, tremendous concern for William and Harry, and also a realization that public anger could turn against him. Charles understood immediately that everything involving his mistress Camilla would now become vastly more difficult."

Brown takes direct issue with Spencer's portrayal of Charles in her assessment of his book.

She said: "Here I disagree. In my own reporting for The Diana Chronicles, friends and staffers remembered how Charles, in the days after Diana's death, was almost out of his mind with guilt, grief, paternal anguish, and self-pity."

Brown added in a new Substack post that Charles feared Diana's death would destroy his painstaking attempts to secure public acceptance for his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, 79.

She claimed: "I was told that the future King believed the tragedy was, in fact, a disaster for his long campaign to win public acceptance for Camilla.

"'They're all going to blame me,' he apparently said to his private secretary Stephen Lamport. 'The world's going to go completely mad.'"

Brown added: "He was right. The finger-pointing did turn on him. And Camilla became radioactive for a time."

The account presents a markedly different picture from Spencer's recollections of his conversations with Charles following his sister's death.

Spencer has stood by his claims, including his allegation that Charles later told him "we'll forget her soon enough" during an argument about whether Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, then 12, should walk behind their mother's coffin.

Buckingham Palace has taken the highly unusual step of publicly challenging Spencer's version.

A Palace spokesperson said the King was "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise."

Spencer subsequently insisted he remembered the conversation accurately and accused the Palace of attempting to undermine his recollection.

Another royal source said Brown's account demonstrated why recollections of the traumatic period remain fiercely contested.

The insider added: "There were many emotions operating simultaneously – grief, shock, fear for two young boys and anxiety about an unprecedented public reaction.

"What Tina describes is Charles realizing that Diana's death had transformed everything overnight. Whatever anyone thought about their marriage, the mother of his children was dead, and the world was watching how he responded."

Meanwhile, sources also told us Queen Camilla is said to be attempting to act as a peacekeeper amid the bitter war of words between Charles and Spencer over his new memoir about Diana.

It came after the 79-year-old made a pointed appeal for "togetherness" during her recent literary festival at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

An insider claimed: "Camilla understands just how much emotion and painful history is wrapped up in anything involving Diana, the King and Charles Spencer. These are events that affected all of their lives profoundly, and she knows that even after all these years there are memories and feelings that remain incredibly raw.

"Her overwhelming instinct in a situation like this is to try to lower the temperature rather than contribute to another round of accusations and counter-accusations. She doesn't believe anything is gained by continually reopening old wounds or allowing deeply personal disagreements about the past to develop into an increasingly hostile public battle."

The source added: "Behind the scenes, she wants to be a steadying presence for the King while also encouraging restraint more broadly. Her view is that the best response to an emotionally charged situation is calm rather than escalation – and, wherever possible, finding common ground instead of creating another divide."