New book by Princess Diana's brother sparks royal ruckus

We can take you to the UK next, because a memoir by the brother of Princess Diana detailing her life and troubled marriage to the now King Charles, goes on sale this Tuesday. Charles Spencer then sparking global headlines with a book that accuses the then Prince of Wales of sounding like a lottery winner in the hours after Diana's death. Buckingham Palace has hit back immediately at those claims. Let's get you the very latest across to London. France 24's Bénédicte Paviot is standing by for us. Bénédicte, good to have you with us. It's no, I mean, let's say it, the claims in this book are nothing short of explosive. Indeed, it is clearly a bombshell. The book, Swan Song, Diana, My Sister, which is officially published today, on sale since 9 a.m. this morning, is already racing up the Amazon bestseller chart. Why? Because Charles Spencer has really prompted a very fierce war of words with Buckingham Palace, with comments, statements, assertions, allegations that he has put in this book, accusing the now King, the then Prince of Wales, of some very serious statements. So we've already had, in fact, six days of public accusations, and it has to be said, counterclaims, with extensive news coverage here, thanks to several extracts which have been published by the newspaper The Daily Mail. So in the book, Spencer claims that a few days after Diana's death back in 1997, 31st of August exactly, during a heated argument on the phone over whether the young princes, William and Harry, 15 and 12, respectively, should walk behind the coffin in that very public funeral procession that we can see on screen now. Then Prince Charles, according to our Spencer, said, and I quote, And that he spoke to our Spencer in a tone that our Spencer describes as a giddy tone, as if he was a lottery winner. Another quote is, I suspect the prince's reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved rather than appreciating the loss of the one he did not. So Buckingham Palace, in a very rare statement, reacted extremely quickly to that extract, that first publication by The Daily Mail, clearly saying that that memory was false. But they said it in the Buckingham Palace way. I quote, So that was the counterclaim by Buckingham Palace. Since then, all kinds of friends of the king have waded in, saying they do not recognise this at all, that he would never say something like this. As for British royal reporters, they are very much also saying the king is absolutely aggrieved by this and absolutely furious. So we've also got a poll about the monarch, the 78-year-old monarch, who, let's remember, is still undergoing cancer treatment. And the poll basically is that British newspapers have been running polls asking their readers, are you team king or team Spencer? And the polls show that the public sentiment here is 65% is on team king. And even those who back Spencer are, they say, disheartened by these very public attacks against the king. So a swift response from Buckingham Palace there, Benedict, you say. People will be wondering why now. Of course, Princess Diana passing in 1997. Why is Earl Spencer releasing this book now? Well, Earl Spencer says he believes he had a duty to record his version of events. He denies that he wrote this bombshell memoir because he was motivated by money. Some say basically this is vengeance served cold 29 years later. The fact is that ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana's death next year, all kinds of people are going to be making programs, podcasts, writing articles, etc. There is clearly a huge appetite for stories about Diana, her death, her legacy, her loveless marriage, her unhappiness, her various affairs, and also huge appetite for royal stories. So I think we can clearly see that this royal, some would say soap opera. Anyway, this royal saga is clearly going to continue.