Ahead of the release of Earl Spencer’s bombshell memoir about his sibling next week, titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, one particular claim from the book has thrown the Palace for a loop.

Spencer writes that in the wake of Diana’s 1997 death in a Paris car crash, he recalls the Prince of Wales saying: “We’ll forget her soon enough.”

The uproar among the British public and press has been fierce, and Charles has been criticized for allegedly making such a cruel comment about his ex-wife, who remains a beloved icon in the U.K. — no matter how unpopular other royals are.

The language is strikingly similar to Queen Elizabeth’s response to allegations of racism from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2021, when she stated “recollections may vary,” in what was a surprisingly firm response from the monarch.

Spencer writes: “Charles unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death. ‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough’.”

According to the BBC, the Palace refute the claim. They see it as being “entirely out of character for a man with a deeply compassionate nature, who at the time was dealing with his own grief and that of their two sons.”