King Charles was ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother says

Britain’s King Charles sounded “like a lottery winner” after the death of ⁠his late first wife Diana, ⁠her brother writes in his forthcoming ⁠book, new extracts of which were published on Thursday.Diana’s brother Charles-spencer" class="entity-link entity-person" data-entity-id="205540" data-entity-type="person">Charles Spencer said the then-Prince Charles was “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997, possibly because he felt it meant he was freer to marry again, according to passages in the Daily ‌Mail.Charles on Wednesday took the unusual step of responding to criticism after the first extracts of Spencer’s book were published in the Daily Mail, saying via a spokesman that grief could impact reason, judgment and memory.There was no new comment from the king on the latest excerpts, which also stated that Diana went to a site of many suicides on Britain’s south coast, but ⁠that her love for her sons, William and Harry, “stopped her from going further”.“It is a sad fact that, ‌in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all,” Spencer said.The front cover of Charles-spencer" class="entity-link entity-person" data-entity-id="205540" data-entity-type="person">Charles Spencer’s book “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister”. Image: Penguin Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House via ReutersDiana was ‌killed at the age of 36 when the car carrying her and her lover Dodi Fayed crashed in Paris ⁠as it sped away from chasing paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.Spencer said in the book that he spoke to Charles shortly after Diana’s ‌death was confirmed, writing: “Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily ‌elated – like a ‌lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”