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Buckingham Palace is in a war of words with Earl Spencer, the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, over a controversial memoir about her life and death.
King Charles is accused of insensitively saying to Earl Spencer, in the wake of Diana's death in 1997, that "we'll forget her soon enough", according to excerpts published in the Daily Mail.
But the Palace has pushed back unusually strongly, angered by the claims and attempting to cast doubt on them.
"While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss," it said.
The language is reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth's unexpectedly firm response to claims of racism by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2021, with the comment that "recollections may vary".
And the row threatens to overshadow a very crowded day for the royals - with the King, Prince William and Catherine attending events and Prince Harry making his first big appearance since returning to the UK.
Earl Spencer's book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, to be published next week, seems set to reopen a very difficult time in the recent history of the Royal Family - written from the perspective of her own Spencer family.
The death of Diana, a hugely popular figure, had created a volatile atmosphere, in which the royals were accused of failing to show feeling and empathy, and had seemed out of touch with the public mood.
Earl Spencer's emotional and defiant speech at her funeral added to that cloud of grievance hanging over Diana's sudden death. And this book will give an insider's view on those events.
In the published excerpt, Earl Spencer claims the then-Prince of Wales subjected him to a "stream of anger" after he insisted Diana would not have wanted Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to have to walk in her funeral procession.
Earl Spencer wrote in the book: "He [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'."
It's a claim that's being rejected by the Palace, who 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.
