Piers Morgan has vowed to press ahead with suing Earl Spencer despite the author apologising over an error in his controversial memoir about Diana, Princess of Wales.
Charles Spencer has made a raft of claims in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which was published on Tuesday, including that the King said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after she died and sounded “giddily elated” in the wake of the fatal car crash.
The earl also suggested Mr Morgan was responsible for publishing photographs, taken with hidden cameras, of Diana in a leotard working out at the gym, in the Daily Mirror newspaper in 1993.
But Mr Morgan was working at The Sun at the time, and did not join the Mirror as its editor until 1995.
The earl apologised and said as a historian “accuracy was important to him”, but he stood by his account that Mr Morgan was “surly and annoyed” when he called the journalist to tell him he was not welcome at Diana’s funeral.
But Mr Morgan doubled down on his threat of legal action, writing on social media: “Earl Spencer has apologised to me for his defamatory lies published in his new book, Swan Song, published today.
“But I am pursuing legal action against him and his publisher Penguin to have the lies removed, and damages paid to the King’s Trust.”
The statement on behalf of Charles Spencer read: “Earl Spencer’s account of his conversation with Piers Morgan is accurate.
“Mr Morgan was surly and annoyed when Earl Spencer called personally to tell him that he was not welcome at his sister’s funeral.
“The book then records Earl Spencer’s assumption that Mr Morgan’s response was because he was editor of the Daily Mirror when the Mirror Group had published highly intrusive photographs of Princess Diana at the gym.
“The photographs were published by the Sunday Mirror on November 7 1993. Mr Morgan has pointed out that he did not join the Daily Mirror until October 1995.
“As an historian, accuracy is important to Earl Spencer. He therefore wishes to clarify that his assumption was incorrect. Earl Spencer apologises to Mr Morgan for this error.”
Mr Morgan had earlier criticised the earl for “fabricated inaccuracies” and “examples of brazen falsity” .
Speaking on his YouTube show Piers Morgan Uncensored, he added: “It’s all bullshit and very, very easy bullshit for me to prove it.
“The photographs which he says that I published were printed by the Sunday Mirror on November 7 1993. I joined the Daily Mirror in October in 1995.
“In fact, at the time of the gym pictures, I was doing a showbiz column on the Mirror’s arch-rival, The Sun. About as far removed from responsibility for the Mirror scoop as I could possibly have been.”
Morgan was the editor of the Mirror from 1995 to 2004.
He continued: “Earl Spencer was estranged from Diana and living in South Africa at the time of her death.
“As editor of the Daily Mirror, I had lunch with her at Kensington Palace with Prince William. After that, it wasn’t uncommon for her to call my office or for me to run stories by her… Ironically, by that time in her life, I think I was probably talking to her more often than he was.
“My question though is this, if Earl Spencer can be so incredibly, defamatorially wrong about such basic facts involving me, well, why should we believe anything else he puts in this book?”
The pictures of Diana working out were taken by Bryce Taylor, the then-owner of LA Fitness in Isleworth, west London, who used a high-tech camera hidden in a panel above the princess’s head to capture her astride an exercise machine wearing a leotard and cycling shorts.
She launched legal action against Mr Taylor and Mirror Group Newspapers and they later settled out of court in 1995, with the princess’ legal costs met and a donation secured to charity.
The photos were first published in the Sunday Mirror and then the Daily Mirror.
Read MoreEarl Spencer apologises to Piers Morgan for ‘error’ in bombshell Diana memoir : Live
