Piers Morgan has said he is taking legal action against Earl Spencer and his publishers over “demonstrable lies” in his new bombshell Princess Diana memoir.
The broadcaster said on Monday’s episode of YouTube series Uncensored (21 September) that Diana’s brother has included “fabricated inaccuracies” about him in the book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is out now, and he is demanding they be “removed” by its publishers, Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Random House,
Morgan is at the centre of several damaging claims in the memoir, including an excerpt in which Spencer wrote “in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death, Morgan was one of four tabloid editors named, shamed and photographed in an article looking at who might be held responsible for the paparazzi's role” in her death.
Spencer said that he “assumed Morgan must be feeling particular guilt because, four years earlier, he and his Sunday Mirror counterpart had published photographs taken with hidden cameras by a gym owner” of Diana working out in a leotard, which prompted Diana to take legal action against the outlet.
However, Morgan branded the “very damning” allegation “bulls***” and “very easy to prove is bulls***”, stating that the photographs that Spencer referenced were printed two years before he joined the Daily Mirror.
“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,” he said.
Morgan told Spencer and his publishers that he will be hearing from his lawyer ”because I would like the complete lie that you’ve published about me, and those photographs, to be removed from your book” and “would like a donation to be made to the King's Trust for the damage that you've caused with your lie, after all”.
Elsewhere in the memoir, it’s alleged that Morgan “snarled with annoyance” upon being informed he was no longer invited to Princess Diana’s funeral after her family blamed the press intrusion and the actions of the paparazzi for contributing to her fatal car crash in 1997.
Earl said he himself called each tabloid newspaper editor to request that they refrain from attending, and claimed that “the only one who sounded surly, as opposed to merely confused or embarrassed, was Piers Morgan of the Mirror, who snarled with annoyance before he hung up”.
It’s also claimed in Spencer’s 400-page book that King Charles said that “we’ll forget her soon enough” after Diana’s death.
One passage reads: “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.”
In response to the claims made in the memoir, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “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.”
Spencer, publishers Michael Joseph and Morgan have been approached for comment.
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