Queen Elizabeth offered to restore Diana's royal title, claims Charles Spencer

Queen Elizabeth offered to restore Princess Diana's royal title after her death, according to her brother Charles Spencer.
Earl Spencer - the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales - claims the late monarch contacted him through her Private Secretary Robert Fellowes as he was on the royal train to Althorp, his family estate in Northamptonshire, ahead of Diana's burial there back in 1997 with an offer to restore the Her Royal Highness (HRH) title which had previously been removed after her divorce from King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales.
However, Spencer claims he rejected the offer because it felt like a "consolation prize". In his new book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which has been serialised by the Daily Mail newspaper, Spencer wrote that Diana was "dreadfully hurt" by the "petty and vindictive" decision to remove her HRH title and he added the Queen's gesture was "well-meaning" but he decided to reject the "consolation prize".
He wrote: "I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award. That's very kind of the Queen, of course. But what's the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana's dead."
Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris, France in August 1997 - a year after she lost her HRH title which was removed a day after her divorce from Charles was finalised in August 1996.
She was given a lavish funeral in London before a private burial at her family home of Althorp. Queen Elizabeth passed away in 2022.
The latest revelations from Earl Spencer's book come after King Charles hit out at his former brother-in-law's claims following the publication of a passage which suggested Charles sneered Diana would be forgotten "soon enough" during a phone call in the days following her passing.
In a very rare statement, a spokesperson for the king 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 judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss."
In his book, Spencer alleged he and Charles argued when debating whether Princes William and Harry, who were 15 and 12 respectively, should walk behind their mother's coffin during her funeral procession.
After the royal told his brother-in-law he had walked in the funeral procession of his beloved great uncle Lord Mountbatten in 1979, the earl pointed out he had been 30 at the time and claimed the prince "went nuts".
In a preview published by the Daily Mail, the earl wrote: "Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.
"I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he 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!’"
A source close to the king insisted to the Telegraph that the alleged remark was "just not in his nature and it certainly wasn’t in his nature at that time, when he was a man absolutely grief-stricken".
They noted Charles was "paralysed with grief" for his ex-wife and had defied protocol by insisting the princess be given a full state-style ceremonial funeral, and also that her coffin be draped in the royal standard as it returned from Paris to London.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister chronicles the princess' childhood, her difficult marriage to Charles and the aftermath of her death. It is scheduled for publication on 22 September.