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Then-Prince Charles was cruel to Princess Diana, according to her brother.

Sept. 24 2026, Published 8:00 p.m. ET

King Charles' alleged cruelty toward Princess Diana in the earliest days of their relationship has been laid bare by her brother, who claims the future monarch criticized his sister's weight and admitted before their wedding that he did not love her, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Charles Spencer, 62, makes the claims in his explosive memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, revisiting the troubled relationship between Diana and the now 77-year-old King.

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Charles Spencer claimed King Charles admitted he did not love Princess Diana.

Spencer alleges Charles made a cutting remark about Diana's body shortly after their engagement and told his bride-to-be, on the eve of their 1981 wedding, that he was "not actually in love with her."

A source familiar with Diana's story claimed: "What makes these memories particularly painful is how early they occurred. This wasn't years into a marriage that had already collapsed – Charles is alleged to have been making comments that deeply hurt Diana before they had even reached the altar.

"Diana was incredibly young and suddenly facing the expectations that came with marrying the heir to the throne. Being criticized about her appearance and then hearing that the man she was about to marry wasn't actually in love with her would have been devastating."

"Charles Spencer's account presents a marriage where some of the fundamental problems were there virtually from the beginning," the insider added. "Whatever happened subsequently, that is an extraordinarily sad foundation on which to begin married life."

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Charles famously squeezed her waist and made a cruel weight jibe.

According to Spencer, shortly after their engagement, Charles squeezed Diana's waist and said: "Oh, a bit chubby here, aren't we?"

Spencer also writes that he learned from one of Diana's friends that Charles delivered an even more devastating admission the day before their wedding.

He claims the future king told Diana, "she needed to know that he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her."

Diana married Charles at St Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981, in a ceremony watched by hundreds of millions around the world.

Their first son, Prince William, now 44, was born in 1982, followed by Prince Harry, now 42, in 1984.

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Princess Diana addressed Camilla Parker Bowles' role in her marriage during her 1995 Panorama interview.

Behind the spectacular royal appearances, however, their relationship deteriorated.

Both later acknowledged marital infidelity, and Charles resumed his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla, 79. Spencer's book also recounts another episode at Kensington Palace that he presents as illustrating the tensions between the couple.

He writes Diana was playing disco music loudly when Charles apparently bellowed: "Get her to turn off that infernal racket!"

By the early 1990s, the breakdown of the pair's infamously rocky marriage had become impossible to conceal.

The couple formally separated in 1992, and Diana subsequently discussed Charles' relationship with Camilla during her controversial 1995 Panorama interview.

Their divorce was finalized in August 1996.

Diana died aged 36 following a car crash in Paris a year later.

Spencer revisits Princess Diana's troubled marriage in his memoir.

Swan Song has reopened arguments about the royal marriage and provoked a rare public response from Buckingham Palace over Spencer's wider portrayal of the King.

The Palace has suggested grief can affect judgment and memory, while Spencer has insisted he is accurately recording events as he remembers them. Spencer says his purpose is to record Diana's story from his point of view.

He states "the aim of the book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother's perspective."

Spencer adds: "I thought, 'You know what?… I am going to tell things how I remember them, lay them down for good, once and for all.'"