Diana's brother 'sorry' for factual error amid calls to 'pulp' new book - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Charles Spencer says his book is supposed to mark the 30th anniversary of his sister's death. (ABC News: Daniel Pannett)

Charles Spencer says he will not pull his new book on the late Princess Diana, despite it containing a factual error.

Piers Morgan has threatened legal action if the book remains in stores with the error in it.

Spencer said he got a "date wrong" but maintains other recollections of his about Morgan's behaviour are true.

Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer has told 7.30 that the controversial book he wrote about his late sister contains one factual error, but he will not pull it from shelves.

The book, titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, was released in the United Kingdom after a week of disagreement over its contents and questions about its accuracy. It's due to go on sale in Australia today.

Broadcaster Piers Morgan is demanding Earl Spencer "pulp" the memoir because it contains claims about him that are "all bulls**t".

Morgan says his lawyers have sent letters to the peer and the book's publisher, Penguin, threatening legal action if it remains in stores.

The media personality has bristled at suggestions in the book he was involved in a decision to print "stolen" images of Diana while he was editor of London's Daily Mirror, pointing out he had not started working at the newspaper until almost two years after the story in question hit the presses.

Morgan also disputes Earl Spencer's recollection of a phone call the pair had, where the aristocrat revoked his invitation to Diana's funeral. Earl Spencer claimed Morgan "snarled with annoyance".

Earl Spencer's book has hit the shelves in the United Kingdom. (Reuters: Jack Taylor)

Speaking with 7.30 at his family's home north of London on Tuesday, local time, Earl Spencer apologised for the error.

"I have got a date wrong, so there's been a public statement made on my behalf to state what I have done, and I apologise," he said, but said Morgan's "surly behaviour" on the phone was "true".

While the eBook and future printed editions will be updated to remove the claim about Morgan's time at the Daily Mirror, Earl Spencer does not plan to remove the first edition from sale.

In a video posted online, Morgan railed: "If Earl Spencer can be so incredibly, defamatorily wrong about basic facts involving me, why should we believe anything else he puts in this book?"

Piers Morgan has threatened to sue Earl Spencer over claims made in the book. (Reuters: Belinda Jiao)

The aristocrat's new book has made allegations about Britain's royal family and their treatment of Diana, and dredged up damaging stories already in the public domain.

Several excerpts from the book, some particularly critical of King Charles III, who was married to Diana for 15 years, were published ahead of its release, sparking a fierce rebuke from Buckingham Palace.

The most disparaging allegations Earl Spencer has made relate to phone calls he says he had with Charles around the time of Diana's 1997 death in a car crash. Charles and Diana's acrimonious divorce had been finalised the previous year.

Earl Spencer accused Charles of sounding "giddily elated" during a conversation on the night Diana died, and also of saying "we'll forget her soon enough" several days after the crash.

He also claimed Charles had commented on Diana's weight after their engagement, which contributed to the well-documented eating disorder that she lived with, amid other details about his sister's deteriorating mental health.

Last week, after the first excerpts from the book were published in British newspapers, Buckingham Palace released this fiery statement: "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."

Earl Spencer told 7.30 Buckingham Palace's words amounted to "a classic bit of gaslighting" because they were suggesting his "brain isn't working correctly".

When asked why people should believe his account over King Charles', Earl Spencer said: "The king hasn't actually said anything. I've told the truth, and his spokesman or whatever has tried to cloud my truth — the truth — with a question mark."

Earl Spencer says he decided to write the book to coincide with the 30th anniversary of his sister's death, and because he — aged 62 — has become increasingly aware of his own mortality.

"Neither of my parents made it to 70," he told 7.30. "Why not do it while I still have what I laughingly call my brain active and give it a go?"

Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997. (Reuters)

The earl, who has previously worked as a journalist and historian, has already written several books.

Some have accused him of trying to profit off his sister's death by releasing the memoir.

"Money has never been any part of my writing this book at all," Earl Spencer said, adding that he had received a "flood of applications for interviews" about the anniversary that he did not want to do.

"And then I thought, how about if people want to know what I had to say, why don't I say it myself?"

King Charles and Queen Camilla step out in London. (Reuters: Hollie Adams)

The book contains multiple references to time Diana spent in Australia.

It details her time at her mother and stepfather's property in country New South Wales in February 1981, shortly before her engagement to Charles was made public. Earl Spencer claimed his sister spent the trip mulling her options.

"Diana made her decision during her fortnight hidden away from the press on the other side of the world," a passage in the book reads.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana chat during a 1988 trip to Sydney. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)

Earl Spencer also references an infamous picture of a sobbing Diana snapped at the Sydney Opera House during her first royal tour to Australia in 1983.

Huge crowds turned out to see her in Sydney, Melbourne, and other cities, prompting some media at the time to describe the scenes as "Dianamania".

Earl Spencer claimed the amount of attention Diana had been getting had angered Charles and made him envious.

"Outside the Sydney Opera House, Diana was so upset at her husband's attitude towards her that she sobbed uncontrollably in public for two minutes," Earl Spencer wrote in his book.

He told 7.30 his sister "loved Australia" and while the 1983 tour had been "happy", it was a "pivotal point" in Diana's relationship with Charles for the wrong reasons.

People visit Althorp House, the home of the Spencer family, last month. (Reuters: Chris J. Ratcliffe )

The book includes a fresh claim the late billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed groped Diana early in her romance with his son, Dodi. Dodi and Diana dated after her divorce with Charles was finalised.

Earl Spencer told 7.30 he had hosted Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their two children at the 550-acre Althorp Estate shortly after they relocated to the UK from California last month.

The couple's return to Britain has sparked a flurry of interest, particularly as Harry, the king's second son, had said as recently as last year, he would not return to his home country.

"It's one thing to look at these people as princes and princesses, and it all sounds a bit Disney, but they're still humans, and they have relatives they've dropped by on," Earl Spencer said.

"And yes, this is a sort of absurd-looking house, but it's still a home when they need it."

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