King Charles III faces new accusations from Diana’s brother: he looked “like he had won the lottery” after the crash

King Charles III is facing fresh criticism from Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, with Buckingham Palace bracing for days of revelations from his tell-all memoir.

The latest pre-released excerpt from the book accuses the then-Prince Charles of looking “overly cheerful” and “like a lottery winner” immediately after Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris in 1997, a year after they finalized their divorce.

Spencer, an earl whose aristocratic family has generational ties to the British royal family, writes that he was at his home in South Africa with his children when he learned “in the middle of the night” from his sister Jane Fellowes that Diana had been in a car crash. He later learned, “as the horror escalated,” that she had died.

“The phone rang constantly. Prince Charles caught me as I was going up the stairs. Unlike the other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he seemed extraordinarily cheerful, like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time,” he wrote.

During the call, Spencer wrote, Charles told him he had informed Princes William and Harry, then 15 and 12, of their mother’s death.

“Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more about how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than to appreciate the loss of a woman he did not love. It can be hard to feel much pity for an ex-spouse, or those who care deeply for her, after a bitter divorce,” he added.

Spencer also described in detail the feeling of being shut out by royal protocol during the arrangements for Diana’s funeral, claiming royal officials refused a request to play Diana’s beloved music, Mozart’s “Requiem” — during her funeral.

“Diana remained theirs, in the eyes of Buckingham Palace, even after death. Her family, despite her divorce, was simply expected to comply with every royal decision,” he added.

In the first wave of revelations from the book earlier this week, Spencer claimed Charles had told him Diana would soon be forgotten in the days after her death.

Buckingham Palace issued an unusually strong statement denying Spencer’s claims and suggesting that grief for his older sister may have affected his memory.