A royal expert has shared his thoughts on the motivations behind Earl Spencer’s “brutal” claims against Buckingham Palace.

A war of words has broken out between the royal family and Princess Diana’s brother over allegations made in his upcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.

Revelations from the book, serialised by the Daily Mail before it is published on Tuesday (22 September), have so far focused on the King’s behaviour, from alleged statements he made to Diana before their marriage to the Earl’s claims about comments the King made to him before her funeral.

Richard Fitzwilliams told The Independent he believes Earl Spencer is “haunted … by demons of himself” and that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had some part to play.

”Timing all this just so happens it’s just after Harry and Meghan have come back… The Sussexes, whether they actually saw the manuscript or what they knew about it, of course, I don’t know. But I’m absolutely certain that there was some form of collusion or appears to have been.”