September 19, 2026 at 10:10am EDT

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The timing of Charles Spencer‘s explosive book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, about Princess Diana, has one royal expert connecting the dots to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent return to the U.K.

Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams shared a “strong belief” with the Daily Express that the September 22 publication of the book “was timed to align with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s recent activities.”

“I am convinced Spencer arranged the launch of the biography to coincide with the Sussexes’ surprise move to the UK,” Fitzwilliams claimed. “The hatred he clearly feels for the King may also well be a product of the Earl’s guilty conscience.”

The royal expert added another layer to his “conspiracy” theory: Spencer felt guilty for introducing Diana to Martin Bashir, the journalist who conducted her earth-shattering Panorama interview.

As much as Fitzwilliams wants to link the Sussexes’ return to Spencer’s book to take the heat off King Charles, it doesn’t make much sense. Prince Harry already went through the fire with the royal family after releasing the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan and his memoir, Spare. He’s done with sharing his side of the story and wants to make amends with his dad.

The palace needs to realize that there are a lot of hurt feelings surrounding the death of Princess Diana, even 30 years later.

In Harry’s 2021 Apple TV special, The Me You Can’t See, he recalled his mother’s funeral to Oprah Winfrey,

“For me, the thing I remember the most was the sound of the horses’ hooves going along the Mall. It was like I was outside of my body, just walking along, doing what was expected of me, showing one-tenth of the emotion that everyone was showing,” he said. “No child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances.”

The Duke of Sussex’s recollections are also confirmed after the Daily Mail leaked excerpts from Spencer’s book. The publication claimed that there is a section where Spencer argued with Charles over requiring Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to follow their mother’s casket during the funeral procession.

Per the media outlet, “the earl says he insisted to the then Prince of Wales that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to endure such a public ordeal.”

Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the palace cannot seem to find a way out of controversy, and it looks like they have another public spectacle on their hands, especially with conspiracy theories floating out there ahead of the book’s release.