Queen Elizabeth's Secret Romance With Diana's Father Revealed

In a new memoir, Charles Spencer reveals that his father John conducted a romance with young Queen Elizabeth before her marriage to Prince Philip, a relationship that was ended at the initiative of Lord Mountbatten, alongside additional revelations about Charles and Diana's relationship.

Charles Spencer's new memoir, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," was released this week and brings revelations about Princess Diana and the royal family. According to the report, Spencer's father, John, conducted a romantic relationship with young Queen Elizabeth before her marriage to Prince Philip in 1947. Lord Mountbatten, Philip's uncle, unilaterally ended the relationship after intervening and ordering Spencer's father to stop. Spencer wrote that Mountbatten may have thereby paved the way for his nephew Philip, and that his father eventually listened to the Lord but never forgave him.

In an interview with People magazine, before the book's release, Spencer said: "My father never talked about it, but in his youth he was a young and very handsome officer in the army, and worked close to the royal family. I believe there was some mutual relationship between him and Elizabeth. And then Lord Mountbatten said to my father: 'What the hell do you think you're doing? You're not suitable for her.' And he was told to disappear. It broke his heart at that time, when he was young in his 20s."

According to the book, when Elizabeth learned of Diana's car accident in Paris, she expressed mainly dissatisfaction with the princess, asking what she had done now, while still unaware of the severity of the incident and Diana's death. Spencer revealed that after the accident, Charles said to him in a phone call: "Be sure we'll forget her soon enough." According to the book, in that call Charles sounded elated and happy, like a lottery winner, and was strangely interested in already informing his sons William and Harry of the news.

Spencer wrote that looking back he suspects Charles's initial reaction was to think about how the event might free him to marry a woman he loved, rather than to mourn someone he did not love. According to him, a day before the wedding Charles told Diana he was very happy to marry her but was not in love with her, and Diana had to absorb the blow while convinced that Charles's heart was elsewhere. According to the book, before the wedding Charles gripped Diana's waist and said: "Oh, a bit chubby here, isn't it?"

According to her brother, at one point Diana considered canceling the wedding, but her father told her it was not possible at that stage. According to him, Diana reached this breaking point after Prince Andrew's 21st birthday celebrations, during which Charles ignored her, a treatment that left her wounded, confused and increasingly worried. On more than one occasion Diana traveled to Beachy Head, the highest cliff in England, as she considered ending her life; her love for her children was what stopped her.