On his YouTube show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, Morgan read out a section of the book – which was published on 22 September – in which Earl Spencer wrote: “They realised they were unable to be rude to the brother of the much-mourned princess…
“The only one who sounded surly, as opposed to merely confused or embarrassed, was Piers Morgan of the Mirror, who snarled with annoyance before he hung up.
“I assumed Morgan must be feeling particular guilt because, four years earlier, he and his Sunday Mirror counterpart had published photographs taken with hidden cameras by a gym owner. They were of Diana working out in a leotard.
“This was such an intolerable invasion of her privacy that Diana instructed lawyers to sue the Mirror Group and to block further use of the images.”
The settlement Princess Diana’s lawyers came to in 1995 was never publicly disclosed, but it was believed that Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) paid Princess Diana’s legal costs of about £1m and about £200,000 to charities of her choice.
A spokesperson for Princess Diana’s brother said in a statement: “Earl Spencer’s account of his conversation with Piers Morgan is accurate. Mr Morgan was surly and annoyed when Earl Spencer called personally to tell him that he was not welcome at his sister’s funeral.”
The statement admitted the factual error, and said that “as an historian, accuracy is important to Earl Spencer. He therefore wishes to clarify that his assumption was incorrect. Earl Spencer apologises to Mr Morgan for this error“.
Speaking to the BBC, Morgan said: “He’s a historian. He should want it removed from the shelves. Why, if you’re doing this for historical record, would you want such a completely untrue series of claims over several pages about a public figure to still be in that book?
“Now you’ve admitted it’s untrue and apologised. He should pull the book.”
In a post on social media on Tuesday, Morgan said he was “pursuing legal action against him and his publisher Penguin to have the lies removed, and damages paid to the King’s Trust”.