World

‘Like a lottery winner’: Charles ‘elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother’s new book claims

The Age Sam Tobin

18 Sept 2026 06:02 AEST Summary

From the report

Earl Spencer’s book claims the then-Prince Charles seemed “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death in a car crash in 1997, possibly because he felt it meant he was freer to marry again.

This is a summary. The indicators are not. The scores were measured over this summary alone, which is less of the article than we would like and makes them less certain.

Indicators

Niral Score 4.4 mundaneloaded

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

book2claims2death2elated2

Sentiment -0.2 hostilefavourable Sourcing 79 unattributednamed sources Mood 30.9 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

Measurements of how this article is written, not of whether it is correct. How each one is measured.

Measured on The Age’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

The Age ‘Like a lottery winner’: Charles ‘elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother’s new book claims plain
ABC News Charles 'giddily elated' on night Diana was killed, her brother claims plain
The West Australian King Charles ‘sounded giddily elated’ after Princess Diana’s death, brother Earl Spencer claims in new book plain

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by Brisbane Times, WAtoday, The Sydney Morning Herald, The West Australian. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
The Ageas they published this story	4.4	1	79	-0.2	30.9
ABC News	10.3	8	77	-0.8	26.9

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Comments

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The same event elsewhere

5 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

ABC News Charles 'giddily elated' on night Diana was killed, her brother claims Niral 10.3 political 0 Brisbane Times ‘Like a lottery winner’: Charles ‘elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother’s new book claims Niral 4.4 political 0 WAtoday ‘Like a lottery winner’: Charles ‘elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother’s new book claims Niral 4.4 political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Like a lottery winner’: Charles ‘elated’ after Diana’s death, her brother’s new book claims Niral 5.3 political 0 The West Australian King Charles ‘sounded giddily elated’ after Princess Diana’s death, brother Earl Spencer claims in new book Niral 6.1 political 0