Spencer describes Philip’s firm instructions to walk together, heads bowed and eyes forward. He calls the experience the most harrowing of his life, saying the march felt like a tunnel of grief replayed in nightmares, made worse by not being able to see faces in the crowd.
After the Daily Mail preview, Buckingham Palace noted it does not generally comment on books but urged sensitivity about fraternal grief. Spencer later told the BBC he stands by his account. Earlier excerpts also recount a heated phone exchange with then-Prince Charles about whether William and Harry, then teenagers, should join the procession, and the princes have described the decision as a family one.