Princess Diana’s brother revealed a gesture he rejected from Queen Elizabeth just after his sister’s death.

Charles Spencer opens up about the astonishing moment in his new book, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” which hits shelves next week. The Daily Mail featured excerpts from the book this week.

Spencer wrote that he was on a train with his sister’s coffin to Althorp ― the Spencer family’s estate ― where Diana is buried. During the train ride, Robert Fellowes, the queen’s secretary and Spencer’s brother-in-law, spoke to Spencer about a phone call with Queen Elizabeth.

“I have just received a call from Her Majesty,” Fellowes relayed, according to Spencer. “She would like to offer Diana her HRH title back.”

Diana’s “Her Royal Highness” title was stripped following her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996. Diana was then styled as “Diana, Princess of Wales.”

Spencer wrote that he looked at Fellowes as he “tried to digest the significance of what was being suggested.”

“What would Diana want? I thought. She had been dreadfully hurt by the removal of that title as she exited her marriage. It had seemed so petty and vindictive. While she was no longer to be married to one future king, she would always be mother to another.”

“After a moment, I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award,” the historian wrote. “‘That’s very kind of the Queen, of course. But what’s the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana’s dead.’”

Spencer added that he has later asked himself if his answer “was the correct reply.”

“Maybe Diana would have seen some point in having HRH carved on her tombstone,” he wrote. “More importantly, perhaps her sons would have valued this gesture from their paternal grandmother to their mother? But I felt especially protective of Diana in that moment and had no doubt that the consolation prize was hollow, however well-meaning the Queen’s gesture.”

The earl added that, “The title should never have been removed during her life, in which case it would not have been necessary to offer it to her in death.”

HuffPost reached out to Buckingham and Kensington Palace for comment on Friday, as well as representatives for Prince Harry.

While the palaces wouldn’t typically comment, Buckingham Palace shared an astonishing response when excerpts of Spencer’s book were first published earlier this week.

“While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,” a spokesperson for the palace shared in a statement with HuffPost.

Harry, who recently relocated back to the U.K., evaded a reporter’s question about his uncle’s book on Thursday.

“Harry, Harry, how are you feeling about your uncle’s book?” a reporter asked on the red carpet, as Harry turned his focus back to the people walking with him.

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