ROYAL FAMILY
Princess Diana’s butler reportedly had secret meeting with Prince William and Prince Harry
The princes reportedly met with their late mother’s friend and butler, Paul Burrell.
A source close to Paul Burrell, personal butler and close friend to the late Princess Diana, has revealed that Burrell had an off-record meeting with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry in 2017.
Many royal experts believed that Princess Diana’s sons had not seen their mother’s former butler since her death in 1997.
However, The Sun newspaper reported that the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex had secretly arranged a meeting with Burrell six years ago, just prior to Prince Harry’s 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.
The butler meets with the princes
The three men reportedly met at Kensington Palace in 2017, a week before Prince Harry announced his engagement to the former actress.
The butler, who had been in the service of the Princess of Wales for ten years at the time of her death on August 31, 1997, was alone at the meeting and answered all questions from the two sons of King Charles III.
“It was a very low-key meeting,” the source said, explaining that the brothers wanted to speak with “someone who had been close to their mother.”
“There were certain aspects of her life” the men had questions about, and “they thought Paul could provide more clarity,” the source explained. “They asked to keep it all under wraps and he respected that.”
“Paul was happy to tell them everything he knew and shed some light on their memories,” the insider revealed.
Burrell’s history with the royals
While the two brothers, now estranged, have seen Paul Burrell again, they had accused him of “cold and overt betrayal” in 2001 after the publication of the former butler’s book. ‘Royal Confidences’ contained a series of private revelations about the late Princess of Wales.
Prince Harry wrote about this book in his autobiography ‘Spare’, which was published in January.
“Mummy’s former butler had penned a tell-all which actually told nothing,” Prince Harry wrote in his book. “It was merely one man’s self-justifying, self-centering version of events.”
“My mother once called this butler a dear friend, trusted him implicitly,” the passage continues. “We did too. Now this.”