He’s known to many for his high-profile trial where he was cleared after being accused of stealing and selling items belonging to Princess Diana‘s estate – as well as for appearing as a contestant on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!
Paul Burrell joined the household of Prince Charles and Diana at Highgrove House in 1987 after working as the Queen’s footman, later becoming the Princess’ butler and remaining in this role until her death.
Burrell became a close confidante of the Princess – but the family’s perception of him soured shortly after Diana’s passing in 1997.
William and Harry accused Burrell of a ‘cold and overt betrayal’ after he published his memoir A Royal Duty – which contained a raft of private revelations.
According to Harry’s witness statement in his High Court battle with Mirror Group Newspapers, the Prince took the view that his mother’s former butler was an attention-seeking, self-interested ‘two-faced sh**’.
And now the man Diana once called her ‘rock’ is set to release a third ‘intimate’ memoir, promising to reveal stories he felt he couldn’t share while the late Queen was still alive.
His book The Royal Insider – with a picture of himself and Diana on the cover – is due out in September.
The Princes are now bracing themselves for what he might reveal as he vows to ‘speak candidly about the tensions that simmered’ during his time at the Palace – ‘including the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage and his own complex relationship with Princes William and Harry’.
Paul Burrell joined the household of Prince Charles and Diana at Highgrove House in 1987, later becoming the Princess’ butler and remaining in this role until her death
Princes William and Harry are pictured at their mother’s funeral on September 6, 1997
Burrell was woken by police officers in January 2001 who asked if he had any items from Kensington Palace in his home
The publishers, Sphere, said: ‘It is only in the wake of the Queen’s passing Burrell feels he can finally tell his story in full.’
Burrell’s was woken in January 2001 by police officers who asked if he had any items from Kensington Palace in his home.
He was arrested and his home was raided, revealing rooms filled with paintings, drawings, china and photographs that clearly belonged to Diana.
Other items included signed photographs of the Princess, her daily personal notes to William at school and clothes belonging to her – including a blue-ribboned hat she’d worn during her visit with Prince Charles to South Korea in 1992.
That year, Burrell was charged with theft of a total of 310 items, reportedly worth £5million, which were said to have been stolen from Kensington Palace, the Princess’ former London home.
He denied any impropriety and maintained the items were given to him by Diana.
The case against him had proceeded on the basis that he had not told anyone that he had kept items belonging to the Princess.
But the prosecution barrister said that it had emerged that Burrell had met with the Queen privately in December 1997 where he mentioned that he had taken some of the Princess’s papers for safekeeping.
Princess Diana and Paul Burrell are pictured during a humanitarian trip to Bosnia in August 1997, weeks before her death
Princes William and Harry – pictured in June 2003 – accused Burrell of a ‘cold and overt betrayal’ after he published his memoir A Royal Duty
The front page of the Daily Mail on October 25, 2003, is pictured, featuring Richard Kay’s report of the conflict between Diana’s sons and Paul Burrell
In April of that year, the police outlined the possible charges and said that they were investigating whether Burrell had been selling some of the items.
Later in September, a letter from Burrell’s solicitor requested a meeting to discuss Burrell’s life and service with the Royal Family, but this was declined as The Queen was not actively involved with the case.
In the autumn of 2001, The Queen’s private secretary was told informally that the police had told Charles that they had evidence that Burrell had been selling items from the Princess’s estate.
However, in the following year this was made clear during the trial that, contrary to their earlier advice, the police had no evidence that Burrell had been selling the items in question.
On October 25, 2002, the Queen, Charles and Prince Philip had driven together to St Paul’s for a memorial service for the victims of the Bali bombing.
Driving past the Old Bailey, she asked why a crowd was standing outside. Charles answered that Burrell was on trial. The Queen was apparently unaware that he was being prosecuted.
Then she mentioned that, some years before, Burrell had sought an audience with her to explain that he was caring for some of Diana’s papers, and she had agreed that he should do so.
Given the importance to the prosecution case of the question of whether or not Burrell had told anyone that he had taken items from Kensington Palace, the relevance of this information was realised and quickly drawn to the attention of the police.
Harry and William are pictured in 2006, the year before Burrell’s The Way We Were: Remembering Diana was published
The front page of Daily Mail is pictured from September 11, 2006, featuring Rebecca English’s report that Paul Burrell was accused of ‘stooping to an unprecedented low’ by claiming Princess Diana’s sons had failed to defend her memory
Paul Burrell holds up a copy of his 2007 book, The Way We Were: Remembering Diana. His latest book will be published in September
The prosecution barrister, William Boyce QC later told the Old Bailey: ‘In all the circumstances, the prosecution has concluded that the current trial is no longer viable because it has proceeded on a false premise that Mr Burrell had never told anyone that he was holding anything for safekeeping.
‘The prosecution consider that if the defence were to apply for the jury to be discharged, although it would be a matter for My Lady, the prosecution could not oppose that application’.
After hearing submissions from the prosecution and defence, the judge dismissed the jury and told Burrell he was free to go on November 1, 2002.
If the trial had continued, the former butler would have been called to give evidence and may have faced questioning about his time in the Queen’s employment as well as Princess Diana’s.
Outside the court, Mr Burrell said: ‘The Queen has come through for me. I’m thrilled, I’m so thrilled.’
In his tell-all memoir Spare, Harry described how he learned of Burrell’s book about Diana when he was working as an unpaid farmhand in Australia aged 19 in 2003.
He wrote that he received a package from Buckingham Palace, which was full of memos from the Palace communications team about ‘a delicate matter’.
‘Mummy’s former butler had penned a tell-all which actually told nothing,’ he said.
‘It was merely one man’s self-justifying, self-centring version of events.
‘My mother once called this butler a dear friend, trusted him implicitly. We did too. Now this.
‘He was milking her disappearance for money. It made my blood boil.’
In his tell-all memoir Spare, Harry described how he learned of Burrell’s book about Diana when he was working as an unpaid farmhand in Australia aged 19 in 2003 after leaving Eton
Harry wrote that he wanted to fly home to ‘confront’ Burrell but Charles and William talked him out of it, saying all they could do was ‘issue a united condemnation’.
Burrell hit back at criticism from Harry in Spare, saying he doesn’t recognise ‘the young man I see today’.
Appearing on Australian breakfast show Sunrise, Burrell said: ‘I first met him in his mummy’s tummy. I don’t recognise the young man I see today. That’s not the boy I knew.
‘What I see now is an angry, petulant, privileged prince who is constantly blaming other people and not taking accountability on his part.’
Before A Royal Duty was published, Princes William and Harry issued a joint statement calling the book ‘a cold and overt betrayal.’
While Harry and William rarely see eye-to-eye these days and a joint statement is unlikely, the upcoming publication will likely bring back unhappy memories of the period surrounding their mother’s death for the two men.
