Paul Burrell hits back at ‘angry and privileged’ Prince Harry as he tells TV hosts he ‘doesn’t recognise the young man I see today’ after Duke of Sussex accused Diana’s ex-butler of ‘milking’ her death for money
- In his book, Harry accused Mr Burrell of ‘milking’ his mother’s death for money
- Former butler hit back today on Australian TV, saying Harry ‘is not the boy I knew’
- Called him ‘angry, petulant, privileged prince who is constantly blaming others’
Paul Burrell today hit back against criticism from Prince Harry by saying he doesn’t recognise ‘the young man I see today’.
In his controversial memoir Spare, the Duke of Sussex said Diana’s former butler was ‘milking’ her death for money when he published his 2001 book A Royal Duty – which contained a raft of private revelations.
But appearing on Australian breakfast show Sunrise, Mr 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.’
In his new book Harry said Paul Burrell made his ‘blood boil’ by releasing a book about her called A Royal Duty
Mr Burrell, 64, served as a footman for the Queen before working for Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997.
Speaking from his home in Florida, he said the Duke of Sussex had ‘changed fundamentally’ and that his mother would be ‘appalled’.
‘She would be angry at these personal, vindictive revelations which don’t just undermine Harry, but his country, his family, the institution – which his mother was very proud of – and his late grandmother’s legacy,’ he said.
Mr Burrell blamed Harry’s wife, Megan, for the Duke’s ‘vindictive’ behaviour – claiming she was the one ‘driving him behind the scenes.’
He said: ‘This isn’t just a book written by Harry… Meghan’s had a huge influence in this book. She’s beside him steering him on his path. You can’t just blame Harry. You have to blame the both of them.
‘I don’t like to see the rug being pulled beneath the feet of our King and Harry’s brother, who is on his way to being King. And the snipes that have gone forward about Kate [the Princess of Wales]…
The Duke of Sussex accused Mr Burrell of ‘milking’ Princess Diana’s death for money (pictured together in 1997)
He appeared on Australian TV this morning after being attacked by Harry
‘Kate has never put a foot wrong. But the other side of the story will never be heard because the royals believe there’s great dignity in silence. Of course, she wanted you to marry for love, but she also wanted you to be your brother’s wingman.’
When Mr Burrell published his book in 2003, he was accused by Harry and William of ‘a cold and overt betrayal’.
In his memoir Spare, Harry describes how he learned of the book when he was working as an unpaid farmhand in Australia aged 19 in 2003 after leaving Eton.
He writes 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 memoir Spare, Harry describes how ‘Mummy’s former butler had penned a tell-all which actually told nothing’
Harry writes that he wanted to fly home to ‘confront’ Mr Burrell but Charles and William talked him out of it, saying all they could do was ‘issue a united condemnation’.
The duke also claims that he had ‘nothing to do with the drafting’ of the Clarence House statement and that he would have ‘gone much further’.
On a meeting with Mr Burrell, Harry wrote: ‘He wanted to give us a piece of his mind?’
Harry said he ‘anxiously’ waited for the meeting but it never happened, writing: ‘I didn’t know why; I presume the Palace quashed it. I told myself: Shame.
‘I thought of that man as the one errant steer that got away that summer.’
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