Name: Paul Burrell Age: 45 Nationality: British Claim to fame: The royal butler who spilled the bean
SOME people just have it in them to make as much news even years after their death as they did when they were alive. It’s been six years since Princess Diana died, but she is still hitting the headlines and giving the British Royal family sleepless nights as she did when she was the world’s most famous woman alive. And this time, its all thanks to a tell-all memoir by Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell that went on sale, with its author insisting he meant it as “a loving tribute” rather than an act of revenge.
Some 135,000 copies of the 396-page book, A Royal Duty — with its fetching cover photograph of the Princess — were in British bookstores Monday last, two days after a reported one million copies went on sale in the US. Burrell and his book have received a lot of criticism from the Royal family and the late princess’ friends for trying to cash in on his royal connection. However, the guy, who Princess Diana once referred to as “My Rock”, said that “the point of doing this book is to actually correct the myths, the untruths, the lie.”
The most sensational revelation in A Royal Duty is a claim by Burrell that he received a letter from Diana, ten months before her death, in which she referred to a supposed plot to kill her. She allegedly wrote that her life was at its “most dangerous” phase, and that she feared that somebody — Burrell did not say who — was planning “an accident” in her car.
Burrell has warned that this revelation was just the “tip of the iceberg” and that he was prepared to reveal even more explosive secrets. His vow came after Diana’s sons launched an unprecedented attack on Burrell, accusing him of a “cold and overt betrayal” of their mother in his new book. But in an interview, the former royal butler said that he would have been prepared to halt publication of the book if the two princes had asked him to do so.
Paul Burrell, who entered the royal household in 1976 as a trainee footman, was on top of Diana’s list of what she wanted from Highgrove when she and the Prince of Wales separated in 1992. He served the Princess until her death, working up to 16 hours a day, from washing her clothes to assisting with communications from the Palace. He was the only non-family member at her funeral and burial at Althorp, Diana’s family home. Shortly after the death of the Princess of Wales, the Queen presented Paul Burrell with the Royal Victoria Medal (her special decoration) in recognition of his services to the Princess. Burrell was the public fund-raiser for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund until 1998.
His fortunes suddenly changed in 2001 when Burrell was charged with stealing 342 items belonging to Diana, Prince William and the Prince of Wales. The trial ended after the intervention of the Queen and Prince Charles and he was acquitted on all charges. And now the guy who was once Princess Diana’s most loyal confidant is becoming the one using her, even in death, to become a rich man.
SOME people just have it in them to make as much news even years after their death as they did when they were alive. It’s been six years since Princess Diana died, but she is still hitting the headlines and giving the British Royal family sleepless nights as she did when she was the world’s most famous woman alive. And this time, its all thanks to a tell-all memoir by Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell that went on sale, with its author insisting he meant it as “a loving tribute” rather than an act of revenge.
