Princess Diana’s ex-butler assaults Earl Spencer ebook saying ‘Charles was pale and scared’
Paul Burrell, Princess Diana’s former butler, has spoken out against Earl Spencer’s new book saying that Charles had ‘clearly’ been crying in the aftermath of her death
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister was released on Tuesday(Image: Getty)
Princess Diana’s former butler has launched an attack on Earl Spencer’s new book as he spoke on tonight’s Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Paul Burrell, speaking for the first time since the book’s release, said Spencer’s description of the then Prince Charles being “giddily elated” was far from the truth. Describing the King as a “broken man”, he painted a powerful picture of loss in the immediate aftermath of Princess’ death.
He revealed: “I was in Paris. I saw the King on the day he came to Paris. He walked down the corridor towards me. He was a broken man. He was devastated and he went into the room with Diana’s sisters for 10 minutes and came out. Clearly he’d been crying. His eyes were bloodshot, and honestly, I’ve never seen him like that ever. He was pale and he was scared.
Paul Burrell unleashed the attack on Piers Morgan Uncensored
“Really, I thought to myself, you’re here for the boys because you are the boy’s father, and this is their mother and he was paying respect to Princess Diana. So I don’t recognise what Earl Spencer says about Prince Charles. It isn’t his language.”
He accused Princess Diana’s younger brother of settling scores in writing Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. He said: “I think this book is more about Earl Spencer than it is about his sister Diana. I read this rather spiteful, revengeful, aristocratic point of view that he’s penned, and quite frankly, I didn’t recognise some of it…”
“He is calling the King to account because there’s always been a war between the Spencers and the Wales’. You know, that started in Westminster Abbey when he stood up and gave his eulogy. I sat there facing our Queen in Westminster Abbey in front of Diana’s coffin when he said those words.
Earl Spencer is facing legal action(Image: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire)
“Of course, the royal family did not applaud when the nation applauded. What Charles Spencer did, he got the public feeling, the narrative right, and what he said in Westminster Abbey is what the people were thinking. But the picture behind closed doors was a very different one.”
He claimed Princess Diana’s relationship with her younger brother wasn’t a close one especially in the last years of her life. He said: “For the last five years of Diana’s life, they barely spoke. I can tell you on one hand, the times that he came to Kensington Palace for lunch. He was not a regular visitor. They were not in regular contact. I did send the occasional fax to South Africa, to his estate there, whenever Diana wanted him to know something. But he was not part of her world.”
Asked if he trusted the Earl’s account, in light of the errors he’s made referring to former tabloid editor Piers, he said: “No, I don’t, I don’t, because this is his narrative very much like Harry and his truth. This is Spencer’s truth. But the truth is a much bigger picture than Spencer has painted, and I think this serves him well, it doesn’t serve Diana well.
Burrell said it was ‘clear’ Charles had been crying after Diana’s death(Image: Tim Graham, Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
“It certainly doesn’t serve William and Harry well, because now Harry’s fallen into the Spencer camp and William is firmly in the Windsor camp. This is a battle of two aristocratic Irish families who are now at war in public.”
Piers Morgan also gave the latest update on his legal wrangling over the book. He said: “My legal case against Earl Spencer is going ahead. I’ve instructed lawyers and they have written formally to Spencer about the false allegations he makes about me in his book. As I revealed here on Monday, Spencer directly accuses me of publishing the notorious gym photos of Princess Diana in the Daily Mirror.”
He went on to say: “The publisher is reportedly rushing to print a new edition… But copies of the defamatory claims are – as we speak – on shelves all around the world. Every copy sold is a repetition of a damning allegation which he – and the publisher – know to be false.
“That’s why it must be withdrawn from sale. And in my view, the publisher should postpone any new edition until every so-called fact in this book has been interrogated… as it should’ve been before it ever went to print.”
Watch the full interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, YouTube.
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