Harry says Diana’s ex-butler ‘made my blood boil’ by releasing ‘tell-all book’

Harry's book may have made reconciliation with his family impossible, as Danny Sinha reports

Prince Harry has condemned Diana, Princess of Wales’ former butler for releasing a book that made a series of private revelations about his mother.

In his controversial memoir Spare, Harry said Paul Burrell was “milking” Diana’s death for money when he penned A Royal Duty in 2003, adding that it “made my blood boil”.

Mr Burrell, who the duke does not name in the autobiography, drew criticism from the royal family at the time when he released the book about his former boss Diana.

A statement issued by the brothers from Clarence House accused Mr Burrell of “a cold and overt betrayal”.

In response, Mr Burrell welcomed the suggestion of meeting with the princes to justify his book and tell them about parts of their mother’s life they had not witnessed, adding: “I’d love to give them a piece of my mind.”

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.”

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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