Princess Diana's Butler Responds to Prince Harry's Memoir 'Spare

File Photo Showing Diana, The Princess Of Wales, In London With Her Butler, Paul Burrell, In 1994

(Image credit: Photo by Antony Jones / Getty)

published 27 January 2023

Prince Harry felt he needed to tell his side of the story through his memoir Spare.

While there have been various reports of the book upsetting members of the Royal Family who were mentioned in it, Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell has also admitted to being hurt by some of the contents of Spare.

"There was something else which annoyed me intensely," Burrell tells Marie Claire on behalf of Slingo (opens in new tab).

"I was really upset, really upset [by] the fact that he referred to me as 'the butler,' 'mummy’s butler.' Well, mummy’s butler was called Paul, Harry, and you knew me, all your life you’ve known me as Paul.

"He had never known me as 'the butler' so why suddenly has there been a shift only recently, a shift to being called the butler? Suddenly I’m sort of being dismissed by this petulant prince as irrelevant because he says my tell-all book told nothing."

Burrell published the memoirs A Royal Duty in 2000 and The Way We Were: Remembering Diana in 2006 based on his time working for the Royal Family.

"I have to be very positive all the time about this and say, 'Harry you’re wrong, you are wrong on several levels. You are wrong because you have forgotten duty, respect, loyalty. Not only to your family but to our country and to the people of our country,'" Burrell claims.

"I don’t think the people of our country like that very much. I wouldn’t worry about the media if he came back here, I’d worry about the people on the street because they have a say also and I’ve always said that the monarchy and our Royal Family have a very privileged life and live in a very privileged way where anything is at their disposal. The price they pay for that is public service. Well for Harry, that’s sort of gone now, the public service has finished and he’s swapped royalty for celebrity."

When Harry and his wife Meghan Markle left their roles as senior royals, they also relinquished their charity patronages. That said, they have thrown their efforts into many worthy causes during their time in California—from vaccine equality to paid family leave.

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle and Shape. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.