‘Prince Harry attacked me’: Princess Diana’s butler Paul Burrell brought to tears by Spare

Princess Diana’s long-time butler and friend, Paul Burrell has revealed his despair, saying Prince Harry is being “influenced by different people”.

Princess Diana and her butler Paul Burrell.

Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell has hit back at the Duke of Sussex after he was “attacked” by Prince Harry in Spare, saying the explosive memoir made him “burst into tears”.

Prince Harry was slammed as “foolish” for taking issue with Burrell’s own memoir released in 2003, which chronicled his life with Princess Diana.

Princess Diana and her butler Paul Burrell.

While Prince Harry did not name Burrell in Spare, he left no doubt that his mother’s former “rock” was in the firing line for revealing the family’s private moments.

“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,” Prince Harry wrote in Spare.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Burrell said he wrote the book from “a place of bankruptcy and despair” after he was accused of stealing personal items from Diana’s estate after her death.

“Harry knows full well how devoted I was to his mother, in life and on the page,” he said.

“He’s gone from the world which I knew into a very different world, influenced by very different people, and his personality has changed.

“And so I’m very, very sad. I almost burst into tears when I saw that he’d attacked me.

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. Picture: Getty Images

Paul Burrell worked for Princess Diana for a decade. Picture: ALAMY

“I shared his childhood. My boys played with him and William. We enjoyed day trips together.

Burrell said his book was both a “loving tribute to [Prince Harry’s] mother and grandmother”, as well as his defence against the allegations of theft which were dropped after The Queen intervened saying she authorised the “safekeeping” of certain items.

After the release of Burrell’s book, Buckingham Palace issued a statement condemning the tome as “a cold and overt betrayal” of then Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry.

Burrell, who worked for Diana for a decade, said he was broke after the court case and needed proceeds from the memoir to support his family, while Prince Harry wrote Spare from a place of “a very privileged world”.

“And, you know, he’s acting very selfishly in lots of ways because he’s just blaming other people for his own inadequacies. He’s gone off the rails.”

A copy of the book 'A Royal Duty' by former butler to Princess Diana, Paul Burrell, on display at a bookstore in London in 2003. Picture: AP

Copies of Prince Harry’s Spare on display in Germany. Picture: Getty Images

“Harry knows how integrated into their mother’s life I was. But he refers to me in the book only as “the butler” which is one of his many jabs to many people in this book.

“It’s insulting, considering how close we were, and the countless memories we shared, but his resentment goes far and wide, it seems.

“When I look back now, I think maybe I was glimpsing the dynamic at play,” he said, adding: “One time I saw the nanny give William three sausages at breakfast and Harry had two.

“And Harry would look at his plate and say, how come he gets three? And I only get two.”

Originally published as ‘Prince Harry attacked me’: Princess Diana’s butler Paul Burrell brought to tears by Spare