Paul Burrell, the former royal butler who served Diana, Princess of Wales, and later the Prince of Wales, says Prince Charles once screamed and threw a book at him after ordering him to lie about the prince’s whereabouts, according to an excerpt from Burrell’s forthcoming memoir.
The passage, published in the Daily Mail and adapted from The Royal Insider, details decades of friction behind the scenes of Charles and Diana’s marriage and portrays Burrell as a close confidant to the princess. Burrell, who left the Queen’s service in 1987 to join the Wales household, recounts being summoned to Charles’s library where the prince demanded that staff conceal his movements. When Burrell refused, Charles “banged the desk with his fists” and picked up a book and threw it toward him, the former aide writes.
Burrell’s memoir lays out a timeline of tensions: Diana’s early attempts to adapt to country pursuits she disliked; the arrival of Prince William in 1982 and Prince Harry in 1984; repeated rows in private; and Diana’s sense that Charles preferred Camilla Parker Bowles. Burrell quotes Diana as saying Charles told her in the heat of an argument, “I never loved you. I only married you to have children.” He also describes domestic scenes of smashed plates, overturned furniture and long periods when the couple slept apart.
The book excerpt includes detailed anecdotes intended to illustrate daily life in the Wales household. Burrell says he served breakfast eggs timed to Charles’s exacting preference and that memoranda in Charles’s spidery handwriting would sometimes arrive on his desk. He recounts moments of intimacy and closeness with Diana, including travelling with her and acting as an intermediary for her secret relationships.
Among the relationships Burrell discusses are Diana’s liaison with cavalry officer James Hewitt and a later, more private romance with surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom she nicknamed “Mr Wonderful.” Burrell says he arranged clandestine meetings for Diana and sometimes hid visitors in his car to get them into Kensington Palace. He describes Diana’s wish to marry Hasnat and his attempts to arrange a private ceremony, which he says clergy would not perform because of her position as mother of the future monarch.
Burrell also revisits two televised moments that changed the public narrative of the royal marriage. He recalls Diana’s relief at the publication of Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story in 1992 and the later fallout from a 1994 documentary in which Charles admitted to adultery with Camilla. The former aide says that admission humiliated Diana and contributed to her decision to speak publicly in the 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir. Burrell writes that Diana later regretted parts of the interview and feared how her sons would react to revelations about her private life.
The memoir frames Diana’s emotional struggles in the context of limited contemporary recognition of mental health issues. Burrell recounts what he describes as Diana’s abandonment, public vilification and battles with bulimia. He says she received private support from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, who told her they did not understand Charles’s preference for Camilla.
Burrell ties some later actions by Diana — including the high-profile choice of a revealing black dress to attend a 1994 Vanity Fair dinner the same night Charles’s interview aired — to a desire to assert herself amid humiliation. He says he selected the dress now widely described in media accounts as Diana’s “revenge dress” and urged her to attend and present herself confidently.
The former butler places several pivotal moments in the marriage as catalysts for later developments. He recounts telling Princes William and Harry, during a 2017 meeting at Kensington Palace, that Diana had told him Charles’s alleged words about marrying only to have children. Burrell says Harry listened without visible reaction and that the disclosure helped shape Harry’s public account of his family in later years, including his 2023 memoir Spare and the Netflix series Harry & Meghan, which Burrell cites when noting Harry’s view that Diana was “deceived” into the Panorama interview.
Burrell’s account does not stand alone: a range of biographies, interviews and royal statements over three decades have documented the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage. The memoir joins other firsthand recollections and archival material that have shaped public understanding of the period, including Diana’s own interviews and later investigations into Martin Bashir’s methods for securing the 1995 Panorama appearance.
The Royal Insider is due to be published Sept. 11 by Sphere. The Daily Mail published the excerpt from Burrell’s book and reported the anecdotes and passages cited above.
Burrell frames his narrative as the testimony of an aide who witnessed private moments and became a willing confidant to Diana. He writes that his devotion to the princess was platonic and that his presence became a source of comfort during times he describes as marked by neglect and public humiliation. He also writes that he regrets aspects of the public revelations that followed and expresses concern that new generations may not hear Diana’s own account of her experiences.
The memoir’s publication comes amid continuing public interest in the modern monarchy’s history and the private lives of its central figures. Burrell’s book adds another personal account to the record of Diana’s life, her relationships and the household dynamics that unfolded while she remained one of the most photographed and scrutinised public figures of her era.
Adapted from The Royal Insider by Paul Burrell (Sphere), an excerpt published by the Daily Mail.