Diana’s butler Paul Burrell ‘almost burst into tears’ over Prince Harry’s allegations

Paul Burrell was perhaps one of Diana's most well-known members of staff. Photo / Getty Images

Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, has revealed he burst into tears after Prince Harry slammed him for “milking” his mother’s death for money, reports The Sun.

In 2003, Burrell wrote a book chronicling his life of service to Harry’s mother and the Queen and depicted happy memories of Diana’s boys.

However, Harry’s turn to write about his life in his memoir, Spare, has seen the prince respond far less in kind to Burrell, who considered himself more of an uncle figure to Harry and William than a butler.

According to The Sun Harry said Burrell made his “blood boil” when he released A Royal Duty. And while the prince took a $30 million advance for his memoir, he accused the former butler of “milking” Diana’s death for money with his tome.

But Burrell has hit back, telling The Sun his book came from “a place of bankruptcy and despair” not “privilege”.

He called Harry’s accusations “foolish” and “rich”.

“Harry forgets what led to my book. I was put on trial and went to hell and back for two years, wrongly accused of theft.

“The prosecution had its say but I never had mine. The book was my defence. It was also a loving tribute to his mother and grandmother.”

He went on to claim that Harry “knows full well how devoted I was to his mother, in life and on the page.

“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.

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

Princess Diana's butler recalls being close with her sons William and Harry when they were growing up. Photo / Getty Images

“He knows that my book came from a place of despair.”

Burrell faced trial in 2002 for allegedly stealing some of Diana’s personal items after her death, until he was cleared by the Queen herself.

“I had my liberty but I was broke, on the verge of bankruptcy. I couldn’t pay my mortgage,” he said.

“We’d had to cash in my boys’ insurance policies just to survive. Before the trial, I had gone to the brink of suicide, unable to see a way out.

“The whole system was against me. The very system Harry is also railing against in his book.”

Burrell said the money that came from his book “re-established” him and his family.

He felt hurt that Harry had simply referred to him as “the butler” in Spare - “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.”

It comes after the former butler said he doesn’t recognise “the young man I see today”.

The 64-year-old British servant-turned-author, who was also a footman to the late Queen when he was a teenager, gave an interview on Sunrise last week to talk about Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare and his headline-making TV interviews.

Burrell, who has previously claimed Diana told him he was the “only man” she trusted, said the 38-year-old Duke of Sussex had “changed fundamentally”.