William and Harry ‘had secret meeting’ with Diana’s butler Paul Burrell in 2017, says royal source

William and Harry had a secret meeting with Princess Diana’s butler Paul Burrell back in 2017, according to a royal source.

Paul Burrell, 64, served as a footman for the Queen before working for Diana for 10 years until her death in 1997.

It was previously believed that the Prince of Wales, 40, and the Duke of Sussex, 38, last met with the former butler in 1997 following their mother’s funeral. 

But according to the Sun, the brothers held a secret meeting with Paul at Kensington Palace in 2017, ahead of Harry announcing his engagement to Meghan Markle, 41.

The source told the outlet that it was a ‘very low-key meeting’ that the royals held as they wanted to speak with ‘someone who had been close to their mother’, and felt there were aspects of the princess’ life they believed Paul could clarify for them.   

‘They asked to keep it all under wraps and he respected that,’ the source added.

‘Paul was happy to tell them everything he knew and shed some light on their memories.’

The brothers previously accused Paul of a ‘cold and overt betrayal’ after he published his 2001 book A Royal Duty – which contained a raft of private revelations.

Harry wrote about the book in his 2023 autobiography Spare, describing 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.

Prince William and Harry (pictured in Windsor in September 2022) reportedly met with Paul Burrell in 2017

‘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’.

Meanwhile, Paul has criticised Harry for some of the revelations in Spare, saying he doesn’t recognise who the prince has become.

It was previously believed that the last time the royal brothers spoke to the butler was after their mother’s funeral (William and Harry pictured outside Westminster Abbey at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales on September 6, 1997)

Speaking on Australian breakfast show Sunrise earlier this year, the former butler said: ‘I first met him in his mummy’s tummy. I don’t recognise the young man I see today. That’s not the boy I knew.

‘What I see now is an angry, petulant, privileged prince who is constantly blaming other people and not taking accountability on his part.’

He added that the Duke of Sussex had ‘changed fundamentally’ and that his mother would be ‘appalled’.

‘She would be angry at these personal, vindictive revelations which don’t just undermine Harry, but his country, his family, the institution – which his mother was very proud of – and his late grandmother’s legacy,’ he said.

Buckingham Palace and Paul Burrell have been contacted for comment.