Paul Burrell, the former royal butler who spent years inside the palace walls, has dropped a bombshell in his new tell-all The Royal Insider—and it’s as messy as royal gossip gets.
According to Burrell, King Charles once literally threw a book at him in a fit of rage after he refused to lie to Princess Diana.
Burrell recalls being “summoned to the library” by the then-Prince of Wales after Diana called late one evening. When she asked to speak with Charles, Burrell told her the truth: he wasn’t at home.
That honesty set off a storm. Charles reportedly demanded to know why he hadn’t simply said, “I couldn’t find him,” instead of confirming he was out.
When Burrell pushed back and asked: “Are you asking me to lie for you?”, Charles allegedly snapped: “Yes, I am. Yes, I bloody am!” before slamming his fists on the desk. Then came the royal meltdown. Burrell says Charles picked up a book, hurled it toward him, and screamed: “Get out! Get out!”
According to Burrell, palace staff never truly realized how toxic things had become between Charles and Diana—what he bluntly describes as a “war zone.” Diana, he writes, was a modern woman trapped in ancient tradition, uninterested in hunting or horseback riding, and painfully mismatched with her husband.
He also recalls one of Diana’s most heartbreaking confessions: after Prince Harry was born in 1984, Charles looked into the cot, noted his red hair, and then delivered the ultimate dagger.
“Well, at least I’ve got my heir and spare now,” he told her coldly, “and I can return to Camilla.” Diana, shattered, later confided in Burrell that she cried herself to sleep that night, knowing her marriage was over.
Years later, in 2017, Burrell says he told this story directly to William and Harry at Kensington Palace. He remembers William listening quietly, while Harry sat poker-faced, unable to believe the words. “It looked like he was carrying his mother’s pain,” Burrell writes.
Despite the chaos surrounding Charles and Diana, Burrell insists that his time with Queen Elizabeth II was drama-free. In fact, both the Queen and Prince Philip reportedly offered Diana support, with Philip even writing to her: “Neither the Queen nor I can understand why Charles would prefer Camilla over you.”
With Burrell’s book hitting shelves September 11, one thing is clear: palace walls may hide scandals, but the truth has a way of crashing through—sometimes with the force of a flying book.
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