{"id":277607,"date":"2025-07-20T14:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T14:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/277607\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T14:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T14:49:11","slug":"princess-diana-willingly-gave-up-harry-and-william-to-the-royal-family-claims-former-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/277607\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Diana ‘Willingly Gave Up’ Harry and William to the Royal Family, Claims Former Butler"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the royal family set to celebrate a grand summer in Balmoral and Norfolk this season, the late\u00a0Princess Diana<\/a>‘s former butler has opened up about how things were different for Prince William<\/a> and Prince Harry<\/a> growing up. With their parents headed for a divorce<\/a>, the two brothers had to spend time separately with their mother and father, King Charles<\/a>. Paul Burrell, who served Diana loyally for years, claims he saw the Princess drift away from her own children, \u2018willingly\u2019 giving them up to the royal family, spending much less time with them.<\/p>\n

\"(Prince
\nPrince William with Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Harry on the day he joined Eton in September 1995. (Getty Images | Photo by Anwar Hussein)<\/p>\n

Since her separation from Charles in 1992 till her death in 1997, Diana was able to spend only two weeks a year with William and Harry. According to Marie Claire<\/a>, Burrell, who worked for Diana for almost a decade before her tragic death, revealed, \u201cShe said it’s important for them to grow up with her cousins, with the royal family at Balmoral.\u201d The late Princess felt it was important for William, especially, to be with his father, given his destiny as the future heir. The butler explained, \u201cSummer was fun for her, but she realized that the rest of the year and the time away from boarding school, they would be with their father and their friends. She realized that they were growing up and they had to be integrated into the royal family because William one day will be King and Harry will be there to support him.\u201d Burrel stressed, \u201cShe willingly gave them up.\u201d However, he added, \u201cShe missed them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(Princess
\nPrincess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince William, and then-Prince Charles at a parade in the Mall, London, during V.J. Day commemorations. (Getty Images | Photo by Terry Fincher)<\/p>\n

Diana was not left with many options as being with her children meant being around Charles, which made other royals uncomfortable or being at Kensington Palace. So, she took them away on holidays with their usual destination being a place with beaches. In the summer before her death, the late Princess vacationed in the Mediterranean with her two boys. Burrell recounted, \u201cThe last summer of [Diana’s] life, they’d been to the Mediterranean, and they played on jet skis, and they’d had fun. Then she brought them back home so that they could go to Balmoral. That’s why they were at Balmoral at the time of the Princess\u2019s death<\/a>, because they’d had the two weeks with Diana in the summer.\u201d Necker Island and other remote places were Diana’s choice of destinations as she hoped for privacy from the press. Burrell hailed the late Princess as a \u2018devoted mother,\u2019 but claimed that in her last years, she was physically losing her kids to society and the royal family.<\/p>\n

\"(Princess
\nPrincess Diana holidaying with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry and her sister’s children on Necker Island. (Getty Images | Photo by Tim Graham)<\/p>\n

Diana\u2019s passing was the most difficult thing William and Harry had to cope with as children. The two today often fondly remember their mother in interviews and continue to live by her principles. Most importantly, they ensure to spend as much time as possible with their respective families, especially their children. According to Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/a>, William in the ITV docuseries, We Can End Homelessness, once shared how his mother inspired him to do charity work. As a result, he became a patron of some of her cherished organizations, such as those that work toward ending homelessness<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the royal family set to celebrate a grand summer in Balmoral and Norfolk this season, the late\u00a0Princess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7721,7719,7718,7720,1281,447,1412,7710,519,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-277607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","10":"tag-duke-of-sussex","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-meghan","13":"tag-meghan-markle","14":"tag-prince-harry","15":"tag-princess-diana","16":"tag-royal-families","17":"tag-royal-family","18":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114886119683021743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}