PRINCESS DIANA’s porous “rock” Paul Burrell is once again squeezing the juice from his time as her trusted butler.
It’s pretty standard fare, but one incident involving Prince Harry is very telling indeed.
Prince Harry is his own worst enemy[/caption]
Prince William is the important one and Harry is the spare. That’s how he sees it and it was supposedly confirmed to him in 2017[/caption]
On the day of Harry’s birth, September 15, 1984, a visibly upset Diana told Burrell that Prince Charles had come into the hospital, glanced in the cot, and said, “Oh, red hair” before adding: “Well, at least I’ve got my heir and spare, and now I can return to Camilla.”
And Burrell now says that when, in 2017, he came face to face with Harry and William in their mother’s old apartments at Kensington Palace, he decided, “I would tell them what their mother had said to me.”
He writes: “Harry stared straight at me, poker-faced. He couldn’t believe what I was telling him. I was in tears, but he never flinched.
“I said, ‘Harry, it’s the truth. I wouldn’t tell you that unless it was exactly what your mother told me. And I think you know that. You’re old enough to know that now.”
Was he, though? Are you ever old enough to be told, in so many words, that the only parent you have left is the one who reportedly dismissed you as a spare and went back to his mistress?
Or perhaps the source of Harry’s disbelief was that a supposedly responsible adult with children of his own was choosing to pass on such an immensely hurtful allegation to a young man already damaged by the loss of his mother?
Burrell adds: “It may have contributed to what happened afterwards, and is probably the reason he called his book Spare.”
You don’t say. And it perhaps explains why Harry clung to Meghan Markle as though she were a lifeboat in a storm before proposing to her in November 2017 and “Megxiting” in 2020.
Harry is back in the UK this week, and the photo of him joyfully balloon-jousting with a young girl at the WellChild Awards is a reminder of quite what an asset he was, and could still be, to the Royal Family.
There’s talk of whether he’ll meet with his father for the first time in 19 months, but naturally, following various hurtful revelations by the Sussexes, it seems that the family no longer trust him.
This is confirmed by Burrell, who writes about the late Queen’s death three years ago and how Harry “came through the door of Balmoral as though he was expecting to be embraced and welcomed back into the fold. And he was sadly disappointed”.
He was reportedly met with “a glacial front from his family”.
Burrell adds: “Cold and calculating this might appear, but this is the way the Windsors work. They freeze people out — even their own — to preserve the continuity of the family.”
Fair enough. But perhaps it’s time for them to look at Harry not as an enemy, but from the perspective of someone who lost his mother and, unlike his older brother, felt marooned by a lack of purpose in a family where duty takes precedence.
William is the important one and Harry is the spare. That’s how he sees it and it was supposedly confirmed to him in 2017 by his mother’s confidante.
Yes, Harry can be his own worst enemy, but one now gets a better understanding of where his anger comes from and why he’s so protective of his own family.
Perhaps, armed with this knowledge and a watertight NDA for all parties to sign, it’s time for his family to embrace him back into the fold.
Harry with his father King Charles in 2018[/caption]
Paul Burrell is once again squeezing the juice from his time as Diana’s trusted butler[/caption]
Harry is back in the UK this week[/caption]
Dumb move… to UK
PLENTY of our successful quiz shows originate from other European countries.
So brace yourself for the potential arrival of… Germany’s Dumbest Celebrity, which made its debut there last week.
Germany’s Dumbest Celebrity has arrived on screens in Europe, pictured dopey Brit star Joey Essex[/caption]
On German I’m A Celebrity, Olympic decathlete Jurgen Hingsen made headlines for taunting another contestant because they’d never heard of the artist Salvador Dali, above[/caption]
A gathering of ten ‘B and C-listers’ take general knowledge and reasoning tests and each week the top scorer is eliminated until you’re left with the most inept.
To give you the gist, former footballer Mario Basler fails to spell the word ‘linesman’ correctly while an adult film actress called Dolly Buster speculates that a dozen might be equal to six.
The Germans place a lot of kudos in knowledge.
In their version of I’m A Celebrity, Olympic decathlete Jurgen Hingsen made headlines for taunting another contestant because they’d never heard of the artist Salvador Dali.
So quite what he’d have made of our own dear Joey Essex telling his 2013 campmates that he couldn’t tell the time on a traditional clock is anyone’s guess.
But he’ll surely be a shoo-in when Dumbest Celebrity inevitably hits these shores.
Case a fine mess
FORMER German FBI agent Rebecca Koop is the mystery donor who paid a £1,300 court fine for Christian Brueckner – prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann – to walk free.
She says: “When I paid the fine I knew Brueckner was a convicted, violent rapist and child abuser but his lawyer told me he denies everything, and it was maybe wrong.”
The fine relates to lesser charges from a decade ago, but his early release makes it more difficult for detectives working on the McCann case to try and get the evidence needed to charge him.
A reminder that, for every violent criminal who has blighted people’s lives, there’s often some daft, deluded do-gooder getting in the way, who feels they’ve been misunderstood.
Return of the mac for Angelina
ANGELINA JOLIE pitched up at the Toronto Film Festival wearing what appears to be little more than a black mac and a seductive expression.
But there could well be a sturdy bra and big, tummy- control pants under there.
Angelina Jolie pitched up at the Toronto Film Festival wearing what appears to be little more than a black mac[/caption]
Meanwhile, what’s the betting that the majority of men are imagining stockings, suspenders and a “Take a letter, Ms Jolie” scenario?
Either way, she stole the show.
Ineos another loss
“WE have stopped investing in Britain,” says the chief executive of Ineos, the world’s largest chemical manufacturers.
“The problem is that the UK has become one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in the world from a perspective of natural resources and energy.”
Ineos chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe[/caption]
Owned by Manchester United investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the company plans to spend £3billion in the US instead because “it understands the importance of domestic supplies and how you can drive economic growth off the back of it”.
Will the last investor to leave Britain please turn out whatever lights we still have?
Keir’s good in sack
LABOUR’S first year – a recap.
November 2024: Transport Secretary Louise Haigh resigns over an old fraud offence.
In just over a year, Labour have shifted on many top figures, pictured axed Deputy PM and housing minister Angela Rayner[/caption]
In January, anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq resigned after being named in an anti-corruption investigation[/caption]
January 2025: Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq resigns after being named in an anti-corruption investigation into her family in Bangladesh.
February: Health minister Andrew Gwynne sacked after writing in a WhatsApp group that he hoped an OAP who didn’t support him would die.
August: Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali resigns after giving her tenants notice then later raising the rent.
September: Deputy PM and housing minister Angela Rayner resigns for failing to pay the correct property tax.
What fresh hell will the reshuffle bring?
A justice minister on the run from Wormwood Scrubs?
Pox vaccine a win
MY youngest daughter contracted chicken pox at the age of 13 and it was hideous.
It completely floored her, she missed two weeks of school as painful craters erupted all over her face and body, and to this day, she bears some of the scars.
There was no chicken pox vaccination programme at the time but, to my great regret, I later learned it was available privately and that I could have prevented her ordeal.
So it’s great news that the NHS will start vaccinating babies against it next year and urge all parents to take up the opportunity.
Lycra laws
EASTENDERS star and keen cyclist Adam Woodyatt says: “Blokes in Lycra never look good. Can we just get that out of our heads?”
Fair enough.
Jeff Brazier’s latest Instagram post proves some men suit Lycra[/caption]
However, there are always exceptions to every rule.
And TV presenter Jeff Brazier’s latest Instagram post may well confirm he is one of them.
