Princess Diana Would Go Out One Door and Camilla Parker Bowles Would Come in Another to See Charles, Says Former Staffer
Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles tied the knot in 1981. But at one point during their marriage, Charles began having an affair with his ex-Camilla Parker Bowles (now Queen Camilla) and everyone who worked in the royal household at that time knew about it.
Now, one former employee is describing what it was like working for Charles and Diana during that tumultuous time in their marriage when the princess would go out the front door and Camilla would pull up at the back door.
Butler says minutes after Diana would leave,Camilla would be at the door
Paul Burrell began working for the royal family when he was 18 years old and became one of the late Queen Elizabeth II‘s personal footmen. In 1987, he was moved to Charles and Diana‘s household and witnessed the downfall of their marriage as the future king carried on his affair with Camilla.
Speaking on behalf of Slingo, Burrell explained: “That’s the way royal life sometimes is hard. You have to understand that they are gods in their own kingdoms and they can do whatever they want. So [Charles] did. He returned to Camilla and life was never the same again.”
Burrell continued: “At Highgrove, Diana would come every weekend with the boys because they were at school in London then and they’d play happy families at the weekend. They would argue and shout and it wouldn’t be such a happy family but they’d try and hide it from the children. On Sunday after lunch, Diana would leave the front door of Highgrove and go down the front drive with her children in the car and they’d wave goodbye to papa, and 10 minutes later in the back drive would come Mrs. Parker Bowles.”
Why Burrell said he had to ‘walk a tightrope’
During that time Burrell felt like he was “walking a tightrope” as he was torn by what was going on within the palace walls.
“So I had to try to walk a tightrope between the two women; a tightrope in the prince’s life,” he said. “On the one side was Princess [Diana] and two young princes and on the other side was a mistress called Mrs. Parker Bowles. And it wasn’t easy to walk that tightrope because I was very fond of the princess, even back then.”
Burrell added: “I knew that my loyalties were divided between two different worlds and yet I was paid by one boss so my loyalties should’ve been with the man who paid my wage, but my heart was with someone else.”
‘Diana’s ghost still haunts Windsor’
Burrell also spoke about how some of the other people working for the royals viewed Diana and revealed what one of Queen Elizabeth’s aides told him.
“I remember the day I left the queen, one of the ladies-in-waiting asked me to go for tea in her sitting room with her,” he recalled. “She said to me ‘You know you’re backing the losing don’t you?’ I said ‘What do you mean?’ she said, ‘Diana is such a silly girl, she’s going to be gone and forgotten in a few years’ time and no one will ever remember who she was.’
“Didn’t she get it wrong, 25 years later we’re still talking about her and Diana’s ghost is still haunting the House of Windsor.”
