Paul Burrell has hit back at Prince Harry’s claim that he never asked to keep Princess Diana’s engagement ring.
Following Diana’s tragic death in 1997, it was reported that Prince Harry requested to keep his mother’s ring while Prince William selected her Cartier watch.
But in his bombshell biography Spare, which was released last month, the Duke of Sussex, 38, branded these reports ‘absolutely rubbish’.
Instead, he claimed Prince William was already in possession of their mother’s ring when he proposed to Kate Middleton in 2010 – meaning he was never asked to part with it.
However, Paul Burrell – who worked as Princess Diana’s butler for 10 years – has told the Mirror that he was present when the brothers selected the items to remember their mother by.
Paul Burrell (pictured in January 2023) claims he was present when Prince Harry and Prince William picked out items from their mother’s jewellery collection at Kensington Palace
Paul claimed: ‘Harry said to me, I always remember holding mummy’s hand and that ring hurting me because it was so big.
‘And that’s why, when the boys came to Kensington Palace, I said to them, you must take something of your mother’s, you must take something to remind yourself of your time here at Kensington Palace and your mother’s life.’
The former royal employee says Prince William asked to keep Diana’s Cartier tank watch, which had been a present from her father on her 21st birthday.
Following this, Paul says Harry then requested that he have Diana’s 12-carat oval-cut sapphire ring – which has now been worn by Kate Middleton for almost 13 years.
What’s more, the expert says that Prince William was ‘happy with the arrangement’.
Describing how the Prince of Wales is ‘not materialistic’, the expert said the father-of-three didn’t gravitate towards the ‘flashiest’ items in Diana’s collection.
Paul added: ‘What they chose were the two very simple things really – a ring and a watch. Not fantastic jewels. But they meant something to the boys.’
In his book, Prince Harry denied ever asking for the piece of jewellery and wrote: ‘I never gave Willy that ring because it wasn’t mine to give. He already had it.
Prince Harry denied ever asking to keep his mother’s engagement ring in his bombshell biography Spare. Pictured together in 1995
Left: Princess Diana and Prince Charles after announcing their engagement in 1981. Right: Prince William and Kate Middleton pictured announcing their engagement in 2010
Paul says Harry then requested that he have Diana’s 12-carat oval-cut sapphire ring (pictured on Kate Middleton’s hand in 2010)
‘He’d asked for it after Mummy died, and I’d been more than happy to let it go.’
Elsewhere in his biography, Prince Harry said that Diana’s former butler made his ‘blood boil’ when he released a book about her following her death.
The Duke of Sussex said Paul Burrell was ‘milking’ Diana’s death for money when he published ‘A Royal Duty’ – which made a series of private revelations.
Last month, the former royal employee announced he is battling prostate cancer and will undergo an operation to remove the affected prostate gland.
The second most common form of cancer in men over the age of 50, prostate cancer affects the male reproductive system by infecting the small gland responsible for producing and transporting seminal fluid.
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