Princess Diana is the only person who could have ended the feud between Prince William and Prince Harry, claims her former butler Paul Burrell.
Speaking on the 26th anniversary of the Princess of Wales’s death, the late royal’s confidante has said the boys’ mother “would have bumped their heads together” and “told them to grow up” .
The brothers have endured a highly publicized feud in recent years that shows no signs of slowing down, with Harry recently saying he had ‘no support’ following his return from Afghanistan, despite previously thanking William for his support.
“In this whole equation, Diana is the missing piece and if she had been part of it none of this would have happened.
“Their mother would like to bang their heads together and say, ‘Boys grow up. This isn’t what I wanted from you, not what I expected from you. So come on, get your act together and settle it.’ And she’s the only person who can do that,” Burrell told the newspaper Mirror.
Prince William and Prince Harry have endured a much-publicized feud that shows no signs of slowing down – and only someone can end it once and for all, a royal source says (Image: Prince William and Prince Harry walk side by side after watching floral tribute for the late Queen Elizabeth outside Windsor Castle, in September 2022
Mr Burrell added that the brothers would not have grown apart if their mother was still alive.
The pair have since separated through a rift that is believed to have started in March 2019 when William allegedly threw Harry and Meghan out of Kensington Palace over alleged staff bullying, a claim that has since been denied.
And in his impressive biography Spare, Prince Harry claimed that his older brother physically assaulted him when he was still living in Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
More recently, Prince Harry said coming home from the 2008 conflict in Afghanistan caused the trauma of losing his mother, but “no one around me could really help.”
Paul Burrell (pictured left), a former butler to Princess Diana, says the late princess is the ‘missing piece in the equation’ that could finally bring Prince William and Prince Harry back together (pictured: Princess Diana and Paul Burrell in London, in 1994)
In the new series, Harry claims his mother’s death was “never discussed,” and it wasn’t until he returned from the war that he became aware that he was still traumatized by Diana dying in Paris at the age of 12.
He added: ‘It was never talked about and I didn’t really talk about it and I suppressed it like most other young people would have. When it all came out I was bouncing off the walls – what’s going on here? – I feel everything now instead of being young.’
Speaking earlier this year, royal expert Jennie Bond echoed Mr Burrell’s thoughts.
Former BBC correspondent Jennie Bond – who met Diana several times before her death in 1997 – said the late Royal was ‘so obviously proud’ of her two boys.
In conversation with Okay! magazine, the expert claimed Diana said Britain was “lucky” with William as the future king.
Princess Diana pictured with Prince William and Prince Harry on the Duke of Sussex’s first day at Eton College in 1995
However, the expert said Diana was concerned about how Prince Harry would carve his own path in the royal family.
Jennie said, “Diana was an absolutely devoted mother and her sons meant everything to her.”
Princess Diana is said to have told the former royal correspondent that she showered Harry and William with “love and hugs” because she had not been shown much affection during her childhood.
In his bombshell biography Spare, Prince Harry claimed that his older brother had physically assaulted him when he was still living in Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
William allegedly branded Meghan “difficult,” “rude” and “abrasive,” and insisted he try to help his younger brother during a meeting about “the whole unfolding catastrophe” of their failing relationship and Harry’s feuds with the press.
Harry accused his brother of “impersonating the story in the press” about his American wife before a shouting match ensued, which ended in a physical altercation, the book claims. He says he gave the heir to the throne a glass of water and said, “Willy, I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
Describing what he says happened next, the former soldier insisted he was scared: “He put the water down, called me another name, then came over to me. It all happened so fast. So very quickly.
BBC correspondent Jennie Bond said the late princess was ‘so obviously proud’ of her two boys (pictured in 2018)
“He grabbed me by the collar, ripped my chain, and knocked me to the ground. I landed on the dog’s food bowl, which burst under my back, cutting the pieces into me. I lay there for a while, dazed, then got up and told him to get out.’
Elsewhere in the bio, Prince Harry also claimed that his brother and Kate Middleton told him to wear a Nazi uniform costume to a fancy dress party they all attended in 2005.
Harry claims he was considering the Nazi uniform or pilot outfit for a Native and Colonial themed event and called his brother and sister-in-law for their opinion.
‘They both cried. Worse than Willy’s leotard! Much more ridiculous! And that was the point again.’
The outfit became a major scandal when Harry, then twenty, was photographed wearing the Nazi regalia.
The story made global headlines after an image of Harry in the costume appeared on the front page of The Sun newspaper.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pictured in December 2022 – a month before the Duke of Sussex’s memoirs were published
While promoting Spare in January, Prince Harry appeared to blame his family for the feud in an interview The Telegraph.
He said, “It was all so avoidable. But they just couldn’t help it.’
The Duke of Sussex added that he couldn’t understand why it seemed “shocking and outrageous” for him to tell what he believed to be the “truthful” side of the story.
Harry also claimed he felt a “responsibility” to reform the monarchy for the sake of his two young children.
He also described how the therapy had helped him, but said he was unable to “get through” his family to agree with him.
He said, “Then I started explaining to them how some of their decisions and some of the things they did – or didn’t do – would reflect on that. Bad.
“Especially on the world stage, especially across the Commonwealth, in regards to my current wife. And I couldn’t get through to them. And it wasn’t one or two people I was trying to get through to.
“It was a mindset. It was a culture, within a bubble within a bubble, that was unbreakable during my stay.’