Princess Diana ‘faked’ falling down the stairs while pregnant with Prince William because ‘she wanted attention’, Paul Burrell claims

PRINCESS Diana threw herself down the stairs while pregnant with Prince William because "she wanted attention", Paul Burrell has claimed.

Appearing on Channel 5's The Royal Family: Scandals at the Palace, the Princess' former butler described the incident which allegedly took place at the Sandringham Estate while Diana was four months pregnant in 1981.

Describing how he heard "an enormous clatter on the wooden staircase", Paul said he "found the Princess halfway down it, faking a tumble while she was carrying Prince William."

However, the late Princess' close confidante insists that she was careful not to hurt herself or the baby and had faked the incident.

Paul added: "There's no way on this planet that she would put at harm her unborn baby but she wanted attention."

The incident first hit headlines in 1992 when the late Princess told royal biographer Andrew Morton that she'd thrown herself down the stairs at Sandringham to get Prince Charles to "listen to her".

In the book Diana: Her True Story - which was based on a series of 1991 interviews with the late Royal -  the Princess said: "When I was four months pregnant with William, I threw myself downstairs, trying to get my husband's attention, for him to listen to me."

Paul also believes that Diana's biography was yet another "cry for help".

Commenting on how she secretly worked with Andrew Morton on the tell-all book by recording answers to his questions and sneaking them out of Kensington Palace, Paul said: "Princess Diana felt like she didn't have a voice.

"She was trapped inside the Palace and people didn't know her plight."

Intent on making sure the public knew her side of the story, Paul claimed that Diana "didn't seem to care" about how the book would affect the Royal Family because it "was her chance to tell the world exactly how she felt".

Along with detailing her struggle with depression and eating disorders, Andrew Morton's biography also delved into the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.

In more Royal Family news, Meghan Markle's sister has threatened to spoil the royal baby news with a tell-all book published at the same time.

And The Queen "won't approve" of Harry and Oprah's new TV project as mixing Hollywood and royals doesn't end well, according to an expert.

Plus Meghan Markle's baby "will become a dual citizen and be liable to pay US taxes" after they are born, an expert has claimed.