Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer says ‘rock’ Paul Burrell is lying about their close relationship and blasted her former butler for selling her private secrets after her death
PRINCESS Diana’s close friend David Emanuel has accused her “rock” Paul Burrell of exaggerating his closeness to her.
Designer David, who made her 1981 wedding dress, also laid into her former butler for selling her private secrets in the wake of her death.
In an exclusive interview, he said: “There’s always a periphery of people who do that. One of the shattering things that I find going back and forth hundreds of times to Kensington Palace, I never met this guy called Paul Burrell. Never met him.
“I find that rather extraordinary, but he seemed to be quite verbal and he was her ‘rock’ and ‘blah blah blah’.
“But I just find it extraordinary the hundreds of times I went, he was never there.”
David, 64, was a close confidante of Diana before and after her wedding to Prince Charles. The dress he made for her is one of the most famous in the world and was seen by more than 700million people.
Ex-butler Paul is thought to have made millions of pounds spilling royal secrets, especially in two books on Diana. William and Harry blasted his betrayal after the first one in 2003.
David’s damning criticism comes two weeks after we revealed her shameless ex-aide had further cashed in on the 20th anniversary of her death.
He was paid £10,000 by Channel 5’s In Therapy programme, which featured a shrink quizzing him at a rehab centre in London’s Harley Street.
Paul revealed more of her secrets including how he aided her bulimia.
He also talked about the royal’s “soft and warm” corpse and how he slept among her clothes after her death. David, back on TV in the new series of Say Yes to the Dress… for Less next Friday on TLC, said the anniversary makes him “incredibly emotional”.
He added: “I’ll never forget her, she was amazing.
“She was full of fun. I’ve seen all these documentaries now and some of them are dreadful.
“They’re missing the fun aspect. She was kind and generous, was full of life and had beautiful eyes. And she was fun, I remember one sitting I did at Buckingham Palace and she said, ‘Well how are you getting back?’ and I said, ‘Well I’ll call a cab’.
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“And she said, ‘No, well I’ll take you’. So there we were sitting in her car driving down The Mall and we stopped at the lights and by which time of course people recognised her.
“And I’m sitting in the front seat of a little bashed-up car and we’re laughing like fools.”
David, who came second on I’m A Celebrity... in 2013, said even on the biggest day of her life her manners were impeccable. He said: “On her wedding day she had all the world’s eyes on her and I was just leaving my studio after being at Buckingham Palace for most of the day and the phone goes and she goes, ‘Hi, it’s me! I just wanted to say it was great and thank you so much and everyone loved it and
Charles loved it and the Queen loved it’. It’s that kindness.”
David also revealed in the run-up to the wedding, Charles begged him for a glimpse of the gown. He added: “I’d run into the Prince of Wales a few times and he said, ‘Well what’s happening’ and I said,
‘Well you can’t see it’.
“He said, ‘Well what’s it going to be like?’ And I said, ‘You’ll have to wait’.”