Burrell scorned for saying Kate lacks Diana’s charm
FORMER royal butler Paul Burrell was forced to apologise yesterday after saying the Duchess of Cambridge lacked Princess Diana’s charisma.
Burrell, 59, who has made a fortune selling himself as Diana’s rock, was made to publicly backtrack on claims that Kate did not have “the X factor”.
In a TV interview while on a trip to Australia, he said: “I met Mother Teresa, she had it. Pope John Paul II had it. The Queen has it. Diana certainly had it. Kate doesn’t.
“She’s a lovely girl and she adores her husband but that extra something which you call the X factor, the magic quality, charisma – it’s not there.”
Harsh
However he was lambasted over his comments during another interview, this time with TV host Karl Stefanovic.
Stefanovic, 42, said: “You said she lacks the X factor that Diana had. That’s way too harsh isn’t it?”
Burrell said his remarks may have been taken out of context. He added: “What I meant was, she is a safe pair of hands. Diana was much bigger. Kate wouldn’t want to be Diana or try and fill her shoes. That’s impossible.”
Stefanovic replied: “She does have the X factor. How dare you say that?” Burrell claimed he had seen “something special” when he stood beside Diana – then admitted he had never stood beside Kate.
As the encounter got increasingly heated, Stefanovic told Burrell that if William ever becomes king he might bar him from re-entering the country.
Meanwhile a book claims Diana felt triumphant at the “savage” reaction to an infamous leaked phone call between Charles and Camilla.
The Prince of Wales was criticised over the “Camillagate” tape Diana branded “sick” for its reported infamous tampon reference.
The backlash gave Diana a boost as she rebuilt her life, says ex-personal protection officer Ken Wharfe in his memoirs Guarding Diana: Protecting The Princess Around The World.
Diana’s response to the 1989 recording was widely published by newspapers in 1993. Wharfe says of the reaction to Charles: “Cartoonists lampooned him in the press.
“One cartoon, featuring him talking dirty to his plants, particularly amused the Princess.”