Burrell: I still love Maria despite divorce
PRINCESS Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell has told how he still loves his wife Maria – in spite of their imminent divorce.
The couple are “well into” the proceedings which will see them split after 32 years of marriage.
Dad-of-two Burrell told the Sunday Mirror: “I still love my wife. Marrying her was the best thing in my life, and to witness the boys being born – nothing compares.
“It’s sad when people part, but it happens a lot.”
The couple met when they both worked at Buckingham Palace.
Burrell, 57, said: “Maria is the mother of my children – they’re the three most important people in my life. Their happiness comes before mine.” Burrell won his role as footman to the Queen in 1977, aged 19, and became Diana’s butler 10 years later.
Maria, who is five years older, was the Duke of Edinburgh’s maid. They married in 1984.
But Diana’s death in 1997 meant increasing media appearances after he told how she had called him “her rock”. After writing his first royal memoir, Burrell appeared on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and the couple began to see less and less of each other. Maria moved to America after they bought a second home in Clermont near Orlando, Florida. She lives there with sons Alex, 30, and Nicolas, 27.
But Burrell remains devoted to his flower business in Farndon, Cheshire, where he lives above the shop. He said: “I don’t think much will change. A divorce is only a piece of paper.”