Princess Diana’s butler says ‘Prince Harry felt less important than William as he got fewer bangers’

Princess Diana‘s former butler has pondered whether William being given more sausages for breakfast when he was a child played a part in their played a part in their fractious relationship as adults.

Paul Burrell claims the Duke of Sussex would become confused and complain when he was young that his older brother got bigger breakfasts.

The 64-year-old claims after the young prince asked why that once, a nanny for the pair told him the now-Prince of Wales needed ‘filling up more’ as he would be ‘King one day’.

Mr Burrell, who acted as butler for the Princess of Wales for 10 years, said it could have been an early display of the dynamic between the two feuding siblings that dominates today.

Prince William (right) pictured with Prince Harry (left) on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the RAF centenary in 2018

Paul Burrell, the former butler for Princess Diana, pictured here on Good Morning Britain in 2022

Mr Burrell, who was present during William and Harry’s childhood, said there were signs of an early rivalry between the princes.  

‘When I look back now, I think maybe I was glimpsing the dynamic at play,’ he told the Sun.

‘One time I saw the nanny give William three sausages at breakfast and Harry had two.

‘And Harry would look at his plate and say, how come he gets three? And I only get two.’ 

Mr Burrell added that when the nanny responded about the pecking order between the two brothers the now-Duke of Sussex would ‘fall quiet and suck it up’.

The former member of the Royal Household said despite Diana seeing the boys as ‘absolutely equal’, he believes the hierarchy within the Firm that puts William first has caused resentment from Harry.

He said that the Duke ‘found it tough living up to the standard set by William’ and that this became more stark when he attended Eton against his mother’s wishes.

Mr Burrell said Diana had felt Harry would be unjustly compared to his older brother if he went to the independent school, and that this turned out to be the case. 

The father-of-two said that William was ‘brighter’ than his younger brother, and that while the future King was ‘measured and stoic’, Harry took to playing the clown to get noticed.

He added that he no longer recognises the Harry who is in the public eye today to the young boy he saw grow up in the Royal Household, saying: ‘He’s clearly hurt and angry at being “the spare” and so he’s lashing out from that place.’

Harry, pictured here during an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby earlier this month, showed early signs of being unhappy with his position, Paul Burrell says

Paul Burrell, pictured here with Diana in 1997, served the Princess of Wales as her butler for 10 years 

Meanwhile, Mr Burrell claimed that the relationship between the Fab Four – the Sussexes and the Cambridges –  worsened over ‘house envy’

He claimed that Meghan, who was then living in Nottingham Cottage while the Cambridges were in Kensington Palace, ‘got a sight of everything Kate and William enjoyed… she realised she wasn’t in the top tier’.

Harry recently revealed he was ’embarrassed’ to show Meghan his home and that his future wife likened it to a ‘frat house’. 

It comes after the Duke of Sussex lashed out at Mr Burrell in his recently released memoir, Spare, which also saw him launch vicious attacks on his brother and the monarchy.

In the book, which was released in the UK on Tuesday, Harry accused Diana’s former butler of ‘milking’ her death for money by publishing his 2001 book A Royal Duty.

The novel contained a raft of private revelations, although in his memoir Harry called it ‘one man’s self-justifying, self-centring version of events’. 

Harry said he learned of the book while working as an unpaid farmhand in Australia at the age of 19, adding that it ‘made my blood boil’.

He wrote that he wanted to fly home to ‘confront’ Mr Burrell for his ‘cold and overt betrayal’, but his father and brother talked him out of it.

Speaking last week after the publication of Harry’s memoir, Mr Burrell said Diana would be ‘appalled’ by her youngest son’s behaviour, and accused Harry of making ‘personal, vindictive revelations’.

 He added that he saw Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, as the driving force behind the Duke’s behaviour. 

He told Australian television: ‘She [Meghan] is beside him steering him on his path. You can’t just blame Harry. You have to blame the both of them. 

‘I don’t like to see the rug being pulled beneath the feet of our King and Harry’s brother, who is on his way to being King. And the snipes that have gone forward about Kate [the Princess of Wales]…

‘Kate has never put a foot wrong. But the other side of the story will never be heard because the royals believe there’s great dignity in silence.’