Princess Diana broke down in tears after listening to ‘disrespectful’ phone call from Martin Bashir

Princess Diana broke down in tears after listening to ‘disrespectful’ phone call from Martin Bashir, says her butler Paul Burrell

  • Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell claims Martin Bashir left the princess sobbing 
  • Princess Diana ‘gobsmacked’ after listening in on Bashir questioning Mr Burrell   
  • Former butler claims Bashir repeatedly rang probing for information on Diana

A ‘disrespectful’ phone call from Martin Bashir left Princess Diana sobbing ‘how could he be like that?’, her former butler Paul Burrell claims.

In a five-minute phone call to Diana’s butler at Kensington Palace, Mr Burrell claims Bashir brashly pushed him for information on the princess’s whereabouts and which ‘boyfriends’ she’d met with – as she secretly listened in.

Mr Burrell told The Sun on Sunday that Diana had been ‘gobsmacked by his [Bashir’s] irreverence’ as the reporter had always politely addressed her as ‘Your Royal Highness’ to her face.

The former butler claims that Bashir repeatedly rang him to win him over and gain information on Diana’s movements, but that his job was too valuable to him to disclose information about the princess. 

A ‘disrespectful’ phone call from Martin Bashir left Princess Diana (left) sobbing ‘how could he be like that?’, her former butler Paul Burrell (right) claims

On this particular day in 1996 Diana had allegedly walked in to the butler’s pantry mid-conversation and overheard the reporter’s probing, mouthing ‘shh’ to Mr Burrell she then pressed her ear to the phone to hear the pair’s conversation.

Mr Burrell told Sun on Sunday: ‘Martin was being very ­disrespectful, everything was ‘she’ this and ‘she’ that. He was asking where she was and ‘Has she been out with one of her boyfriends again?’

‘He also spoke as if she was flighty. He was complaining she wasn’t taking his calls and wasn’t sharing as much with him as he wanted her to. It was a very uncomfortable moment.’

At this point Mr Burrell claims Diana was so ‘shocked’ and ‘betrayed’ to hear how Bashir spoke about her that she burst into tears and ran out of the room.

Mr Burrell claims Martin Bashir (pictured in 1995) brashly pushed him for information on the princess's whereabouts and which 'boyfriends' she'd met with - as she secretly listened in

Mr Burrell claims Martin Bashir (pictured in 1995) brashly pushed him for information on the princess’s whereabouts and which ‘boyfriends’ she’d met with – as she secretly listened in

Mr Burrell claims that this was the moment Diana severed her friendship with the reporter, who had allegedly told her before securing the 1995 Panorama interview with her that he had ‘not got much money’ and needed help bolstering his career at the BBC. 

The butler – who served Diana from 1987 to 1997 –  previously recounted how the BBC presenter was like a ‘small child excited in a sweet shop’ when he led Bashir into Kensington Palace to meet with Diana ahead of the interview. 

He said the journalist was ‘all too happy,’ to talk to Diana after she had refused similar interviews with other broadcasters, but said Bashir had been ‘deceitful.’

Diana and Prince Charles’ two sons have both condemned the interview following the Dyson Inquiry into the actions of the BBC and Martin Bashir regarding their mother’s 1995 interview.

The Duke of Cambridge said Bashir’s deceit in obtaining his 1995 interview with Princess Diana hastened his parents’ divorce and ‘hurt countless others’ in an unprecedented broadside against the shamed BBC.

The BBC presenter was like a 'small child excited in a sweet shop' when he led Bashir into Kensington Palace to meet with Diana ahead of the interview, Mr Burrell claimed

The BBC presenter was like a ‘small child excited in a sweet shop’ when he led Bashir into Kensington Palace to meet with Diana ahead of the interview, Mr Burrell claimed

His brother Prince Harry – who is based in California – also responded to Lord Dyson’s damning report into how the interview was obtained, saying his mother ‘lost her life because of this’.

But by the beginning of 1997, her relationship with the reporter was changing, with Diana telling royal correspondent Richard Kay that she had signed a book deal with the publisher Random House.

The book was to be a collection of her speeches, illustrated with photographs of her at the events with ‘estimated sales will be £2 million to £3 million worldwide’, of which Bashir was due to get a ‘£100,000’ cut, she told Mr Kay. 

Diana told Mr Kay: ‘[Bashir] was always complaining about money, that he didn’t get paid enough by the BBC’.

She later added: ‘Whenever Paul [Burrell] drives him, he pumps him for information, wanting to know who I see, what I do.’     

Mr Burrell claims Diana pulled out of the book deal after overhearing the 1996 phone call from Bashir.