Prince Harry Was Allegedly Crushed When Prince William Received "Special Treatment" as a Child, Says Royal Butler
"Poor Harry's face across the table," Princess Diana's former butler recalled.


Prince Harry and Prince William were reportedly fairly close as children. However, a former member of staff for the Royal Family has suggested Harry envied some of the "special treatment" his brother seemed to be getting as the future heir.
While appearing on the Channel 5 documentary The Palace: What the Royal Servants Saw, Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, discussed some alleged favoritism that occurred when the princes were young. "I heard one of the nannies say to William, 'I'm going to give you three sausages, William,'" Burrell claimed (via the Express). "'You need to grow big and strong, because you're going to be king one day.'"
According to Burrell, Prince Harry's reaction to the perceived "special treatment" was devastating. "Poor Harry's face across the table," Burrell recalled. "I looked at him [and knew he was thinking], 'Why did you get three sausages and I got two?'"
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, and Prince William at an amusement park in April 1993.
This isn't the first time Burrell has spoken about the royal brothers. In 2024, the former butler spoke to The Sun about the alleged royal rift between Harry and William. "There's no love lost between Diana and Charles, but what was important to Diana is that both boys should have been influenced by both parents, and she would have wanted them to respect their father," he claimed. "She would have made Harry apologize to Charles, and Diana would have been the broker of that—she was always the peacemaker."
Burrell has also seemingly criticized Harry on multiple occasions since the Duke of Sussex stepped down as a senior member of the Royal Family. In 2023, the former royal staffer shared his unhappiness with some of the contents of Prince Harry's memoir, Spare. As he told Marie Claire, "I was really upset, really upset [by] the fact that he referred to me as 'the butler.'" Burrell continued, "Well, mummy's butler was called Paul, Harry, and you knew me, all your life you've known me as Paul."
Princess Diana and Prince Harry in September 1995.
Expanding on his dismay, Burrell said, "He had never known me as 'the butler,' so why suddenly has there been a shift only recently, a shift to being called the butler? Suddenly I'm sort of being dismissed."
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Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.
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