Paul Burrell, Diana's Former Butler

[Dman]

Originally Posted by wyevale

So...The execrable Paul Burrell has finally flung open his own closet, rather than financing his 'secret' life by opening the late Princess' closet #30PiecesOfSilver

Yup, that guy is a piece of work. He loved making money off of her by happly talking about her private life, but wanted no one to talk about his.

[Iluvbertie]

I thought this had come out about 20 years ago. Certainly everyone I have spoken to since he 'came out' yesterday was of the impression that he had done this before - i.e. it was common knowledge.

[Mermaid1962]

I don't remember any kind of "official" outing, but I think that there were so many rumours that it was assumed; i.e. lots of references to Paul's "flamboyance". His attachment to his employer during her life, his behaviour after she died, and his ongoing spinning of his story has always seemed very strange to me.

[Denville]

I thought that he had made it obvious hat he was gay in the last years, now that his sons are grown up and his marriage had all but ended. I don't believe he kept it a secret as such...

[XeniaCasaraghi]

People like Burrell irritate me, why waste Maria's time if you're gay? Seems like he used her.

[Osipi]

I don't know. Sometimes I think Diana and Burrell got along so well because they're both peas in a pod with the "look at me" attitude of self importance. That may be exaggerating things but I do think Burrell's sense of self importance is overrated. He's been in the news about different things for the past 20 years and all stemming from being an employee of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Go figure.

[Denville]

that's hardly unusual.. there are other people with more education and brains than Burrell, who have made a career out of having been in her service.. I don't like Burrell much but I think he's ratter unstable, he's not very bright and he was shaken by Diana's sudden death and cared for her..and while he has used his service to her to make a living over the pat years he has mostly been kindly in his writing about her.

[Denville]

Originally Posted by XeniaCasaraghi

People like Burrell irritate me, why waste Maria's time if you're gay? Seems like he used her.

He probably want to keep his homosexuality a secret or to have children.

[Osipi]

Its not unusual for someone to have a very straight life with marriage and family for years and then discover that part of him isn't exactly how he's always thought of himself. It may have taken meeting up with a special someone that brought out the discovery that he could have feelings for another man. It happens.

Just as some marriages last for decades and then the people change and the marriage no longer works for them, I would be of a mind to believe this is what happened in Burrell's case. I don't know. Its just my guesstimation.

[Denville]

Oh he was always gay. but after all homosexuality was still illegal when he was a kid.. if he's around Di's age.

[Curryong]

Paul Burrell is 57. Homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK fifty years ago this year, in 1967.
There are lots of gays that work for the BRF. Many open homosexuals worked for the QM, for example. I suppose however that doesn't preclude someone denying their true sexuality or really falling for a member of the opposite sex in spite of it, or indeed wanting to please parents by marrying and having a family, (Paul and Maria married in the 1980s) fitting in with the world outside, a host of reasons,really.

[Denville]

well then. He was fairly open about his sexuality as a young man, I think it was well known in palaice cirlces that he was gay. However he chose to get married, probably to have kids, be "normal" and please family.. and his wife knew of his past.
I don't know if he wnet on having gay relationships during the earlier years of marriage.. but maybe he did. Eventaully his marriage broke up. He liked being in the UK, Maria liked America.. they parted ways.

[XeniaCasaraghi]

Originally Posted by Denville

He probably want to keep his homosexuality a secret or to have children.

Thereby using his wife as a beard or brood mare and she has to be OK with being used or she's looked down upon as not understanding. I can only hope he was honest with her going in.

Originally Posted by Osipi

I don't know. Sometimes I think Diana and Burrell got along so well because they're both peas in a pod with the "look at me" attitude of self importance. That may be exaggerating things but I do think Burrell's sense of self importance is overrated.

Are 2 self important people likely to be friends? 2 narcissistic personalities? Or maybe she lived off his worship of her and he lived off being associated with a Princess?

[Dee Anna]

Wasn't there some fracas where he was involved in something akin to a male only orgy at one of the palaces when quite young and working for the Queen. According to him the Queen advised him to find a nice girl to marry, there were several in service at the time. Burrell's words only, so make what you will of that!

Taking her advise, he dated and married Maria.

Two boys later, now about 24 and 27, he did initially blame much of the problems in his own marriage on the outside hours attention he had to give Diana.

In some way spin wise in terms of marriage break-up a (rather weak) probable cause at the time, in actual terms definitely not the root cause. Diana proved to be a handy scrapegoat and a financially viable one.

[Denville]

Originally Posted by XeniaCasaraghi

Thereby using his wife as a beard or brood mare and she has to be OK with being used or she's looked down upon as not understanding. I can only hope he was honest with her going in.



Are 2 self important people likely to be friends? 2 narcissistic personalities? Or maybe she lived off his worship of her and he lived off being associated with a Princess?

why do you call them "self important?" what does that mean? We are all "self important", in that we should be important to ourselves.
and it seems to me that they were friends for a time at least, even if they had arguments and difficulties, there was an affection between them.

[Denville]

Originally Posted by Dee Anna

Wasn't there some fracas where he was involved in something akin to a male only orgy at one pf the palaces when quite young and working for the Queen. According to him the Queen advised him to find a nice girl to marry, there were several in service at the time. Burrell's words only, so make what you will of that!


.

Where did you read this? I've never heard of it, and I doubt if the queen is going around "offering advice" to her servants.
certainly the relationship and working so hard for Diana did impinge on his marriage. He admits that Diana had a falling out with Maria, who worked for her and that he went along with his wife's being frozen out, weakly.. because he was obsessed by Diana.
and Maria was certainly jealous of his putting his employer first. Obviously his being gay was problaby the root cause of the marital failure in the end, but they were married for many years...might have continued in a friendly marriage, had social mores nto changed and had the "Diana situation" not pushed them into a differnet lifestyle.

[Duchessmary]

I must've missed something. Paul and Maria have divorced? Paul's claiming he's openly gay now?

[Denville]

He is marrying a man, I don't tink it gets more gay than that. And he and Maria have been split up for years.

[Katrianna]

Paul and his partner married in the late spring. They had a private marriage ceremony if I remember and then had a huge reception/party with a circus theme. It's just me, but the party was too gaudy and crass for my taste, but that's my opinion only.

[Katrianna]

The DM was one of the tabloids that carried the news of the marriage.



Diana's former butler Paul Burrell marries his 'soulmate' | Daily Mail Online