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Paul Burrell, once charged with stealing from the late princess, also says in a published report that he helped her give money to prostitutes.
©Associated Press
November 6, 2002
LONDON -- Princess Diana's former butler told police that he smuggled men into her Kensington Palace apartment after her marriage to Prince Charles collapsed, a published report said Tuesday. The princess also begged a surgeon to marry her.
Paul Burrell also told police that the princess gave cash to prostitutes who worked near London's Paddington rail station and was annoyed that one of them had not bought a warm coat as intended, the Sun newspaper reported Tuesday.
The tabloid published lengthy excerpts of a 39-page statement it said Burrell gave to police to establish his close, personal relationship with the princess.
Metropolitan Police said they were not investigating how the statement was published and had no comment. Burrell's spokesman, David Warwick, said Burrell had no comment.
Charges of stealing some of Diana's possessions were dismissed against Burrell on Friday after Queen Elizabeth II revealed that he told the monarch of taking items for safekeeping shortly after Diana's death.
Burrell was butler to Prince Charles and Diana starting in 1986. He stayed with her after the couple separated in 1992 and remained in her service until her death Aug. 31, 1997, in a Paris car crash.
The Sun reported that Burrell told police how he was able "to facilitate the arrangements in relation to the princess' male friends" so security guards had no record of them entering the residence.
One of Diana's overnight visitors was said to have been Dr. Hasnant Khan, a cardiac surgeon. According to Burrell's reported statement, Diana had begged him to marry her.
"She asked me to check with Father Tony -- a Roman Catholic priest -- to see whether it would be possible for them to be married privately. I had to tell her that this was not possible," Burrell was quoted as saying in the police report.
Burrell told police that Diana once wore nothing but a fur coat and sapphire and diamond earrings when she went out to meet Khan, the Sun said.
The butler also said that he and the princess frequently drove around Paddington Station in west London to meet prostitutes.
"The princess became on first-name terms with two or three of them. . . . She would give them money especially when it was cold and wet, and tell them to go home," Burrell said.
Diana once gave a girl money to buy a coat, "and she was annoyed that whenever she saw the girl afterwards she was not wearing the coat, so that she had obviously spent the money on something else," Burrell is quoted as saying.
The Daily Mirror said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with Burrell for a series of stories. According to media reports, the agreement is worth $620,000. Media reports also said that Burrell made a $155,000 deal with Independent Television for a weekend interview.