Former Butler Claims Prince Harry ‘Always Lived in a Bubble,’ Staff Struggled To Work With Him
Prince Harry’s critics have often painted him as a restless royal unable to settle into one role, but now a familiar voice from his past is reinforcing that image. Paul Burrell, Princess Diana’s longtime butler, has described the Duke of Sussex as “spoiled” and “difficult,” saying he has always lived in a “bubble.”
Burrell, who worked for Diana from 1987 until she died in 1997, said his own experiences with Harry align with the unflattering portrait painted of the Sussexes in Vanity Fair earlier this year. The magazine detailed the couple’s struggles with staff, their rift with the Royal Family, and even suggestions that Meghan had explored the possibility of writing a post-divorce memoir, the Mirror reported. “I know from firsthand experience how difficult Harry can be,” Burrell said in a recent interview. “I know how petulant he can be and how spoiled he is, because I’ve experienced that myself. He’s always lived in a bubble.”
What troubles Burrell most is the transformation he sees in Diana’s younger son. “I always circle back to the fact that Harry’s mother taught him long ago that the price for a privileged lifestyle is public service,” he noted. “Harry seems to have forgotten this lesson now he lives a celebrity Hollywood lifestyle that’s totally different from his royal one.”
Concerns over Harry’s attitude have been compounded by the couple’s revolving door of staff. Earlier, their Chief of Staff, Josh Kettler, became the 18th employee to walk away from the Sussexes, as reported by OK!. A source familiar with the situation put it bluntly, saying, “The brutal truth is Meghan and Harry are the toughest of taskmasters. They’re incredibly difficult to work for. The numbers don’t lie. To have almost 20 staffers quitting tells its own story. It’s unprecedented, even for a startup!” That track record has only fueled questions about their leadership.
Several former employees had painted a troubling picture, stating, “What may be most telling is the entire time I worked there, I don’t think I heard a single current or former employee say they would take the job again if given the chance,” one staffer admitted. The debate around Meghan’s management style has lingered ever since her time inside palace walls. She was accused of bullying aides during her short stint as a working royal — claims she dismissed as a “calculated smear campaign.” Although Queen Elizabeth ordered a formal investigation, the palace never released its findings, leaving the matter shrouded in secrecy.
Royal author Valentine Low, who first reported on the bullying allegations in 2021, says the fallout was profound. Speaking on the Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered podcast, he revealed that former staffers remain unsettled to this day. “They were very worried about what Markle would do to them. They viewed her capacity for revenge as infinite,” Low explained, adding that some remained in a “psychologically delicate state” years after leaving.
The bullying allegations surfaced just days before Harry and Meghan’s explosive Oprah Winfrey interview, fueling claims that the couple was being deliberately undermined. At the time, their spokesperson dismissed the reports as “misleading and harmful misinformation.” But for critics like Burrell, and for former staff who say they are still shaken, the perception of Harry and Meghan as “difficult” has only hardened with time.