Close friend of Princess Diana David Emanuel says her former butler Paul Burrell exaggerated how close he was to her.
The designer, who made her 1981 wedding dress, said it was wrong her so-called ‘rock’ sold private secrets when she died.
In an exclusive interview, he told The Sun: ‘There’s always a periphery of people who do that. One of the shattering things that I find going back and forth hundreds of times to Kensington Palace, I never met this guy called Paul Burrell. Never met him.
David’s dress for Diana was seen by over 700 million people watching the 1981 wedding
‘I find that rather extraordinary, but he seemed to be quite verbal and he was her “rock” and “blah blah blah”.
‘But I just find it extraordinary the hundreds of times I went, he was never there.’
David, 64, was confidante to Diana before and after her wedding to Prince Charles. The dress he made her is one of the world’s most famous and was seen by over 700million people.
Ex-butler Paul reportedly made millions off royal secrets, especially in two books on Diana, with William and Harry blasting the first one in 2003 as a betrayal.
Paul who? David says in hundreds of visits to Kensington Palace he never once bumped into the butler
He was also paid £10,000 by Channel 5’s In Therapy programme, which showed a therapist quizzing him at a rehab centre in London’s Harley Street for the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death.
In it, Paul revealed spilled secrets including how he helped her through bulimia.
He also referred to her ‘soft and warm’ corpse and claimed to have slept among her clothes after her death.
But David says the anniversary is missing a crucial side of Diana.
‘I’ll never forget her, she was amazing.
‘She was full of fun. I’ve seen all these documentaries now and some of them are dreadful.
‘They’re missing the fun aspect. She was kind and generous, was full of life and had beautiful eyes. And she was fun, I remember one sitting I did at Buckingham Palace and she said, “Well how are you getting back?” and I said, “Well I’ll call a cab”.
Paul Burrel was paid £10,000 for an interview on Channel 5’s In Therapy in which he spoke of Princess Diana’s soft and warm corpse
‘And she said, “No, well I’ll take you”. So there we were sitting in her car driving down The Mall and we stopped at the lights and by which time of course people recognised her.
‘And I’m sitting in the front seat of a little bashed-up car and we’re laughing like fools.’
David, who finished second on I’m A Celebrity… in 2013, said her manners were impeccable on her big day with Charles.
‘On her wedding day she had all the world’s eyes on her and I was just leaving my studio after being at Buckingham Palace for most of the day and the phone goes and she goes, “Hi, it’s me! I just wanted to say it was great and thank you so much and everyone loved it and Charles loved it and the Queen loved it”. It’s that kindness.’
David says Charles begged him for a glimpse of the gown prior to the wedding
‘I’d run into the Prince of Wales a few times and he said, “Well what’s happening” and I said, “Well you can’t see it.”
‘He said, “Well what’s it going to be like?” And I said, “You’ll have to wait”.’