Royal Butler Revealed The Harsh Words Charles Used To Break Diana's Heart

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Although allegations about King Charles III and Princess Diana's famously tumultuous marriage are nothing new, they still sting even decades later. In September 2025, Paul Burrell, Diana's former butler, published "The Royal Insider." And according to his book, Charles and Diana's marriage was all about duty, rather than romance. "Diana once told me that Charles had told her in the middle of one of their epic arguments: 'I never loved you. I only married you to have children,'" Burrell claimed. In contrast to those reportedly chilling sentiments, Charles seemed thrilled to become a dad, and he apparently read up on parenting before the birth of William, Prince of Wales. In addition, another high point of Charles and Diana's marriage occurred just before Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex's arrival. 

Sadly, one of their lowest points as a couple was right after Harry's birth. Charles had been outspoken about wanting a daughter, and he was reportedly disconcerted to discover that he had a red-headed son instead (Diana had known for a while they were having a boy). As Burrell related in his book, the People's Princess wasn't really surprised about Harry's hair color, since she had a lot of gingers in her family. But the former butler asserted that Diana was devastated when Charles reportedly told her, "Well at least I've got my heir and spare now and I can return to Camilla." Charles's relationship with Queen Camilla predated his marriage to Diana, and they remained in close contact throughout those turbulent years.

Notably, Paul Burrell's book provides some crucial context for why Prince Harry's birth was a breaking point in King Charles III and Princess Diana's marriage, as previously available information was rather ambiguous. In 2017, the documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words" was released, and it included recorded interviews conducted for Andrew Morton's 1992 book, "Diana: Her True Story." As the People's Princess confirmed in one, "Suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang. Our marriage, the whole thing went down the drain." 

After recounting Charles' crestfallen reaction to him being a boy, she admitted, "Something inside me closed off, and by then I knew he'd gone back to his lady," referring to Queen Camilla. Still, Burrell's claim that the future king directly stated those intentions to his then-wife makes the story even more heartbreaking. Alongside the former royal butler's shocking revelations, Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, has also shared some harsh views about the royal couple's marriage (Spencer's feud with King Charles III goes way back). 

In "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," his 2026 book about the beloved royal, the earl divulged that Charles took honesty to brutal levels the day before their wedding, reportedly reasoning that, "She needed to know that he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her." Once again, while this revelation is very hurtful, it's not the first time rumors about the night before Charles and Diana's wedding have circulated. Her astrologer Penny Thornton told a similar tale in the 2020 ITV documentary, "The Diana Interview." She explained, "I think Charles didn't want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her, and it was devastating for Diana," (via People).