Princess Diana’s former royal butler has hit out at Prince Harry’s claim that, despite press reporting to the contrary, he did not give Prince William their mother’s engagement ring to propose to Kate Middleton with because “it wasn’t mine to give.”
According to Burrell, Harry chose to keep Diana’s highly treasured engagement ring as a keepsake and William opted for her Cartier watch. This he repeated in interviews after the ring appeared on the finger of Kate Middleton in 2010, alleging that Harry must have given it to his brother.
Harry denied this account in his bombshell memoir Spare which hit the shelves in January, becoming the fastest-selling non-fiction book in history.
“The papers published florid stories about the moment I realized Willy and Kate were well matched, the moment I appreciated the depth of their love and thus decided to gift Willy the ring I’d inherited from Mummy, the legendary sapphire,” he wrote.
“A tender moment between brothers, a bonding moment for all three of us, and absolute rubbish,” he continued. “None of it ever happened. I never gave Willy that ring because it wasn’t mine to give. He already had it. He’d asked for it after Mummy died, and I’d been more than happy to let it go.”
After her death, it is believed that William and Harry inherited equal shares in Diana’s extensive jewelry collection.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror on Tuesday, Burrell said Harry definitely asked for the ring in 1997.
“Harry said to me, I always remember holding mummy’s hand and that ring hurting me because it was so big.
“And that’s why, when the boys came to Kensington Palace, I said to them, ‘you must take something of your mother’s, you must take something to remind yourself of your time here at Kensington Palace and your mother’s life.'”
According to Burrell, William requested the Cartier Tank watch “‘which Grandpa Spencer gave her for her 21st birthday because I remember mummy wearing that, keeping the time.'”
Harry allegedly requested the engagement ring because: “‘that’s the ring I remember from my childhood.'”
On what happened next, Burrell said the brothers must have struck a deal. “Harry obviously gave up his treasure to his brother so that it could be on the ring finger of his wife who would one day be Queen.”
The butler told the newspaper that William was originally happy for Harry to have the engagement ring, made of a large oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds and presented to Diana by Prince Charles in 1981, because he “is not materialistic, so he didn’t look for the flashiest jewel in mummy’s collection.”
“What they chose were the two very simple things really, a ring and a watch. Not fantastic jewels. But they meant something to the boys.”
