One thing a guy should never do is compare a woman negatively with another. That’s textbook stuff.
Especially when the person you’re dissing just so happens to be married to the future King of England.
But that age-old rule didn’t seem to enter Paul Burrell’s head when he spoke to Australian current-affairs programme 9News recently.
In the amazing interview, the former butler of Princess Diana claimed that Kate Middleton lacks the charisma and “X-factor” that his former employer had.
“I met Mother Theresa. She had it. Pope John Paul II had it. The Queen has it. Diana certainly had it. Kate doesn’t,” said the 59-year-old.
“She’s a lovely, lovely girl. She totally adores her husband – they’re devoted to each other.
“But that extra something, which you would call the ‘X-factor’, the magic quality, charisma… it’s not there.”
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To be fair to Kate, she’s ingratiated herself rather well with the British public, her geniality and sense of style often being lavished with praise.
But in an interview with the Sunday Mirror in April, Burrell suggested that such qualities had been schooled into the Duchess of Cambridge, rather than being part of her natural make-up – unlike Princess Diana.
“Kate is treading the same path as Diana but she’s had the coaching and the lessons that Diana didn’t,” he claimed.
“Diana was just pushed in the deep end and had to sink or swim. There was no one to teach her how to make it work.”
Burrell served as Diana’s butler from 1987 until her tragic death in Paris in 1997.
He has claimed that the former Princess of Wales once described him as “the only man she ever trusted”.
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We’re sure that Diana would’ve been flattered by his latest claims, which paint her in a fantastic light.
As for Kate Middleton? Well, that’s a different matter entirely.