{"id":2484346,"date":"2026-07-02T01:23:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2484346"},"modified":"2026-07-02T01:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:23:48","slug":"princess-diana-was-devastated-after-losing-her-hrh-title-in-her-divorce-until-an-unexpected-royal-reached-out-butler-paul-burrells-memoir-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/princess-diana-was-devastated-after-losing-her-hrh-title-in-her-divorce-until-an-unexpected-royal-reached-out-butler-paul-burrells-memoir-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Diana was \u2018devastated\u2019 after losing her HRH title in her divorce until an unexpected royal reached out, butler Paul Burrell\u2019s memoir reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Princess Diana<\/strong>\u2018s divorce from the future King Charles III<\/strong> cost her far more than her marriage. It also stripped away a title she considered central to her identity.<\/p>\n

An anecdote shared by her butler of a decade, Paul Burrell<\/strong>, in his book A Royal Duty<\/em> that was recently resurfaced by Marie Claire<\/a><\/em> sheds light on the unexpected member of the royal family who reached out after Diana learned she would no longer be allowed to use the style \u201cHer Royal Highness.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Burrell, the gesture gave the late Princess of Wales comfort during one of the most difficult chapters of her life.<\/p>\n

An unexpected show of kindness<\/h2>\n
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<\/div>
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According to former royal butler Paul Burrell, Princess Michael of Kent\u2019s heartfelt letter gave Princess Diana a much-needed boost during one of the most difficult periods of her life. By: MEGA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

According to Burrell\u2019s 2003 memoir, Diana was heartbroken when she learned she would lose her HRH style once her divorce became official.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, she felt, part of her royal identity and she had worked tirelessly as a royal highness for many years,\u201d Burrell wrote. \u201cWhen the final decision was taken behind the scenes, the princess was devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrell wrote that Diana \u201cfound support from an unlikely corner of the royal family\u201d after Princess Michael of Kent<\/strong> sent her a heartfelt letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was horrified to learn in the press that after your title was removed, you would be expected to curtsy in public when meeting me,\u201d Princess Michael wrote, according to Burrell. \u201cI insist that this would cause me the greatest embarrassment, so please do not even consider it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrell shared that Princess Michael also praised Diana\u2019s \u201ccourage and strength\u201d before assuring her, \u201cYou will always have my support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ex-palace staffer wrote how he also tried to reassure Diana. \u201cYou don\u2019t need a title,\u201d Burrell told her. \u201cWherever you go in the world, you are known as Lady Di \u2014 and no one can take that away from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else Princess Diana lost in the divorce<\/h2>\n
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\"Princess<\/div>
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Princess Diana\u2019s 1996 divorce from then-Prince Charles cost her the HRH style and several royal titles, though she remained Diana, Princess of Wales until her tragic death. By: Jennifer Mitchell \/ MEGA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Diana and Charles separated in December 1992 after more than 11 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized on August 28, 1996 \u2014 barely a year before Diana died at 36 in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.<\/p>\n

Although Queen Elizabeth II<\/strong> allowed Diana to keep her Princess of Wales title, she was no longer permitted to use the style Her Royal Highness and also had to give up the additional titles she had acquired through marriage, including Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew.<\/p>\n

The change dramatically altered Diana\u2019s place within the royal family. The public and palace staff were no longer expected to curtsy to her, while she was expected to curtsy to royals who still held the HRH style \u2014 including her former husband and her own sons, Prince William<\/strong> and Prince Harry<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Who is Princess Michael of Kent?<\/h2>\n
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\"Princess<\/div>
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Princess Michael of Kent has been married to Prince Michael of Kent \u2014 a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II \u2014 for nearly five decades. By: MATRIXPHOTOS.COM \/ MEGA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

An author of European royal histories and former interior designer, Princess Michael has long been one of the more unconventional members of the royal family.<\/p>\n

Born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz in what was then part of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and is now part of the Czech Republic, she married Thomas Troubridge<\/strong>, an English banker, in 1971. They later divorced \u2014 as a Catholic, she successfully lobbied for an annulment that was granted by Pope Paul VI<\/strong> \u2014 and she wed Prince Michael of Kent<\/strong> in 1978.<\/p>\n

He is a grandson of King George V<\/strong> and a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n

The couple has two children together: Lord Frederick Windsor<\/strong> and Lady Gabriella Kingston<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry also gave up using his HRH title<\/h2>\n
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\"When<\/div>
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When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back as senior working royals in 2020, they agreed they would no longer use their HRH styles, though they legally retained them. By: Steve Parsons\/WPA \/ MEGA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

More than two decades after Diana lost the use of HRH, her younger son faced a similar change.<\/p>\n

When Harry and wife Meghan Markle<\/strong> stepped down as senior working royals in 2020, they agreed they would no longer use their HRH styles, though they legally retained them.<\/p>\n

A statement from Buckingham Palace at the time read, \u201cThe Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry later revealed in both the 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan<\/em> and his bestselling 2023 memoir, Spare, <\/em>that he\u2019d offered to relinquish the Sussex titles if it would help secure a different working arrangement with the royal family.<\/p>\n

Years later, when asked by Anderson Cooper<\/strong> during a 60 Minutes<\/a><\/em> interview why he and Meghan hadn\u2019t simply renounced their titles, Harry replied, \u201cAnd what difference would that make?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Princess Diana\u2018s divorce from the future King Charles III cost her far more than her marriage. It also stripped away a title she considered central to her identity. An anecdote shared by her butler of a decade, Paul Burrell, in his book A Royal Duty that was recently resurfaced by Marie Claire sheds light on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2484347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2484346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Princess-Diana-was-\u2018devastated-after-losing-her-HRH-title-in.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2484346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2484348,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484346\/revisions\/2484348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2484347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}