Burrell was no 'rock'

Since the collapse of his Old Bailey trial two weeks ago, Paul Burrell's revelations have rocked the monarchy, uncovering a world of secrets and lies few loyal servants have ever dared to reveal.

The litany of scandals has mounted by the day, and Burrell's extraordinary television appearance last weekend in an interview with Sir Trevor McDonald was a brilliant attempt at repairing his tarnished image. At times he was crying as he remembered Princess Diana and explained why he feels the burden of responsibility to commemorate her life has fallen to him.

But one person less convinced about the man, and indeed his occasionally fanciful tales, is Princess Margaret's former chauffeur David Griffin - another royal servant who worked alongside Burrell and Princess Diana in Kensington Palace.

In an astonishing interview with the Standard, Griffin claims Burrell is deluding the public and himself with his account of his relationship with the Princess and accuses him of "rewriting history" with a "pack of lies".

"Burrell has created this idea that he was Diana's 'rock', which I believe is far from the truth. I spoke to the Princess regularly and I know for a fact she found him overbearing much of the time," claims Griffin. "He was obsessed by her, in what I can only describe as an unhealthy way. He stuck to her like glue much of the time and this got on her nerves."

Referring to a conversation he had with Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace three months before her death, Griffin recalls the Princess complaining bitterly about the man she referred to as "the shadow". "He refers to himself as her 'rock', but she nicknamed him 'the shadow'," says Griffin, "because he was always there hovering in the background. I remember on one occasion her saying to me, 'I can't f****** go anywhere without him following me.' I remember she blushed when she swore but it was clear she'd had enough of him."

The collapse of the Burrell trial has created a crisis like no other faced
by the royal family in recent years. St James's Palace this week announced an internal inquiry to investigate allegations of gay rape and the way the trial collapsed. Meanwhile, Michael Fawcett, Prince Charles's personal consultant, is to go on indefinite leave following his involvement in a "cash for gifts" scandal. In the winter following Princess Diana's death, Griffin also found himself embroiled in scandal when he sold some letters and cards Diana had sent him over the years. He was subject to an internal investigation at Kensington Palace, but was later exonerated. No action was taken against him and he was never suspended.

The letters were sold to an American dealer who had advertised for Diana memorabilia in The Times. Griffin made just over £10,000 from the sale and used the money to pay off part of his mortgage. When news of the sale began circulating among staff at Kensington Palace he was quizzed about the money by Burrell.

"As a chauffeur I didn't earn a huge amount of money and the gifts were mine to sell," Griffin says. "Burrell was very interested and asked me where I'd sold them and what price I got for them. I told him about the advert in The Times. I don't know for sure what his intentions were, but his inquiry was not that of someone who was concerned over Diana's gifts being sold. It seemed to me he had something else in mind. I remember thinking to myself 'someone else could make a lot of money here' - he had the keys to the kingdom when it came to things he could have sold."

As chauffeur to the Queen's sister for a quarter of a century, Griffin was perfectly placed to observe much of Burrell's day-to-day life with the Princess. The front door of the tied cottage he lived in for 25 years within the Kensington Palace grounds was opposite the back door of Diana's apartment. He regularly chatted to the Princess and, on several occasions, she turned to him for advice. He even brokered deals for Diana to get first her Mercedes sports car and later her Audi Cabriolet.

When Burrell began his employment with Diana he observed the appropriate social etiquette expected from a servant working for a member of the royal family, but over a period of years this changed, says Griffin. "Burrell has what the Queen Mum used to call red carpet fever. He basically thought he was more important than he was - you could say he had delusions of grandeur. It was almost as if he felt he was part of the royal machine as opposed to being employed by it. In my opinion, Burrell has milked his relationship with the royal family for all it's worth. He has deliberately set about making himself into a personality, which contradicts the idea of being a royal servant."

Such was Burrell's arrogance, says Griffin, that during the last year of her life Diana's relationship with the butler deteriorated to such an extent she no longer felt able to trust him. During a conversation with Griffin, the Princess explained she felt Burrell was prying far too much into her private life: "Towards the end, she became convinced that Burrell was spying on her. On one occasion she told me how she had found him going through her mail and other correspondence. I remember the conversation clearly. The garage area where I was based in KP was almost directly opposite her front door. It was early one winter morning and she came out looking pretty upset. She mentioned that she had found him snooping. She seemed very disturbed by this.

"To be fair, this was a time when Diana was basically very nervous about her private life. She was convinced other people were spying on her as well - both inside Kensington Palace and outside. I think she was perhaps being slightly irrational, but the fact that she actually caught Burrell red-handed certainly says something. I have no doubt he was not as loyal as he makes out -there was a major element of self-interest going on there."

The mistrust she felt for Burrell eventually led the Princess to consider sacking him - and this is something she openly talked about. Griffin explains: "Towards the end of her life Diana did talk of sacking him. I imagine she felt he had become too overbearing, but she was also concerned he knew too much about her private life and in particular her boyfriends. As far as he was concerned, her death was a timely one - I truly think he would have been out of a job if she had lived.

Griffin first met the Princess at Windsor Castle in 1981, some months before she married Prince Charles. He remembers being introduced to her by the Queen's nephew, Lord Linley. "Obviously I knew who she was," he says now, "but as I was introduced I jokingly pretended I didn't recognise her. She found this amusing and said I was the 'first normal person' she had met in months.

Most of the other servants were incredibly sycophantic when they were around her. I suppose this is where our friendship started."

Over the years Griffin saw the many faces of Diana. There were clearly some very unhappy times, but her relationship with Hasnat Khan, the heart surgeon, he says, brought her tremendous solace.

Some members of the royal family, especially Princess Margaret, were less happy about the relationship, however. Burrell often sneaked Khan into Kensington Palace and was convinced he was helping her maintain the clandestine relationship but, according to Griffin, many members of staff at KP knew of the affair.

"What Burrell didn't realise is that security and various other people knew exactly when he was going in and out with Khan. He thought he was being discreet by driving to the back entrance, but he was forgetting the courtyard is crossed with invisible security beams which alert security every time a car or a person crosses them.

"Khan was often smuggled in inside Diana's green Rover, which had the letters MOA as part of the registration. Whenever it pulled into the courtyard we used to say, 'Here comes Khan in MOA'. On one occasion Margaret asked me to have a word with Burrell and make him aware she knew exactly what was going on."

Griffin even bumped into Diana and Khan sneaking out of KP early one Sunday morning. "I walked straight into them as they were leaving," he says. "She went bright red, but managed a smile as they brushed by - I felt quite sorry for her. I told her one day she would be better off bringing him in through her own front door if it was privacy she was after."

A printer's son from Hertfordshire, Griffin's career as chauffeur to the Queen's sister began more than 25 years ago when Princess Margaret enjoyed a colourful social life, but towards the end his job was to help carry her into social engagements and medical appointments. Shortly after her death in February he was told his employment was at an end - there was no alternative job for him.

In March, he received a letter entitled Notice To Quit, from Sir Michael Peat, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, ordering him out of his Kensington Palace tied cottage within 42 days.

So disgusted was he at his treatment Griffin took the unprecedented step of returning the Royal Victorian Medal conferred on him by the Queen in 1997 for two decades of loyal work.

In May he received a second medal - this time to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. This was also sent back. His estranged wife, Nikki, died three years years ago from bone cancer, and in the same year Griffin was admitted to the Royal Brompton Hospital for an angioplasty operation on his heart. He currently lives alone on the Isle of Wight in a small two-bedroom flat.

It would be easy to imagine that Griffin, who suffers from a heart condition and diabetes, has some sort of axe to grind over the way he has been treated. On the contrary, he says, he has nothing but respect for the royal family. His bitterness is directed firmly at Sir Michael Peat. The anger he feels towards him is equivalent to the feelings of dismay he has about Burrell.

Following Diana's death in 1997, Griffin says Burrell began to create the myth of his relationship with her. "Just days after her death he was in touch with several journalists - to my mind this was a betrayal of her memory which no loyal servant would consider. I remember on one occasion I overheard him talking to a reporter while standing directly outside one of the windows of my flat in KP. He was talking openly of the last few days of her life and I got the impression he was being asked about his particular relationship with the Princess.

"This was the first time I heard him use the phrase 'my rock'. I remember almost laughing at the time - the shadow had become the rock.

"I never thought this phrase would stick and become the common way his relationship with Diana would be described. To be honest, every time I hear him use the phrase, a phrase that he coined, or I see it in print, it infuriates me.

"As Diana's mother pointed out in court, she often referred to people as 'my star' or 'my rock'. It was a phrase she could and would say to almost anyone who had helped her out with anything on a daily basis. The idea that it was some special way in which she addressed him is preposterous."

David Griffin has no legacy left from the cherished years he devoted to the royal family and in particular to Princess Margaret. He lives a lonely life with just his pet dog Poppet for company. He dresses each day in a shirt and black tie - exactly as he did during his quarter of a century as a royal chauffeur. Describing what makes a good royal servant he says, "He or she is what I would call a non-person - they remain quietly in the background and get on with their jobs. As a chauffeur, I saw myself as simply part of the car. A proper servant is never seen and never heard."

Paul Burrell, it seems, has a very different definition of royal service.