As Paul Burrell continues to make revelations in the Daily Mirror about life with Princess Diana and members of her family, courtiers are casting doubt on the nature and contents of a meeting the former royal butler had with the monarch following Diana's death. Burrell had revealed details of what he claimed was a three-hour meeting between him and the Queen, in which he told the monarch he was in possession of some of the Princess' belongings. News of the meeting brought his trial on charges of theft to a dramatic halt last week. Palace officials are now questioning Burrell's memory of what actually took place, saying it is "inconceivable" that the meeting lasted three hours. Nor is the Queen likely to have used the language which Burrell had credited to her when he claimed she advised him that there were "powers at work" in the country.
"The language is not familiar – they're just not the kind of words the Queen would use," says a Palace source. "She just wouldn't talk about things like 'dark forces'. People who know her very well are amazed Burrell would even suggest she would talk like that. As for a three-hour meeting – well, it was five years ago and recollections are a little hazy, but it just doesn't sound credible."
In Thursday's edition of the Daily Mirror, Burrell launched a swingeing attack on Diana's family, the Spencers. "(They) found Diana unacceptable in life. But after her death, they found her very acceptable at £10.50 a ticket," he says in the interview. In the same report, he also claims that the reason Diana and her mother were estranged at the time of the Princess' death was because they had argued over Diana's choice of male companions, and that her sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, was "jealous" of Diana.
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