Very few people get to be up close and personal with members of the family - but Paul Burrell appears to be one of them
He joined the royal household as a footman when he was just 18 working for the late Queen but is probably best known as being the personal butler of Princess Diana.
It is claimed that Diana called him her "rock" and he stayed working with her until her untimely death in 1997.
But despite his royal service long being over, Paul, who has revealed he is fighting prostate cancer, has had several brushes with members of the Firm since then....
Royal life
Paul's royal service started when he was still a teenager and he joined Buckingham Palace as a footman.
He quickly got the nickname 'Small Paul' to distinguish him from fellow footman Paul Whybrew, who was a lot taller and labelled 'Tall Paul'.
After working for Her late Majesty, he then joined Charles and Diana's household as a butler at the then Prince of Wales' Highgrove residence.
Once the couple split, he then became the personal butler to Diana, who at that time made Kensington Palace her home.
And looking back, he recalled the late princess being like any normal mother with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, and revealed their Saturday night ritual.
He once told the Mirror: "The three of them would nip to McDonald’s for a Big Mac and fries before coming back to watch Blind Date. All three of them would squat on this massive, stuffed hippopotamus Diana had in her sitting room.
"They loved Blind Date and I’d hear them all screaming things like 'Oh don’t pick him!' and 'Lorra, lorra fun'."
Diana's death
Paul's service with the royal family ended in 1997 after Diana's shocking death following a car crash in Paris in 1997.
After her death, he travelled to the French capital with clothes and some rosary beads for her before bringing back some of her belongings that were still in the Ritz.
During an appearance on the Australian version of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here in 2018, Paul, who also competed in the UK version of the show in 2004, tearfully revealed how he begged Diana to "wake up" as he sat by her body at the Paris hospital where she died.
Queen intervention
After Diana's death, Paul was among a small group tasked with going through her belongings.
Her Kensington Palace apartment was filled with beautiful dresses, expensive jewellery and her handwritten letters.
He says the princess' family wanted to get rid of some of her items, but he believed everything should be saved for Princes William and Harry.
Diana's family didn't agree, but he decided to do it anyway - taking some of her things back to his Cheshire home and storing them in the loft.
However in June 1998, 10 months after Diana's death, a police offer saw him pulling up at Kensington Palace at 3.30am, going inside, and coming out carrying two dresses and a wooden box.
Three years later, an investigation was launched into the sale of some of Diana's private items being sold in the US.
Police raided his Cheshire home at dawn, and he was later charged with stealing from the princess.
He was charged and a trial began at the Old Bailey, with a huge public interest in the case.
Just when he had all but given up hope, an extra piece of evidence came from an unexpected source - the Queen.
She had no idea that Paul's trial was happening until she drove past the court on her way to church. When she asked what was going on she thought back to a conversation she had with him shortly after Diana's death.
After hearing the charges Paul was facing, the Queen stepped in to share details of their conversation.
Her new information confirmed it wasn't a Palace theft, so the trial collapsed and Paul was cleared of all charges.
Memoir row
Following the collapse of the trial, Paul released his memoir called A Royal Duty, where he dished on what life was like with the royals and Diana.
But the book sparked a row between him and Princes William and Harry, who issued a statement ahead of its publication.
They accused Paul of betraying their mother, describing the memoir as "a cold and overt betrayal".
The statement added: "It was not only deeply painful for the two of us but also for everyone else affected and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today and, if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul.
"We ask Paul please to bring these revelations to an end."
However, Paul hit back by saying he was "saddened" by the statement and explained: "My only intention in writing this book was to defend the princess and stand in her corner.
"I would also like to point out that, following the collapse of my trial at the Old Bailey last year, no one from the royal family contacted me or said sorry for the unnecessary ordeal myself, my wife and my sons were put through.
"Neither do I say sorry for writing this book of which I am extremely proud and I am convinced the princess would be proud of too. I have told the truth where the British public should know the truth."
Harry's book
Now, 20 years after the release of Paul's book, Prince Harry has released his own memoir called Spare, in which he directly references "Mummy's butler".
He said it made his "blood boil" when he found out he was releasing a book and said he was "milking her disappearance for money".
Harry writes that he wanted to fly home from a trip to Australia to 'confront' Paul but King Charles and William talked him out of it, saying all they could do was "issue a united condemnation".
After the release of the book earlier this month, Paul hit back by saying he "burst into tears" when reading what Harry had wrote about him.
He told The Sun: "Harry forgets what led to my book — I was put on trial and went to hell and back for two years, wrongly accused of theft. The prosecution had its say but I never had mine. The book was my defence. It was also a loving tribute to his mother and grandmother.
"Harry knows full well how devoted I was to his mother, in life and on the page."
Meanwhile in an interview on ITV's Lorraine today, where he discussed his cancer diagnosis, Paul said Harry's memoir left him "bewildered".
He explained: "He knew what I did for his mother - he knew how much I loved her and protected her memory, he knows all of that.
"Why did he call me mummy's butler? Why couldn't he have come to me personally and said he wasn't happy with the situation?"
"I've always defended him until the last minute and now I think, 'you've lost the plot'," he told Lorraine.
