PAUL Burrell has claimed that ‘if Harry doesn’t have regrets, he doesn’t have a soul’, as he predicts the Duke will be spending his upcoming birthday ‘in exile’.
As Prince Harry‘s milestone 40th birthday approaches, former royal butler Paul Burrell claimed that the father-of-two is ‘homesick’ and will probably have a ‘low-key celebration inside the gates’ of his Montecito home on his special day.
In what should be a happy time as Harry gets set to turn 40 this Sunday, 15th September, his family – including William, 42, and Kate, 42, – will be noticeably missing.
Instead, they are now estranged and live thousands of miles away from Harry, 39, who is based in California with wife Meghan Markle, 43, and their two children.
After stepping down as working royals and leaving the UK in 2020, Harry and Meghan, who are parents to Archie, five, and Lilibet, three, now live in their sprawling mansion in Montecito, with A-listers including Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow as their neighbours.
But as Harry enters his 40s, Paul Burrell – former butler to Harry and William’s late mother Princess Diana – recognised how life is now very different for the Duke.
With his family across the pond, Paul believes Harry will be feeling lonely as he enters a new decade.
He he told Closer: “Harry will be in exile for his 40th birthday. It’ll probably be a low-key celebration inside the gates of their home with celebrity friends. I don’t think he’s happy.
“The saddest thing is that he could have had it all. But while the children are small, there’s no way things will change for Harry because he adores his wife, his family and that is the path he’s on.
“I am sure he’s homesick, and I’m sure his upcoming 40th birthday is making him reflect on the past and his previous life. If Harry doesn’t have regrets, he doesn’t have a soul.”
Paul, who was butler to Diana from 1987 until her death in 1997, revealed that the late Princess loved going all-out for the boys on their birthdays, but she wasn’t a fan of her own.
He claimed: “She absolutely hated her birthday. When her birthday would come around, she’d say, “I’m staying in, I’m not going out”. She’d sit at her desk, writing thank you letters for all the presents that constantly came through the door.
“But on William and Harry’s birthdays, those boys were spoilt rotten. Whatever they wanted, they had. Diana would have loved celebrating Harry’s 40th and she would want nothing more than for the boys to make amends.”
Not only this, but Paul also opened up on Kate Middleton‘s agony over Harry’s rift with her husband, Prince William.
He continued: “Kate has always been a mediator and she always sees fairness, so I’m sure she wants nothing more than for William to reach out and wish Harry a happy 40th birthday, and for them to make amends and have a relationship again.
PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle have lived in their luxury Montecito mansion since they splashed out £11.93m on it in June 2020.
The sprawling nine-bed, 16-bath home in Santa Barbara sits on 5.4 acres of land and features a library, office, spa, gym, game room, wine cellar and five-car garage, it’s believed.
The estate also boasts sweeping lawns, tiered rose gardens, tall Italian cypress trees, blooming lavender, olive trees, a tennis court, tea house, children’s cottage and a pool.
The couple have treated fans to glimpses of their multiple living spaces on several occasions – showing off a minimalist vibe.
It is said to have more than doubled in value since the former royals bought it.
“But the problem is, Kate has to understand the way William is feeling. This is a very sensitive subject for William – he does not like betrayal, and as far as he’s concerned, Harry has totally betrayed him.
“William’s put the shutters down on Harry and there isn’t room for negotiation at this time in his life. He’s got enough on his plate and so has Kate.”
Relations between the brothers have been strained for years, but their rift became even more apparent when Harry and Meghan spoke out against the Royal Family during their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 – where they claimed Kate had made Meghan cry ahead of her 2018 wedding in an argument over bridesmaid dresses.
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
Harry then made a string of bombshell claims about William in his controversial memoir, Spare, last year, claiming that William had once ‘knocked him to the floor’ in a physical fight and that he had also pointed his finger in Meghan’s face and branded her ‘rude’.
William and Harry are no longer on speaking terms, and it’s thought that they kept their distance when they recently attended the funeral of their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, in Norfolk.
And Paul predicts that there will be no chance of a reunion any time soon, as he concluded: “William has cut Harry out and he doesn’t have a place in his world.
“He’s not the man he grew up with, and he’s not the man he thought would stand by him and look after him and help him on the way to being King.
“William is not going to spoil his and Kate’s life by inviting someone into it who will betray them yet again – because he would. He can’t help himself?”
