Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
The Butler Did It?
Aired October 28, 2002 - 08:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We will move on to what is described as the most explosive court case involving Britain's royal family, and it'll called back into order at the Old Bailey.
Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, is charged with stealing more than 300 items from Diana, her sons, Princes William and Harry, and her former husband, Prince Charles.
Joining us now from London with the very latest is "People" magazine's Simon Perry.
Good morning, Simon.
SIMON PERRY, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: I just wanted to give our viewers the big view here. Just before this trial began, a royal source told us that this could be one of the most damaging cases to involve the royal family since 1936, going back to the fallout between Wallace Simpson's divorce and Edward VIII. Could that prove to be true?
PERRY: Well, I'm afraid to say, so far, it's not proven to be true. But we've had many revelations of a different kind, I suppose, not involving the royal family as such; more to do with Princess Diana's estrangement at various times in her life with her own family. That's what's emerged so far, seven, eight days into the case.
ZAHN: Let's talk about what some perceived as incredibly damaging testimony by Diana's mother when she basically said the two had had a rift, I guess for four months before her daughter's death. Were people surprised to hear her to admit that publicly?
PERRY: Well, I think to a large degree surprise there, yes. A lot of us who have been in the royal story for a number of years did know that Diana had her ups and downs with her mother, but to the extent it was four months without speaking to each other, right up to the day she died, was a detail we didn't know and is actually very graphic in its detail in many ways. We thought here is a mother who lost her daughter and didn't speak to her in the run-up to that death. It has to be awful for her and her whole family.
ZAHN: What else did her mother have to say about the relationship between Diana and her butler, particularly after it was announced that Diana had felt that she was being spied on from time to time?
PERRY: Yes, Diana did believe she was being spied on or having her phones tapped at various points in her life, possibly to some -- with some good feeling, in that we know she had at least one phone call tapped which then became public. But she never leveled that at Paul Burrell. But Mr. Kidd (ph) said the other day that Paul was one of many people who was a rock to her daughter, the princess, of which Mr. Shawn Kidd (ph) was another one.
ZAHN: But really was at stake here is trying to figure out who stole stuff. A police officer in the stands said he saw Burrell, the butler, leaving Diana's residence with a large wooden box and a few dresses at 3:00 in the morning. Is that the smoking gun in all of this?
PERRY: Well, we've yet to see that really. We haven't heard Paul's defense of that, Paul Burrell's defense of that. We think he will be taking the stand on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, when there may well be a good response in his terms to that allegation. But, yes, it does seem quite damming to an allegation, but we haven't heard Paul Burrell's response to that claim from the policeman yet.
ZAHN: I know it's really fascinating to all of us over here. We wish you continued good luck as you cover this trial. Simon Perry, thanks for dropping by this morning. Appreciate it.
PERRY: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 28, 2002 - 08:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We will move on to what is described as the most explosive court case involving Britain's royal family, and it'll called back into order at the Old Bailey.
Princess Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, is charged with stealing more than 300 items from Diana, her sons, Princes William and Harry, and her former husband, Prince Charles.
Joining us now from London with the very latest is "People" magazine's Simon Perry.
Good morning, Simon.
SIMON PERRY, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: I just wanted to give our viewers the big view here. Just before this trial began, a royal source told us that this could be one of the most damaging cases to involve the royal family since 1936, going back to the fallout between Wallace Simpson's divorce and Edward VIII. Could that prove to be true?
PERRY: Well, I'm afraid to say, so far, it's not proven to be true. But we've had many revelations of a different kind, I suppose, not involving the royal family as such; more to do with Princess Diana's estrangement at various times in her life with her own family. That's what's emerged so far, seven, eight days into the case.
ZAHN: Let's talk about what some perceived as incredibly damaging testimony by Diana's mother when she basically said the two had had a rift, I guess for four months before her daughter's death. Were people surprised to hear her to admit that publicly?
PERRY: Well, I think to a large degree surprise there, yes. A lot of us who have been in the royal story for a number of years did know that Diana had her ups and downs with her mother, but to the extent it was four months without speaking to each other, right up to the day she died, was a detail we didn't know and is actually very graphic in its detail in many ways. We thought here is a mother who lost her daughter and didn't speak to her in the run-up to that death. It has to be awful for her and her whole family.
ZAHN: What else did her mother have to say about the relationship between Diana and her butler, particularly after it was announced that Diana had felt that she was being spied on from time to time?
PERRY: Yes, Diana did believe she was being spied on or having her phones tapped at various points in her life, possibly to some -- with some good feeling, in that we know she had at least one phone call tapped which then became public. But she never leveled that at Paul Burrell. But Mr. Kidd (ph) said the other day that Paul was one of many people who was a rock to her daughter, the princess, of which Mr. Shawn Kidd (ph) was another one.
ZAHN: But really was at stake here is trying to figure out who stole stuff. A police officer in the stands said he saw Burrell, the butler, leaving Diana's residence with a large wooden box and a few dresses at 3:00 in the morning. Is that the smoking gun in all of this?
PERRY: Well, we've yet to see that really. We haven't heard Paul's defense of that, Paul Burrell's defense of that. We think he will be taking the stand on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, when there may well be a good response in his terms to that allegation. But, yes, it does seem quite damming to an allegation, but we haven't heard Paul Burrell's response to that claim from the policeman yet.
ZAHN: I know it's really fascinating to all of us over here. We wish you continued good luck as you cover this trial. Simon Perry, thanks for dropping by this morning. Appreciate it.
PERRY: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
