The Staff TELLS ALL

PALACE EMPLOYEES SHARE INTIMATE DETAILS OF LIFE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

- Louise A. Barile

Before former royal butler Paul Burrell and his wife brought their infant son home from the hospital, they stopped at Buckingham Palace to introduce him to Queen Elizabeth II. “When Alexander Paul arrived, it wasn’t my mother or Maria’s mother who I called first. It was the Queen,” Burrell tells Closer. “She held our baby and placed her forefinger into his hand which he clasped. We were so proud.”

The royal staff aren’t family, but sometimes they can become as close — and they know more about the private lives of the Windsors than anyone. “Lots of families have worked for the royals for centuries,” Tom Quinn, who has written several books on palace life, including Yes, Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, tells