Burrell pays tribute to his family

Paul Burrell sold his story to the Daily Mirror

Paul Burrell, the former butler to the Princess of Wales, has thanked his family for standing by him.

Speaking in an televised interview with the BBC, Mr Burrell said his family had given him the strength to cope after the collapse of his trial and the subsequent tabloid revelations.

He said: "As a unit ... we were not going to let vicious tabloids break up our family unit, which is a happy one."

Mr Burrell denied claims that the Queen had halted his trial to prevent damaging disclosures, saying she "spoke up for me".

The Queen is incapable of telling a lie, she cannot tell a lie so she told the truth.

Paul Burrell

Speaking to Gordon Burns for North West Tonight, Mr Burrell said his two teenage sons told him: "You're our dad and we love you."

He added: "That meant everything to me."

He defended his decision to sell his story to the Daily Mirror, for a figure thought to be around £300,000.

"If I had not sold my story I would never have had the opportunity to put the record straight.

'Put record straight'

"I was denied the opportunity because the trial came to such a dramatic halt.

"I had to sit through weeks of the prosecution, listening to stories that I wasn't close to the Princess, that I wasn't 'her rock', from her family and other people.

"So I thought it was really important at the end of that exercise to put the record straight."

Mr Burrell said he did not believe any of the insights he had given into life with the Royals had damaged the Queen.

He said: "The Queen is incapable of telling a lie, she cannot tell a lie so she told the truth. She came through and spoke up for me - she knows me.

Princes protected

Mr Burrell said stories based on his defence papers should never have come out and said he had done his best to prevent the Royal family from being damaged.

This included asking the trial judge not to read out certain phrases of his defence statement to protect Prince William and Prince Harry.

He added he also may not have taken the witness stand, adding: "I could have relied on the Princess's closest friends ... to come through for me in the same way to protect me so that I wouldn't have to do that."