Just In: Princess Diana’s former butler reveals Royal Family’s secret ‘Balmoral Test’
Just In: Princess Diana’s former butler reveals Royal Family’s secret ‘Balmoral Test’
Princess Diana’s former butler has shed light on a secretive process by which senior royals decide whether a newcomer belongs in their ranks. Paul Burrell, who was the personal butler to the Princess of Wales for a decade until her death, lifted the lid on the “cruel” initiation in his new memoir, The Royal Insider. He wrote: “The ‘Bamoral Test’ was cruel. Outsiders, most importantly potential brides, were brought there like specimens to be inspected by the family to see if they came up to scratch and if they were suitable.”
He added that the process has “been this way since Queen Victoria’s day”, with royal commentators likening the rite of passage to a “silent compatibility test”. Amanda Matta told Fox News: “Most modern families would probably recognise that dynamic, where newcomers are vetted against the existing family structures.
The main difference between the ‘Balmoral Test’ and a barbecue at my family home would be the established, highly conservative standards of the extended family,” she said.
“Even in private family moments, hierarchy never fully disappears.”
Ms Matta explained that evaluees were judged on a number of factors, including their manners, willingness to engage in rural sports and ability to “let their hair down and interact across generations”.
Hilary Fordwich added that the Royal Family’s Balmoral estate “remains the monarch’s most private sanctuary”, with the high bar for acceptance and inclusion there coming as no surprise.
It’s as remote and as private as it can be, and approval there by the family signals inner-circle status,” she said.
It’s all about loyalty to the family and adaptability to their unique unwritten ways.”
Mr Burrell, who joined the Princess of Wales and then-Prince Charles’ household in 1987, previously worked as footman to Queen Elizabeth II for 11 years.
Speaking about his decision to write another tell-all book about the royals last year, he said: “We thought the Queen would be there forever. We thought that she’d be at least 100, we thought that she’d live to be as old as her mother.
“I think that because of her passing and at the same time, I was reflecting on my own mortality and thought that I might not have much longer to write this down, so I better get it done.
I spent hours just actually pouring my feelings down onto paper. Life is just a tapestry of memories and then it’s over.”
He described both Diana, who died in 1997, and the late Queen, who passed away in 2022, as “incredible and inspiratonal”.
