Paul Burrell has explained why he chose to continue filming I’m A Celebrity… South Africa even after learning of Queen Elizabeth’s passing.
The 64-year-old former royal butler, who finished his radiotherapy for cancer earlier this month, began working at Buckingham Palace when he was 18 years old. A year later, he became the late monarch’s personal footman, and he remained a member of the Royal Household for another ten years, later acting as Princess Diana’s butler.
When the Queen passed away in September at the age of 96, while he was in South Africa working on the all-star version of the ITV reality programme, producers gave him the option to resign and return home.
Asked if he watched the coverage when he did return from South Africa, Paul told Lorraine: ‘I did. But you know, whilst I was there in South Africa, the ITV team said, “Do you wanna go home Paul? You can go home if you want to?”
‘I said, “Listen, I’m better here. This is my sanctuary right now. If I go back home, it’ll be a circus and I’ll be sucked into that world. So let me stay here with the other celebrities, and I’ll share my grief with them.” Because it was their Queen too!’
When thinking on how he joined the Palace service at the age of 18, he referred to the Queen as his “surrogate mother.”
‘I went to Buckingham Palace when I was 18 years old, she became my surrogate mother. I know that’s difficult for people to understand, but living with someone in close proximity for 11 years, you do begin to love them,’ he said.
‘And I loved the Queen. She was a wonderful, wonderful lady. For me, she influenced my life, she shaped me – along with Diana later. They made me the man I am today. I have great respect and admiration for our late Queen.’
In addition to reflecting on how much his life has changed since he first went on I’m A Celebrity 20 years ago, Burrell also discussed how he came out as homosexual in 2017 and married his boyfriend Graham Cooper in the same year.
‘I’m much happier, freer. I can say what I like now, it doesn’t matter anymore,’ he said, before noting he was very keen to return.
‘Hell yes! Of course! Because this is such a juggernaut of a show, and what an experience,’ he smiled. ‘Everybody you interview will tell you that it’s lifechanging. And this time around for me, it was particularly lifechanging – because my life has changed so much!’
In a Bushtucker Trial on the show versus Lorraine, when they had to reach into three separate boxes without being able to see, Burrell, who called himself a “screaming butler,” lived up to the nickname.
With plush animals and spaghetti in the first two, they gave the duo a false sense of security, but in the third, they unintentionally stroked a real life snake.
‘Don’t do snakes. There were two, spawn of the devil – Ant and Dec. They are, they torture everyone,’ he quipped earlier in the interview.
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV1.