After Princess Diana’s divorce from Charles became final, she was told she could no longer use the style “Her Royal Highness.” In a newly resurfaced account, her former butler Paul Burrell says Princess Michael of Kent reached out with a letter that reassured
Princess Diana learned she would no longer be allowed to use the style “Her Royal Highness” after her divorce from then-Prince Charles. For Diana, it wasn’t just a change in wording—it struck at the identity she believed she’d built over years at the center of royal life.
In the account resurfaced from former butler Paul Burrell’s book A Royal Duty. Burrell writes that Diana was devastated when the “final decision was taken behind the scenes.” He adds that Diana felt the HRH style “was part of her royal identity” and that she had “worked tirelessly as a royal highness for many years.”.
Then, when Diana needed comfort most, it came from an unlikely corner. Burrell says Princess Michael of Kent sent a heartfelt letter that tried to protect her from an embarrassing new reality—one that, in Burrell’s telling, also carried real emotional weight.
Princess Michael’s letter: “You will always have my support”
Burrell writes that Princess Michael reacted with alarm after seeing coverage that suggested Diana would be expected to curtsy in public when meeting her once Diana’s title was removed.
“I was horrified to learn in the press that after your title was removed, you would be expected to curtsy in public when meeting me,” Princess Michael wrote, according to Burrell. “I insist that this would cause me the greatest embarrassment, so please do not even consider it.”
In Burrell’s account, Princess Michael also praised Diana’s “courage and strength” before adding a promise meant to settle Diana’s fears. “You will always have my support,” the princess wrote, as Burrell describes it.
Burrell says he tried to reinforce that reassurance, too. “You don’t need a title,” he told Diana. “Wherever you go in the world, you are known as Lady Di — and no one can take that away from you.”
What Diana lost when her divorce became final
Princess Diana’s divorce from Charles was finalized on August 28, 1996, after they separated in December 1992 following more than 11 years of marriage. The change in her status came with consequences that went beyond the end of a relationship.
Burrell’s account reflects the broader reality: Diana’s divorce cost her the HRH style and several royal titles, though she remained Diana, Princess of Wales until her tragic death. She died at 36 in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.
Queen Elizabeth II allowed Diana to keep her Princess of Wales title, but Diana was no longer permitted to use “Her Royal Highness” and also had to give up additional titles she had acquired through marriage, including Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew.
The shifts also changed how she was expected to move within the royal world. With the HRH style removed, the public and palace staff were no longer expected to curtsy to her. At the same time. Diana was expected to curtsy to royals who still held the HRH style. including her former husband and her own sons. Prince William and Prince Harry.
Princess Michael of Kent: a long-standing, unconventional royal
Princess Michael of Kent is married to Prince Michael of Kent, a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and has been married for nearly five decades. Burrell’s resurfaced details describe her as an author of European royal histories and a former interior designer.
Born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz in what was then part of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and is now part of the Czech Republic. she married Thomas Troubridge. an English banker. in 1971. They later divorced; as a Catholic. she successfully lobbied for an annulment that was granted by Pope Paul VI. and she later married Prince Michael of Kent in 1978.
Prince Michael is a grandson of King George V and a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. The couple has two children together: Lord Frederick Windsor and Lady Gabriella Kingston.
A similar title change for Prince Harry
More than two decades after Diana lost the use of HRH, Prince Harry faced a parallel shift. When Harry and wife Meghan Markle stepped back as senior working royals in 2020, they agreed they would no longer use their HRH styles, though they legally retained them.
A statement from Buckingham Palace at the time read: “The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.”
Harry later revealed in both the 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan and his bestselling 2023 memoir Spare that he’d offered to relinquish the Sussex titles if it would help secure a different working arrangement with the royal family.
Years later, in a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, when asked why he and Meghan hadn’t simply renounced their titles, Harry replied: “And what difference would that make?”
Princess Diana Princess Michael of Kent HRH style Her Royal Highness A Royal Duty Paul Burrell Charles divorce Lady Di royal titles Prince Harry HRH
So HRH is like… a real thing? That seems petty for grown adults.
I don’t know why they cared so much about the curtsy part. Like people act shocked Diana was upset but then act like it’s no big deal. Royal rules are wild.
Wait are they saying Princess Michael literally told her not to curtsy? That sounds fake like something a butler would exaggerate for a book. Also didn’t Diana already lose that style before? Idk it’s confusing.
Princess Michael coming in with a letter is actually the most normal thing in this whole royal circus. But at the same time I’m like… if the HRH thing hurt her identity, why are they calling it behind-the-scenes like it wasn’t always gonna happen? The curtsy coverage makes it sound like Diana was being punished in public, and that’s just brutal. Also Paul Burrell always seemed kinda dramatic so who knows how accurate it is, but the quote “you will always have my support” would mess with me if I were her.