Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell believes the royal family would be still be in tact if the mother-of-two was alive today.
In a new interview, Burrell confessed that unlike other members of the monarchy, he thinks Diana "would have embraced" Meghan Markle to the point that the latter and Prince Harry never would have left the U.K.
"She would have loved Meghan. She would have embraced her," he insisted. "She wouldn't have agreed with everything that's happened since but in the initial days she would have encouraged her, educated her and embraced her."
"If Diana had been here, she would have taught Meghan how to survive. Because one thing Diana knew was how to survive," the royal aide continued. "She would have said to her, 'Be careful there are lots of snakes in this jungle.'"
"Meghan never had that in the royal family, there wasn't a book for her to read on how to be a royal princess. There were no rules written down," he noted. "She had to learn as Diana had to learn by being thrown in the deep end. But Meghan couldn't cope. Diana had to cope. And she learned fast."
Burrell said it's "a pity" the People's Princess wasn't able to meet her daughter-in-law, because if she had, "things would have been so have different. In this whole equation, Diana is the missing piece and if she had been part of it, none of this would have happened."
Elsewhere in the interview, the former butler pointed out that Diana and Meghan had a lot in common — in fact, he claimed the blonde beauty also had a desire to move to the U.S., and she nearly picked out a home in Malibu before her tragic death in 1997.
"Diana loved America, she loved Americans. And she understood it was a different culture," he said. "Diana was thrilled at the thought of going to live for some of the year in America. There was no way she would have decanted full time because she was proud of her association with the royal family. But she thought a bolthole as somewhere to escape to, she would love to escape to America."
Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!
The Mirror spoke to Burrell.
