David Emanuel finds it "extraordinary" he never met Paul Burrell in the "hundreds of times" he visited Kensington Palace.

Paul Burrell

Paul Burrell

The fashion designer regularly saw his friend Princess Diana and made her 1981 wedding dress, but has questioned her former butler regularly being described as the late Princess of Wales' "rock" because he didn't even see him around at the royal residence on one occasion.

Speaking about Paul talking about Diana after her 1997 death, David said: "There's always a periphery of people who do that. One of the shattering things that I find going back and forth hundreds of times to Kensington Palace, I never met this guy called Paul Burrell. Never met him.

"I find that rather extraordinary, but he seemed to be quite verbal and he was her 'rock' and 'blah blah blah.'

"But I just find it extraordinary the hundreds of times I went, he was never there."

David also hit out at some of the recent documentaries about the princess in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of her death yesterday (31.08.17), insisting some of the shows were "dreadful" because they didn't focus on any of the "fun" Diana had.

He added to The Sun newspaper: "She was full of fun. I've seen all these documentaries now and some of them are dreadful.

"They're missing the fun aspect. She was kind and generous, was full of life and had beautiful eyes. And she was fun, I remember one sitting I did at Buckingham Palace and she said, 'Well how are you getting back?' and I said, 'Well I'll call a cab'."

Paul also recently slammed Diana doc 'Diana: In Her Own Words' for "raiding the diary" of the late princess after some of her private recordings were broadcast.

He said: "I think those tapes were made privately for the Princess' own use ... I don't think they should be broadcast. It's almost like raiding her diary. That's wrong ... It can only upset [her sons] Prince William and Prince Harry. I understand that there is a thirst for new information but I think it's a step too far."