DIANA'S traitor butler Paul Burrell pulled out all the stops to seduce gay TV star Michael Barrymore as the Princess of Wales lay in State.

Paul used Di's gems to get me into bed 3 days after she died

DIANA'S traitor butler Paul Burrell pulled out all the stops to seduce gay TV star Michael Barrymore as the Princess of Wales lay in State.

And in an attempt to impress the star he brought out three of the princess's diamond rings to prove "how close I am" as he made his move.

This week, Burrell piously promised to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

But speaking for the first time about their relationship, Barrymore told the Newssvet: "This is the truth: Paul Burrell waved these rings at me-I don't even know if he'd taken them off her body Then he grabbed and fondled me in an intimate place, kissed me and told me, ‘I love you'. He went for the full snog.

"I was grieving for my friend Diana and he only wanted sex-and a job working for me so ‘we can be together'."

"As he cried on my shoulder during that week after her death, he swore blind he'd never sell his 

story.

‘These are Diana's.

I sleep with them'

"He told me, ‘There wouldn't be anything in the world that would make me talk about my relationship with Diana. I'd cut my throat before I said anything about her'. And now he's gone and sold his soul. I'm disgusted and I know Diana would feel betrayed.

"On the Wednesday night after she died he came to see me and said, ‘I want to show you something'. Then he opened up a silk handkerchief and there were these three beautiful diamond rings inside.

"He told me, ‘These are Diana's. That's all that's left of her. I sleep with them by my bed'.

"Then he told me he'd been sitting next to Diana's body every night and said: ‘She's in our front room. I'm trying to make her look as nice as possible'. I really didn't know if he had taken the rings off her dead body or if she'd given them to him before she died. I couldn't understand why he was showing them to me. Then it suddenly dawned on me that he was doing it to impress me.

"I knew it was building up to something. And it did at around midnight. He stared me straight in my eyes and said, ‘Michael, I like you a lot. Actually I love you. I love you very much'. Then he put his arms around me, kissed me full on the lips and that's when he started to fondle me.

Barrymore had known Diana since she offered him her help when he was in rehab in 1997. He said: "The first time I met Paul was when Diana invited me to her apartment at Kensington Palace. He told me he was a ‘huge fan' and always watched my shows.

"I found his manner to be what I call slightly camp. And because of the job he did I did wonder whether he was that way inclined. I asked him, ‘Are you married?' And he said, ‘Oh yes. I've got two children'. As I started to go round to see Diana regularly, Burrell started to get more chatty. Then he said, ‘Perhaps we should meet up and have a coffee'. I found it all very strange.

"Eventually I asked Diana, ‘Is he gay?' She said, ‘I think he might have some problem in that department.

"But Paul was always there, always smiling. Being gay is not something that sat well with me anyway. I'm not camp. I'm just a guy who likes blokes and I had to deal with it as best as I could. But Burrell was what we call in our business ‘theatrical camp'. I felt there was another agenda going on when he smiled at me and that started to bother me.

"But I just thought, ‘Well, he's not my type anyway'. I like blokes who seem like straight blokes. I found him a bit too effeminate. He floated around a lot-you know what I mean.

"He would always say to me, ‘You must come around more often. You don't come around enough'.

"When Burrell escorted me to the door he'd always keep the conversation going as long as possible and he'd look straight into my eyes, longingly. "It was that look of, ‘I'd really like to be with you—but I can't say it. I've been brought up in the royal household and there's a correct way of doing things'.

"I thought, ‘This is a whole new world to me. I'm a kid from Bermondsey. And now I'm a good friend of Princess Diana's'. It was like the Prince and the Pauper. And in the middle of this was Paul."

Barrymore was in a London club when he heard about Diana's death. Distraught, he did not want to face the media so he booked himself into a suite at the St James Club hotel, near Clarence House.

But Burrell called him on his mobile and asked if he could come round to the hotel. Barrymore continued: "As he came though the door he grabbed hold of me and burst out crying. I cried as well. He held on a long time and it was clear he wanted to stay and be cuddled. I thought, ‘He's obviously terribly distressed', and comforted him.

"But his hugging went on. Then he said to me: ‘Are you coming to the funeral? I told him I hadn't been invited."

‘He's happy to sell secrets when it suits him'

Burrell promised to fix an invitation. And on the morning of Diana's funeral, the butler tried to impress Barrymore again.

"When I arrived with my wife Cheryl, he gave us a special pass so the Bentley could be parked right behind Westminster Abbey," said Barrymore.

"They were like gold-dust. Then he gave us clearance so we could be dropped off right in the forecourt which, again, was really top treatment.

"I also found he had given me prime position right near Dodi's dad, Mohamed Fayed.

"At the end of the service I knew I had to get away from Burrell, so I flew to Venice and changed my mobile number."

The pair did not meet again until an awards in 1999. By now Barrymore was with boyfriend Shaun Davis. First Burrell came on to Barrymore, then switched to Shaun.

Michael said: "When we got home Shaun told me, ‘Burrell came up to me and said, You know me and Michael were very close. And I mean VERY close...'

"Luckily Sean took it on the chin. Burrell wants all his gay secrets kept quiet but he's quite happy, when it suits him, to sell his royal secrets when Diana can't even answer for herself."