Viewers sceptical over I'm a Celebrity's psychic Princess Di stunt

“There’s somebody coming through who died in a car accident...” he said, as all eyes turned to Princess Diana’s butler Paul Burrell.

Crickets chirped as Burrell averted Edward’s gaze for a beat.

“The accident they’re showing me happened in a tunnel,” Edward persisted.

“Maybe it’s Paul?” Lisa Oldfield offered helpfully.

Psychic John Edward drops into the jungle on I'm a Celebrity.

Edward got Burrell’s attention after he mentioned there were two car accidents, “one foreshadowing and one tragic”.

“Yes. You couldn’t possibly know that,” Burrell replied.

“Why did you change the photo? You moved the photo,” Edward followed.

“That’s personal,” Burrell replied. “I did it to protect someone.”

In other details that drew side-eyed reactions from Burrell, Edward mentioned Diana’s penchant for needlepoint and dropping the “F-bomb”, and a “small glass bird” on a side table in a mysterious wood-panelled room.

“He could not have known about a glass Lalique bird in the princess’s room... Impossible,” Burrell said incredulously to camera following the reading.

Paul Burrell reacts to Edward's reading about Princess Di.

The psychic told Burrell that a dream he had where his “friend” came to him in a royal blue dress was “real”.

“I do have a dream of me sitting alone with the princess, cross-legged on the floor, and she is wearing a blue dress. It’s the last dress I saw her in,” said Burrell. “I’ve never told anybody about that particular dream.”

Edward also tapped into Burrell’s concerns that “your friend’s children aren’t going to know the stories that you know.”

“Your issues are that nobody is going to be able to tell those stories. That’s what I’m being shown. Is that factual?” he told Burrell.

“That is very factual,” Burrell replied.

Despite Burrell’s conversion, viewers remained sceptical of the stunt, taking to social media to mock Edward’s appearance.

“To think there are people who say psychics are scammers. How could he possibly have known the Royal Butler had a connection to anyone who’d died in a car accident?!” one viewer tweeted sarcastically.

“I’d be less sceptical if John Edward handed Paul Burrell a cease and desist letter from Diana’s ghost,” another joked.

Burrell has long been accused of “cashing in” on Princess Diana’s death – including from critics who questioned Ten’s decision to recruit him for the show – following various books and media appearances focusing on his relationship with the late royal.

Edward addressed the backlash following his appearance, taking to Twitter to suggest reading material for “those who are quick to judge and criticise”.

The psychic’s appearance gave Ten a slight bump in the ratings, pulling in 614,000 viewers – the show’s highest draw of the week – in the five main capital cities, after dropping to 517,000 on Tuesday.

The show still heavily trailed its primetime slot behind the night’s leaders, Nine’s Married At First Sight (1,315,000 viewers) and Seven’s My Kitchen Rules (981,000 viewers).

Edward is due back on the show for further psychic readings during Thursday’s night’s episode.