The Complete Transformation Of James Hewitt
Thanks to his 5-year affair with Princess Diana, James Hewitt was all over the '90s UK tabloids with nicknames like "Love Rat." But what really went on? All we know for sure is Hewitt's life was never the same.
Transcript
00:00 Thanks to his five-year affair with Princess Diana, James Hewitt was all over the '90s
00:05 UK tabloids with nicknames like "Love Rat."
00:08 But what really went on?
00:10 All we know for sure is Hewitt's life was never the same.
00:13 James Hewitt was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, on April 30, 1958.
00:19 Hewitt is the youngest child of John Alfred Hewitt and Shirley Stamp, and has two sisters,
00:24 Cira and Caroline, the latter of whom is his twin.
00:27 His father was a former Royal Marine and Olympic pentathlete who competed at the 1952 Helsinki
00:34 Summer Olympics.
00:35 Hewitt's mother was a dental surgeon who also ran a riding school.
00:39 Hewitt hoped to take over the riding school one day, but the land was sold to make way
00:43 for roads and other area development.
00:45 Writing about his early years in his memoir, A Love Like No Other, Diana and Me, Hewitt
00:50 said,
00:51 "I was lucky enough to spend my childhood in a happy and close-knit family."
00:55 Though Hewitt wasn't very strong academically, he excelled in sports.
00:59 When he attended Millfield School, his headmaster, Jack Meyer, discovered that he had dyslexia.
01:05 Lucky for Hewitt, Millfield was one of the first schools in the U.K. that was readily
01:09 equipped and known for aiding students with dyslexia.
01:12 They had a strong sports program, too.
01:15 In his book, Hewitt remembered,
01:17 "Meyer had a belief that if you could build your confidence in the sporting world, it
01:21 would help your academic work as well."
01:24 After graduating from Millfield School, Hewitt decided to do a short service commission,
01:28 which entailed serving around three years in the military.
01:31 Hewitt's father, a former military man himself, got in touch with old friend General Sir Cecil
01:37 "Monkey" Blacker.
01:38 Blacker helped Hewitt secure a place in the military, provided that he completed his training
01:42 at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
01:45 He underwent basic training in Yorkshire before being sent to the Rowallon Company, an intensive
01:51 development course at Sandhurst, which solidified his decision to join the armed forces.
01:57 Hewitt explained his choice in his book, writing,
01:59 "A lot of people give up the notion of the army after that, but I found I truly enjoyed
02:03 it."
02:04 It was through the influence of a Sandhurst colleague, Charlie Graham, that he considered
02:08 a career with the Lifeguards, one of the British Army's senior cavalry regiments.
02:13 As Hewitt explained,
02:14 "The Lifeguards would give me a chance of soldiering in London.
02:17 Also, I would be able to indulge my passion for horses much more fully, not just in regimental
02:23 duties, but with a prospect of hunting and possibly polo."
02:26 He proceeded to become a cavalry officer for the British Army.
02:31 When James Hewitt joined the Lifeguards in 1978, he was in close proximity to the monarchy.
02:37 While there, he met Princess Diana, an introduction that would change both their lives and live
02:41 on in countless dramatizations.
02:44 In 1986, Hewitt and Princess Diana were formally introduced at a party thrown by Hazel West,
02:50 Diana's lady-in-waiting, at St. James' Palace.
02:53 As they spoke that night, Diana expressed her fear of horses after breaking her arm
02:58 while riding a pony as a child.
03:00 The young officer offered to help her overcome her fear, and the arrangement made a lot of
03:04 sense since he was an experienced rider.
03:06 "I know about the stable boy.
03:09 Hewitt is his name, correct?"
03:12 It started out innocent, slowly blossomed into something else.
03:15 As Hewitt wrote in his book, Love and War, "One thing went wrong.
03:19 We fell in love."
03:20 Ken Wharfe, Princess Diana's protection officer, was appointed to Diana's security team in
03:26 1988.
03:27 Eventually, the princess confided her feelings for Hewitt to Wharfe, who wrote in his book,
03:32 Diana, a Closely Guarded Secret,
03:34 "It was clear from the way she spoke that she adored the man, even after the affair
03:38 had cooled.
03:39 Their first conversation felt natural, she said, and it was this that sparked her attraction.
03:44 As she put it, they got along famously."
03:47 As time passed, Hewitt realized the true nature of their riding lessons, writing,
03:51 "It became more and more apparent that she didn't just want to learn to ride, she wanted
03:56 to get away."
03:57 Princess Diana was unhappy with her marriage to then-Prince Charles, and she was also aware
04:02 of his relationship with then-girlfriend and now-queen Camilla Parker Bowles.
04:05 "I've come to the conclusion that really it would have been far easier to have had two
04:11 wives."
04:14 Hewitt provided comfort to the princess during this lonely time.
04:17 As Wharfe described,
04:18 "Hewitt gave her the attention and affection she relished, and then the passion she yearned
04:23 for.
04:24 He injected excitement and youthful vitality into her life at a time when she really needed
04:28 to be loved."
04:30 Hewitt claimed that, by 1986, Charles and Diana's marriage was all but over.
04:35 But that didn't make spending time with the Princess of Wales easy.
04:38 In fact, it involved a lot of sneaking around.
04:42 Anna Pasternak, author of Princess in Love, told the Daily Mail,
04:45 "Hewitt was regularly bundled into car boots and driven to Kensington Palace."
04:50 In 1991, Hewitt was deployed to fight in the Gulf War as part of Operation Desert Storm,
04:56 where he served as a tank commander.
04:58 Because Hewitt often had to fly overseas, his job in the military started to affect
05:02 their affair.
05:03 It was the beginning of the end.
05:05 Wharfe explained in his book,
05:07 "Diana felt betrayed.
05:08 He had chosen his career over her.
05:11 At first she did everything she could to prevent him from going, even threatening to speak
05:15 to his commanding officer.
05:17 When James refused to give up his career, Diana let the affair wane."
05:20 "By Diana's own admission, she played with fire and she got badly burned."
05:25 In the end, both Hewitt's military career and his relationship with Princess Diana suffered.
05:30 He eventually had to resign from the Officers' Club and the Lifeguards, two organizations
05:35 that demanded loyalty to the British sovereign.
05:38 Sleeping with the prince's wife was a definite breach of loyalty.
05:41 Hewitt would later retire as a captain after a career in the military that lasted a total
05:45 of 17 years.
05:48 Shortly after James Hewitt's victorious command of a tank squadron during the Gulf War, gossip
05:53 columns caught wind of his affair with Princess Diana.
05:56 This wasn't received well by the military and eventually led to his discharge.
06:00 "Any more telephone calls from Major Hewitt, make sure to say I'm out.
06:05 I don't want to hear from him."
06:07 In the hopes of setting the record straight, the ex-Calvary officer collaborated with author
06:12 Anna Pasternak on the controversial tell-all book Princess in Love.
06:16 According to Hewitt, Pasternak came to him with an offer to tell his side of the story
06:20 and set the record straight.
06:22 It was a move he later came to regret.
06:24 Hewitt admitted,
06:25 "I made a big mistake in speaking.
06:27 Subsequently, Anna published a romance, Princess in Love, which I have never read, but which
06:32 has been a cross I have had to bear for the past few years."
06:35 On November 20, 1995, Princess Diana went on the record regarding her affair with Hewitt
06:41 in a controversial BBC interview.
06:43 "Yes, I adored him.
06:44 Yes, I was in love with him.
06:47 But I was very let down."
06:49 The aftermath of the breakup was difficult, to say the least.
06:53 After Princess in Love was announced, the press had their eyes locked on Hewitt.
06:57 He claimed that a leak at his credit card company allowed journalists to find him wherever
07:01 he was, writing,
07:02 "When I used a card to pay a bill and the transaction was processed in London, a reporter
07:07 would turn up at the hotel or café shortly afterward."
07:10 Hewitt was extremely depressed at this point and wanted to end his life.
07:14 He told Inside Edition,
07:15 "I got in my car and loaded a few things up to get on the ferry to go to France to shoot
07:20 myself."
07:21 What ultimately stopped him from going through with it was the presence of his mother, who
07:25 insisted on keeping him company.
07:27 Hewitt confided,
07:28 "If she hadn't, I would have probably shot myself.
07:31 So I owe her my life, really."
07:34 Two years after Princess Diana's death, Hewitt released a memoir titled Love & War.
07:39 He opens the book expressing regret about his affair with the late princess, writing,
07:43 "I loved Diana.
07:44 I love her still.
07:46 I feel blessed that she loved me and we were able to enjoy a few short years, which reached
07:50 heights of happiness I have never known before or since.
07:54 But part of me wishes that she and Prince Charles had had a successful marriage."
07:58 "I think she was quite easy to fall in love with, really.
08:02 So I think I can be forgiven for that."
08:06 Love & War was later reprinted with a couple of new chapters and different titles, Moving
08:11 On in 2005 and A Love Like No Other, Diana and Me in 2017.
08:16 He told People magazine writing the memoir was a way for him to move on while also telling
08:21 his side of the story.
08:23 The book focuses on his relationship with Princess Diana and his military career.
08:27 The latter chapters, which weren't part of the initial 1999 edition, cover Hewitt's reality
08:32 TV career in the 2000s, and the trouble then ensued when he considered selling personal
08:37 letters from Princess Diana at a time when he had no other source of income.
08:42 In the early 2000s, Hewitt didn't shy away from the public eye — quite the opposite,
08:46 in fact.
08:47 He joined the reality sports show The Games in 2003, finishing second.
08:52 Hewitt won a total of £93,500, which he donated to a London-based charity for the homeless
08:58 called The Passage.
09:00 He next signed on to Back to Reality, a UK show similar to Big Brother with a cast of
09:04 former reality stars.
09:07 Then in 2006, he appeared on a celebrity spinoff of X Factor.
09:10 "Weren't you in the army?"
09:12 "I was, yes."
09:13 "Well, for that performance, you should be shot."
09:18 During his reality TV career, Hewitt was able to rebrand himself.
09:22 British journalist Celia Walden explained the transformation in The Telegraph,
09:26 "Suddenly, the 'love rat' label was amusing rather than pejorative.
09:30 That urbane accent and those manners, which are impeccable, endearing."
09:35 For his part, Hewitt replied,
09:36 "I did those shows for a reason.
09:38 I wasn't about to give in to the papers without a fight.
09:41 I owed it to my friends and family to try to level the playing field, and it worked.
09:46 As an ex-army officer, I set about trying to achieve something and achieved it."
09:51 After retiring from the military, Hewitt embarked on a variety of business ventures.
09:55 Shortly after his retirement in 1994, he invested in a London driving range that eventually
10:00 closed down.
10:01 Then, after dipping his toes into the reality TV world in the early aughts, he moved to
10:06 Marbella, Spain.
10:08 Hewitt told The Telegraph,
10:09 "I wanted to start afresh.
10:11 London became like living in a goldfish bowl.
10:13 I've let go of England, but I do wish it all the best.
10:16 And honestly, it's paradise here.
10:18 I feel so lucky, and I don't deserve that luck."
10:21 In 2009, he opened The Polo House, a restaurant and bar in a posh area of Marbella called
10:26 The Golden Mile.
10:28 The Golden Mile is a five-kilometer strip of coastline with an impeccable view that
10:32 boasts the best of the best in terms of hotels, restaurants, cafes, beach clubs, and the like.
10:38 In 2010, Hewitt described his new venture to Tout Magazine, saying,
10:42 "Having been fortunate enough to have traveled and dined extensively in some of the world's
10:46 most charming locations, and being someone who loves the arts of fine food, wine, and
10:51 entertaining, I had carried around the thought of a place like The Polo House for some time."
10:56 After four years, The Polo House closed in 2013.
11:00 In 2017, Hewitt suffered from a heart attack and stroke, which required emergency surgery.
11:05 A concerned relative told the Mirror,
11:08 "He had a pre-existing illness, then got seriously ill.
11:11 Suddenly it got very critical, and he was rushed to hospital."
11:15 Hewitt was initially admitted to Darraford Hospital in Plymouth, then transferred to
11:19 Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for further treatment and recovery.
11:24 Though the odds seemed slim at the time, he was able to survive and was later discharged.
11:28 Since the closure of The Polo House in 2013, Hewitt has kept a relatively low profile.
11:34 He was spotted back in the UK a couple of months later, and was said to be living with
11:38 his mother back in Devon.
11:40 Hewitt never married or had any children, though it's something he wanted for a time.
11:45 But as he explained to The Telegraph back in 2009,
11:48 "I think it's a bit irresponsible if you can't afford them or don't have the right attitude."
11:52 [music]