Soldier, lover... and Prince Harry's secret dad? The feud between Prince Charles and Princess Diana shook the British monarchy to its core — and James Hewitt sat at the heart of it all.
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00:00Soldier, lover, and Prince Harry's secret dad? The feud between Prince Charles and Princess
00:05Diana shook the British monarchy to its core, and James Hewitt sat at the heart of it all.
00:10James Hewitt and his twin sister, Caroline, were born in 1958 to John Alfred Hewitt and Shirley
00:16Stamp. John and Shirley had first bonded over their shared love of horse riding,
00:20a passion that they handed down to their children. The twins and their sister,
00:23Sarah, learned to ride horseback from a young age. In his book A Love Like No Other, Hewitt wrote,
00:28"[We three children grew up on ponies and the freedom which that gave us was marvelous."
00:32Hewitt described his home life in the Irish countryside as fairly idyllic, writing,
00:36"'I was lucky enough to spend my childhood in a happy and close-knit family.'"
00:40Hewitt later attended Millfield, a public school in Somerset. At first,
00:43he struggled here due to his dyslexia, but his headmaster encouraged him to pursue sports such
00:48as fencing, cross-country, polo, and swimming in the hopes it would also help his academics.
00:53Hewitt enjoyed and excelled at these activities and looks back on his school days with fondness.
00:58Hewitt hails from a military family. His father, John Hewitt, was a captain in the Royal Marines,
01:03and his grandfather had been an admiral in the Royal Navy. It was perhaps to be expected that
01:08Hewitt would follow in their path, although this wasn't actually his first choice of career.
01:12While at school, Hewitt hoped to become a surgeon. However, his academic scores failed
01:16to qualify him to pursue that dream, so when medicine didn't work out, he spent some time
01:20helping as an instructor at his parents' horse riding school. Ultimately, he decided he wanted
01:25something more adventurous than anything his hometown could offer, which is what eventually
01:29drew him to join the Army. In A Love Like No Other, he wrote,
01:32"'I went to the Army Careers Officer in Exeter and the information I read there and the people
01:36I spoke to confirm my feeling that a short service commission could be stimulating.'"
01:40This marked the beginning of an impressive military career. Hewitt attended the Royal
01:44Military Academy Sandhurst and became a cavalry officer in the lifeguards. Hewitt found the
01:48excitement he was looking for while in the military embarking on his first tour in Germany in 1981.
01:53He later wrote,
01:54"'I found the work very fulfilling. I went in a lieutenant and left as a captain and
01:58second-in-command of a tank squadron.'"
02:00"'Did you give her the confidence to blossom?'
02:05"'I hope so.'"
02:06The exact moment at which Captain James Hewitt and Princess Diana first met remains a point of
02:11contention among royal followers. According to Hewitt, however, they didn't cross paths until
02:161986, when the young captain and the royal attended a party thrown by Diana's lady-in-waiting.
02:21Diana was already a royal at the time. She'd married Prince Charles in 1981 and given birth
02:26to her sons, Princes William and Harry. Initially, Hewitt and Diana's relationship seemed innocent
02:31enough. They were clearly charmed by each other and began to form a friendship, but that dynamic
02:35would later evolve into something more. Diana's bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, later discussed his former
02:40charge's relationship with Hewitt in Diana, Closely Guarded Secret. He wrote,
02:44"'Their first conversation felt natural,' she said,
02:46and it was this that sparked her attraction. As she put it, they got along famously.'"
02:50According to Wharfe, Hewitt suggested he give her riding lessons after he found out she was
02:55scared of horses. After that, well, it was off to the races. Because he was hired as Princess Diana's
03:01riding instructor, Hewitt and Diana began spending more and more time together. They got along
03:06easily and soon formed a close bond. "'It was a friendship that grew, and grew
03:11because two people got on very well and enjoyed each other's company.'"
03:16Hewitt has also admitted that in the early days of their acquaintance,
03:20he thought his heart was safe from becoming too involved — or broken.
03:23If they'd maintained a platonic friendship, things might have gone very differently. However,
03:28that closeness evolved into an affair that would shape the rest of Hewitt's life.
03:32In 1999's Love & War, he wrote,
03:34"'Only one thing went wrong. We fell in love.'"
03:36From that point on, the pair carried out a secret relationship. In an interview with
03:40Australia's Sunday Night, Hewitt said,
03:42"'Suddenly, you can't get enough of each other or see each other as much as you want.'
03:46He recalled that when Diana could get away to see him,
03:48they spent many quiet nights together in the countryside."
03:52It's no secret, Princess Diana and then Prince Charles' relationship was rocky. Even before he
03:57tied the knot with Diana, Charles was having an affair with his longtime lover, Camilla Parker
04:01Bowles. Diana knew about the affair, and so she hoped to break off her relationship with Charles.
04:06Before the wedding, Diana found jewelry that Charles had planned to give to Camilla.
04:10In Diana, in her own words, she remembered,
04:12"...I went upstairs, had lunch with my sisters, who were there, and I said,
04:16I can't marry him, I can't do this, this is absolutely unbelievable."
04:19By that point, however, she felt it was too late to back out of a royal engagement,
04:23and she sadly entered a very unhappy marriage with Charles.
04:26When Diana began seeing James Hewitt, it's no exaggeration to say
04:29she had a lot going on in her personal life.
04:32"...In the beginning, I was unaware of the extent of her unhappiness in her marriage."
04:37As he got closer to Diana, however, Hewitt came to understand how much
04:40she was struggling in her marriage and tried to offer support to her.
04:44"...I was giving friendship and comfort and love to somebody who was looking for that."
04:51Before long, Hewitt's military career came calling. During the 1990s, he was deployed
04:56to fight in the Gulf War, and his relationship with Princess Diana struggled due to the distance.
05:01In Diana, Closely Guarded Secret, Ken Wharfe said,
05:04"...Diana felt betrayed. He had chosen his career over her. At first,
05:07she did everything she could to prevent him from going,
05:09even threatening to speak to his commanding officer."
05:12However, Hewitt couldn't be dissuaded from completing his military duties.
05:15As he shared in James Hewitt, My True Love Story,
05:18he and Diana did spend some time together in England after he came home from the Gulf War.
05:22When it was time to return to his station in Germany, however,
05:25Hewitt's mind was with Diana, and he struggled to stay focused.
05:28He recalled,
05:29"...I couldn't be bothered with the mundane sort of barrack life,
05:31and perhaps I became a bit of a rebel and I was meant to be studying for exams,
05:35which wasn't easy to do, and I couldn't concentrate."
05:38It seemed like the whole world was working against James Hewitt and Princess Diana's relationship.
05:43He was a military captain deployed overseas,
05:45and she was married to the future king with the eyes of the country on her.
05:49But while their relationship fizzled when Hewitt went to fight in the Gulf War,
05:52it didn't reach its breaking point until the affair was leaked to the press.
05:56In My True Love Story, Hewitt said,
05:58"...people are unaware and I think it's important they realize the extent of
06:01the knowledge of our relationship, which was known to the press and the authorities."
06:04After the Gulf War ended, he stayed overseas for a few weeks.
06:07He recalled,
06:08"...I remember sitting down having a cup of coffee, I think, next to my tank,
06:11and someone dropped a paper on my lap with the news of our affair splashed on the front of it."
06:15From that point on, their relationship became the subject of intense public scrutiny.
06:20Speaking to Larry King, Hewitt later said that their affair had been ongoing when the news leaked,
06:24but it didn't continue long after. He said,
06:27"...I think that was the beginning of the end, if you like."
06:29Hewitt claims that public scrutiny ultimately led to the end of his
06:33relationship with Princess Diana. After the demise of their affair, however,
06:36he made the details of their life even more public through his participation
06:40in a tell-all about his time with Diana. Anna Pasternak wrote and published Princess in Love
06:45in 1994. The book, which Hewitt helped to create, offered an intimate look at their
06:49time together from 1986 to 1991. According to the BBC, Hewitt was paid £300,000 for
06:56his collaboration on the manuscript. The book was released years after his and Diana's relationship,
07:00but the scandal continued to burn. What's more, the princess apparently felt quite betrayed by
07:05it. She later told Martin Bashir that she had been absolutely devastated when the book was
07:09published, worrying especially about the impact it might have had on Princes William and Harry.
07:13She went on to claim that much of the book was fantasy.
07:17"'Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down."
07:23Hewitt had a difficult time picking up the pieces after his breakup with Princess Diana.
07:27He soon retired from his military career and was left struggling to find his way.
07:31On top of that, he was the subject of a lot of public interest, and much of it wasn't positive.
07:35His contribution to Princess in Love only generated even more public interest,
07:39as many saw it as a way to profit off of his connection to the royal family.
07:43It was a lot to take on at once for someone who'd only recently become a public figure.
07:46Years later, Hewitt shared with Inside Edition that he'd had thoughts of suicide during that
07:51period. He remembered one specific day when he decided to go to France with the plan to
07:55end his life once he was there. Fortunately, his mother interfered. He said,
07:59"'My mother insisted on coming with me. If she hadn't,
08:01I would probably have shot myself. So I owe her my life, really.'"
08:05In 1997, Princess Diana died in a tragic car accident. Two years after her death,
08:10Hewitt released a memoir, Love and War. The book details his life, career, and romance
08:15with the late princess. It offered an especially intimate look at his time with Diana, this time,
08:19from his own voice. Although he'd collaborated with Anna Pasternak on Princess in Love,
08:24this book gave him the chance to set the record straight as he saw it.
08:27He told People magazine that he'd written the memoir to help himself move on, saying,
08:31"'There has been so much rubbish written about me. I wanted to tell the truth.'"
08:34As he grew older, Hewitt republished the book under new names with additional chapters. In 2005,
08:40it was released as Moving On, and again in 2017 as A Love Like No Other, Diana and Me.
08:45Looking back on his time with Diana, Hewitt wrote,
08:48"'I feel blessed that she loved me and we were able to enjoy a few
08:51short years which reached heights of happiness I have never known before or since.'"
08:55"'Do you think that you will ever manage to convince people that you are not Prince Harry's
08:59father?' "'I don't know.'"
09:03After the affair between James Hewitt and Princess Diana became public,
09:07rumors began to circulate about Prince Harry's parentage. Even to this day,
09:11many royal fans and conspiracy theorists wonder if Hewitt could be the true father of Prince Harry.
09:16This is mostly because, like Harry, Hewitt is red-haired. King Charles' hair, however,
09:21was brown before it turned white. In his book Spare!, Prince Harry claimed that the future
09:25king used to make jokes about his parentage. In one passage, he remembered Charles suggesting
09:30that his true father was living in the U.K.'s most notorious psychiatric facility. He allegedly told
09:35Harry, "'Who knows if I'm even your real father? Maybe your real father really is in Broadmoor,
09:40darling boy.'" Despite all this speculation, Hewitt maintains that Charles is Prince Harry's
09:44true father. In a 2017 Channel 7 interview, Hewitt insisted that he is not Harry's biological dad.
09:51In his opinion, the rumor has yet to die down because it still sells papers and gets clicks.
09:56If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis,
09:59help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.