Prince Harry has finally addressed long-standing rumors that Commander James Hewitt is his real father.
It’s just one of many controversial issues the Duke of Sussex writes about in his new memoir, Spare.
The royals have never openly discussed the theory of Harry’s paternity, which emerged after it was revealed Diana had a five-year relationship with Hewitt in the 1980s.
James Hewitt has firmly denied being Harry’s father
(Getty Images)
“…the rumor going around at the time that my real father was one of my mother’s ex-lovers: Major James Hewitt,” Prince Harry writes in the leaked book. “One reason for the rumors was Major Hewitt’s red hair, but another was sadism.”
“Boulevard readers loved the idea that Prince Charles’ youngest son wasn’t Prince Charles’ son. For some reason they never got tired of this ‘joke’.”
The Duke of Sussex asks if this rumor was used to portray him as a “smiling figure”, noting that it didn’t seem to matter that his mother hadn’t met Commander Hewitt until “long after I was born”.
Throughout Harry’s life, the rumor has repeated itself in various forms “with some seriousness,” he emphasizes.
Harry claims parts of the media went as far as “looking for my DNA to prove it”. He noted that Princess Diana was “tortured” into hiding and that he believed “they would come for me soon”.
Spare, Harry’s book, also tells of an encounter with a woman who claims to have sent her a message from her mother, Diana
(PA file)
Retired British Army Captain Hewitt wrote two books about his affair with Diana during her marriage to Prince Charles and tried to sell the love letters he exchanged with the princess.
The couple met at a party in 1986, and Hewitt, as an instructor, helped Diana overcome her fear of horseback riding.
The former Commander has addressed rumors surrounding Harry’s paternity, commenting in an interview with The Sunday Mirror in 2002 that “there’s really no chance I’m Harry’s father… Harry was already on the way when my relationship with Diana started.”
The book will officially go on sale in the UK next week.
(The Independent)
In Spare, the Duke of Sussex recalls an occasion when Prince Charles jokingly asked if he was Harry’s father.
He claims that this joke was made “distasteful” because rumors about Diana and Hewitt were circulating.
Elsewhere in the autobiography, Harry speaks of losing his virginity to an elderly woman behind a pub, using cocaine as a teenager “to make himself feel different”, and killing 25 people in Afghanistan.