Affair with the Princess of Wales Hewitt's affair with the princess began while he was still in the
Household Cavalry and had been asked to give her riding lessons. News of the relationship leaked quickly and within months British newspapers published accounts of the romance, first hinted at in
Nigel Dempster's
Daily Mail Diary and then with a full story in the
News of the World. Some years later, after he had left the army, Anna Pasternak published the book
Princess in Love in 1994, for which Hewitt was a major source, and it alleged that he had a five-year affair with Diana, Princess of Wales from 1986 to 1991. Diana confirmed the affair in her 1995
Panorama interview. The following year, the film
Princess in Love by
David Greene was released, based on the book, with
Julie Cox and
Christopher Villiers playing the lead roles. Hewitt considered suicide after the affair ended. He was preparing for a trip to France, and he wanted to shoot himself. He said, "I got in my car and loaded a few things up to get on the ferry to go to France – to shoot myself .... And then my mother insisted on coming with me. And, if she hadn't, I would have probably shot myself. So I owe her my life really." In 2003, Hewitt tried to sell his 64 personal letters from Diana for £10 million. The act of selling the letters was considered to be a betrayal of trust, and
Sarah, Duchess of York (who was also divorced from a British prince in Charles's brother, the former
Prince Andrew), condemned his action. She was reported to have said, "Betrayal, I think, is the most horrible, horrible, disloyal thing you can do to anyone." Persistent suggestions have been made in the media that Hewitt, and not Charles, is the
biological father of Diana's second son,
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (born 1984). Hewitt stated to the press in 2002 and 2017 that Harry had already been born by the time of the affair, a statement also made by Diana's royal protection officer, Inspector Ken Wharfe. Wharfe reiterated this in an interview in 2016, and in his memoir
Diana: Closely Guarded Secret published in 2002 (and reissued in 2017) in which he says "A simple comparison of dates proves it is impossible for Hewitt to be Harry's father. ... Harry was born on September 15, 1984, which means he was conceived around Christmas 1983, when his brother, William, was 18 months old. Diana did not meet James Hewitt until the summer of 1986." Diana attributed Harry's red hair colouration to
her side of the family, calling him her "little Spencer".
Legal and medical issues In July 2004, Hewitt was arrested outside a restaurant in
Fulham with
Alison Bell, a
CNN journalist, for the possession of
cocaine. A drunken Hewitt had of cocaine in his pocket. He was given a warning, and Bell was released without charge. As a result, he was refused reinstatement of his firearms licences because of his "intemperate habits" after police found a disassembled 16-bore shotgun on his living room floor. On 14 May 2017, it was reported that Hewitt had suffered from both a heart attack and stroke, leaving him fighting for his life in hospital. However, by the end of June 2017, Hewitt had been released from hospital and was said to be recovering well at home; in 2021, he was reportedly working as a gardener. == References ==