PRINCESS Diana’s former lover James Hewitt has spoken out about the ongoing feud between Prince William and Prince Harry.
In a rare TV interview, the 66-year-old claimed the late Princess of Wales would have done “her best to try and get them together.”
James Hewitt appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning[/caption]
Diana and former cavalry officer James had a five-year affair between 1986 and 1991[/caption]
James claims Diana would have wanted William and Harry to patch things up[/caption]
The two brothers feud has been ongoing since the Duke of Sussex’s departure from royal life in 2020, with Harry making scathing remarks against his brother in his Spare memoir.
The former cavalry officer appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and said the late royal would have had the ability to “make a rapprochement possible” between her sons.
James told host Richard Madeley: “I think any mother would be worried and concerned about such a rift, as you put it, and she’d do her best to try and get them together.”
Princess Diana had a five-year affair with James between 1986 and 1991 after they met at a Mayfair party, and she asked him to help her overcome her fear of horses by giving her riding lessons.
After marrying the then-Prince Charles in 1981, the royal couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996 – with Diana confessing to her affair with James during her BBC Panorama interview in 1995.
In the chat she admitted the extramarital liaison, saying: “Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him.”
James said he was left suicidal after the princess dumped him in 1991.
Diana also told interviewer Martin Bashir she was desperately unhappy after Charles rekindled his own romance with Camilla Parker-Bowles, following the birth of second son Prince Harry.
James has kept a low profile since a near-fatal heart attack in May 2017 when doctors gave him a ‘slim chance’ of survival but has previously said he has regrets over the affair.
“I loved Diana,” he previously said. “I love her still, but part of me wished it had never happened.”
However, he appeared on Good Morning this morning to chat about his involvement in Operation Safedrop, which is sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
He also spoke about Diana’s Panorama interview and said: “It was a stitch up job.
“It was appalling of Bashir to inveigled, lied to her, criminal activity, absolutely appalling.
I think any mother would be worried and concerned about such a rift, as you put it, and she’d do her best to try and get them together
James Hewitt
“As I’ve said, I hate bullies and bullying and arrogant people and I think it’s appalling.”
James was also asked when he last spoke to Diana, and he claimed “just after” [that], but admitted it was a “distant” chat.
He also admitted the interview “did create problems”, but he is trying to “move on from that.”
Prince Harry openly criticised Prince William and Princess Kate in his Spare memoir[/caption]
A timeline of Prince Harry’s family feud
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
Prince Harry claims
Over the years, James has been forced to deny numerous false rumours over the years he is Prince Harry‘s dad.
In a interview with Australian Channel Seven’s Sunday Night host Melissa Doyle, Hewitt was asked if he was the royal’s dad and he replied: “No I’m not.”
Ken Wharfe also wrote about the speculation in his book, which he described as “nonsense” and said that it had “greatly angered” Princess Diana.
He said: “A simple comparison of dates proves it is impossible for Hewitt to be Harry’s father. Only once did I ever discuss it with her, and Diana was in tears about it.
“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’s former butler Paul Burrell has insisted the claims are “farcical”.
Royal affair
In his biography, Love and War, Hewitt claimed he had actually met Diana before, shortly after her 1981 wedding, but that she had changed dramatically during the five years between.
“When we had first met five years before [the affair], she had been fun, charming, flirtatious,” he wrote.
“She could make the sullen waters of the Serpentine sparkle just by riding past them. But now she was sad… She was a hurt, lonely married woman and I became obsessed with her.”
At the time of their affair, the then-25-year-old Princess was on a 39 day “trial separation” from Prince Charles.
After marrying the then-Prince Charles in 1981, the royal couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996[/caption]
The infidelity began shortly afterwards, at her apartment in Kensington Palace, after she invited Hewitt, then 28, for dinner.
“She was tall, willowy, strikingly beautiful and utterly adorable,” he wrote. “She smelled fresh and very English.”
Diana reportedly told him: “I need you. I can’t stand it when I’m away from you.”
Hewitt revealed that the couple made love on her four poster bed and the bathroom floor, and had claimed it was Diana who initiated the affair.
Speaking to Zoo in January 2013, he said: “The situation that Princess Diana and I were in made it exciting and sexy because it was risky.
“The danger spiced it up a bit, if you know what I mean.”
Charles ‘betrayal’
Former royal bodyguard Ken Wharfe has since revealed that the princess “was ready for an affair” because of her “husband’s betrayal”.
“Hewitt, a natural womaniser, gave her the attention and affection she relished, and then the passion she yearned for,” he said.
As the affair carried on, the venue for the lovers’ liaisons shifted to Ebford Cottage in Devon, owned by Hewitt’s mum, Shirley.
I loved Diana. love her still, but part of me wished it had never happened
James Hewitt
Diana would phone Shirley to make arrangements, using the code name Julia and, sometimes, a mock cockney accent.
“She could have been an SAS commander, such was her skill and ingenuity at managing our very secret affair,” said Hewitt.
Ken would drive his ward to the 17th century cottage and cook the couple Italian food while they snuggled up on the sofa drinking orange vodka, “purloined from the cellars at Highgrove”.
Diana met James at a Mayfair party, and she asked him to help her overcome her fear of horses by giving her riding lessons[/caption]
Diana would then don her marigolds and wash up – relishing the chance to “play house” away from the servants and ladies in waiting of her royal life – before playing cards late into the night.
James claimed the affair only ended after he decided to cooperate with the controversial book Princess in Love, by Anna Pasternak, that revealed the affair.
He wrote: “Diana seemed unconcerned, but it was the biggest mistake I have every made in my life.”
He said the decision marked the end of the affair and his Army career, and he considered suicide.
“I got in my car and loaded a few things up to get on the ferry to go to France – to shoot myself,” he told US TV show Edition.
She [Diana] was tall, willowy, strikingly beautiful and utterly adorable
James Hewitt
“Then my mother insisted on coming with me. If she hadn’t, I would probably have shot myself. So I owe her my life really.”
Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, told the Panorama interview she felt “very let down” by his part in the book but Hewitt seemed to suggest he didn’t feel he had betrayed her.
Hewitt went on to open a golf club and bar in Marbella, in 2009, which closed four years later.
He has also appeared in various reality TV shows including Hell’s Kitchen and X Factor – Battle of the Stars.
Everything you need to know about Princess Diana’s final years
After years of separation, Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced in 1996.
In 1997, Princess Diana spent her summer in the south of France and Italy. During August, she visited Sarajevo, Bosnia, to highlight the fight against landmines.
By the end of the month, the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed travelled to Paris together.
It was revealed that Princess Diana stayed longer than planned in Paris due to a row over her land mine campaign.
Travelling in a black Mercedes Benz, Princess Diana was involved in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997.
The Princess of Wales died at the age of 36.
Her funeral was held on September 6, 1997. As her coffin made the journey from Kensington Palace to Westminister Abbey, Prince William and Prince Harry walked behind their late mother.
Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, and sisters, Jane Fellowes and Sarah McCorquodale, also attended the funeral.
The Princess of Wales was buried at her childhood home – Althorp House
If it wasn’t for her tragic death, Princess Diana would have been 62 today.
