In his memoirs with the German title “Reserve”, Prince Harry addresses headlines that were particularly common in his youth. British tabloids were fond of claiming that Harry wasn’t the son of today’s King Charles III. \u2013 his father is said to be James Hewitt, a former lover of the late Princess Diana.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old tells of a story that his father told him. A man pretended to be the Prince of Wales, although Charles held this title until the Queen’s death in September 2022. At the end of his story, today’s king said: “Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who even knows if I’m really your father?” Prince Harry, then just a teenager, apparently didn’t find this joke, which his father “didn’t stop laughing at,” found funny.<\/p>\n
The reason is a rumor that was going around at the time, “according to which my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt. One reason for this rumor was Major Hewitt’s fiery red hair, but another was sadism.” The tabloids wowed their audience with the “idea that Prince Charles’ second child would not be Prince Charles’ child”. The readers “couldn’t get enough of this ‘joke'”.<\/p>\n
Princess Diana and James Hewitt “didn’t know each other until long after I was born.” But the press kept harping on about this story, “embellishing it, and there was even talk of reporters looking into my DNA to prove the story.” Even today, the rumors appear regularly in lengthy portraits of Harry, including a scene in which Charles pulled his youngest aside and “assured him Major Hewitt wasn’t my real father.” This is “entirely made up”.<\/p>\n