Prince Harry has for the first time publicly addressed the rumours that Major James Hewitt is his real dad.
The rumours started when the Duke of Sussex's mum, the late Princess Diana, confirmed a five-year affair with Major James Hewitt during the 1980s. As a result, there has always been some hearsay that she had a child with him.
The Prince has now addressed the "sadistic" rumours in his new tall-all book, Spare, which is due to be released next week. The Mirror reported that Harry made reference to the rumours and how the now-King Charles had often made light of guessing who his real father was.
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The Duke wrote: "The joke was damn funny in light of the rumour going around at the time that my real father was one of my mother's ex-lovers: Major James Hewitt. One cause of the rumour was Major Hewitt's red hair, but another was sadism.
"Tabloid readers loved the idea that Prince Charles's youngest son was not Prince Charles's son. They never got tired of that 'joke', for some reason."
Harry went on to ponder whether it was to help paint him as a "laughing stock". He says it didn't seem to matter that Diana hadn't even met Major Hewitt "until long after I was born".
Harry was born in 1984, but Princess Diana didn't meet Major Hewitt until 1986.
Harry also claims some journalists went so far as to begin "hunting my DNA to verify it" and his initial response was that after "torturing" his mum into hiding "soon they would come for me". He wrote that over the years, rehashed versions of the story seem to be published "with some seriousness" and any accounts of Charles having to reassure him Major Hewitt was not his dad are "invented".
Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have declined to comment on the leaked claims from Harry’s book.
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