Will Diana’s amor rata ever let her rest in peace? 

Princess Diana with her former lover James Hewitt

IT IS no secret that Princess Diana had affairs during and after her unhappy marriage. 

Driven initially by her husband’s infidelity she sought comfort in the arms of other men. 

Among them was an antiques dealer, her bodyguard and a surgeon. 

It is also alleged that she became close to an England rugby captain and a pop star. 

None chose to betray Diana in the manner of James Hewitt. 

Alone among the lovers of the Princess it is the former cavalry officer who has broken the unwritten code that her memory should not be sullied. 

First there was a book about their affair and then he attempted to sell intimate letters written by Diana. 

Now it appears that the man who has tried to make a career out of his five-year relationship with the Princess is up to his old tricks yet again. 

It has emerged that Hewitt, 56, has given his backing to a new West End play which regurgitates an old rumour that he is the father of Prince Harry. 

Betrayal I think is the most horrible, horrible, disloyal thing you can do to anyone.

Hewitt is said to have co-operated with the writer of Truth, Lies, Diana, which contains several references to Harry’s paternity. 

The play opens next month and is said to have left friends of Diana, who died in 1997, utterly dismayed. 

Hewitt was a dashing officer in the Life Guards when he met 25-year-old Diana in 1986 at a time when her marriage to Prince Charles was in deep trouble. 

He had a reputation as a lothario on the polo circuit but it is easy to understand why the Princess feeling lonely and abandoned fell for the charms of her riding instructor. 

Diana later confided in friends that she fell in love with Hewitt, an action man who was later to serve as a tank commander in the Gulf War. 

He was the complete antithesis of the rather stuffy Charles and the Princess also regarded him as her pet project, taking responsibility for his outfits and claiming to have “dressed him from head to foot”. 

They are said to have become lovers after Diana poured out her anguish about her rocky marriage and Hewitt responded: “You are not alone, you have me.” 

While he was serving abroad Diana sent intimate letters signed “Dibbs” and the couple even discussed marriage. 

She became smitten once describing Hewitt as resembling “a thoroughbred racehorse”. 

However her ardour cooled in 1991 and the Princess  naturally expected a dignified silence from Hewitt, whom she still regarded as being an officer and a gentleman. 

But three years later Diana was horrified by the publication of Princess In Love for which Hewitt was the major source. 

Written in breathless Mills & Boon style it was dressed up as a fairytale romance between a handsome soldier and a beautiful princess. 

Buckingham  Palace described the book, which earned Hewitt a reported £300,000 fee, as “grubby and worthless”. 

Diana later recalled in her infamous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir: “Yes I adored him. Yes I was in love with him. But I was very let down.” 

Shunned by Diana and with his army career over Hewitt, who three times failed to pass his exam for promotion to major, became a pariah. 

While she received sympathy he found himself branded a love rat. There were suggestions that he should even be tried for treason. 

Hewitt’s local hunt refused his annual membership cheque and he was ostracised by the Life Guards Association. 

An attempt to launch a golf-driving range was unsuccessful as was his riding school which subsequently set the tone for a series of business failures. 

The new play hints that Prince Harry (right) may be the biological son of James Hewitt (left)

Hewitt’s most saleable asset is his relationship with Princess Diana. He once claimed that Princess In Love was the  biggest mistake of his life but in 1999, only two years after Diana’s death, Hewitt incredibly carried out the equivalent of shooting himself in the other foot. 

His autobiography Love And War contained more lurid revelations about his affair with the Princess, including how she seduced him and how they made love on a bathroom floor. 

The only difference was that now she was not around to defend her honour.

The fact that Prince Harry was born two years before Hewitt says he even met Diana did not prevent fevered speculation about the Prince’s parentage based purely on the colour of his striking hair. 

Finally in 2002 Hewitt released a statement making his position very clear. 

“Although I was with Diana for a long time I must state once and for all that I am not Harry’s father. When I met Diana he was already a toddler.” 

It makes the deliberate ambiguity in the new play all the more strange and has led to allegations that Hewitt is trying to be controversial in order to raise his profile. 

In 2003 he plumbed new depths when he was caught hawking more than 60 love letters, written by Diana at the height of their affair. 

Justifying his attempts to cash in, Hewitt claimed that the letters were “important historical documents”. The asking price was reportedly £10million and the waters were then muddied when the correspondence was later allegedly stolen from his home and snippets of them leaked out. 

The letters were never sold and have been returned to his custody but Hewitt’s reputation as the nation’s number one bounder was then forever cemented. 

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The Duchess of York remarked at the time: “Betrayal I think is the most horrible, horrible, disloyal thing you can do to anyone.” 

Cast adrift from the discipline and structure of the army Hewitt has frequently shown himself to be a feckless individual. 

He has earned paydays for appearing in reality television shows but his other moneymaking ventures have flopped. 

Five years ago he opened bar and club the Polo House in Marbella on the Costa del Sol. At the time Hewitt spoke of his desire to make a fresh start in a new country. 

He said: “I’m no longer wanted in England. I could never walk down Oxford Street again. I couldn’t live with the rejection that may happen.” 

Unfortunately the venture in Spain folded after just four years leaving Hewitt almost penniless. He was forced to return to  England and was recently known to be living with his mother Shirley in a two-bedroom flat in a former country house in Devon. 

The former officer who looks a shadow of the dashing figure who once dazzled Diana was seen driving a modest Fiat Punto car rather than the £60,000 Range Rover he used to drive around Chelsea. 

He is believed to have an army pension of about £500 a month. 

Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond says: “I remember sitting down with Diana and she told me that James Hewitt let her down so badly. She felt absolutely betrayed by him over his book. 

“The other men in Diana’s life have behaved in a dignified way but James Hewitt was always the cad. In the past he has said that he wishes all the speculation about Prince Harry would go away. It’s easy for him to make that happen by sticking with his original denial.” 

Hewitt has always insisted he has done nothing wrong but his links with the new play will merely arouse suspicions that he will never allow Diana to rest in peace.

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