Outrage over West End play backed by James Hewitt that suggests he may be Harry’s father
Diana and I started our relationship more than a year before Harry was born. Now that doesn’t prove that I am his father. It’s just the inconvenient truth
‘James told me some quite remarkable things’
‘I do know Jon. I am sure his play is accurate’
OF ALL the rumours that dogged Princess Diana’s life, it was surely the one that hurt her the most: that James Hewitt – not Prince Charles – was the father of her second child.
Now that painful insinuation has been reignited after Hewitt gave his backing to a controversial new West End play suggesting that he could indeed be Prince Harry’s father.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal the former cavalry officer has allowed himself to be portrayed in the production Truth, Lies, Diana, which contains explosive revelations about his relationship with the Princess.
The author of the play, which makes its debut at London’s Charing Cross Theatre on January 9, says it is based on extensive interviews with figures who knew Diana ‘in their own words’, including Hewitt and Paul Burrell, her former butler.
In one sensational scene Hewitt tells a journalist: ‘Diana and I started our relationship more than a year before Harry was born. Now that doesn’t prove that I am his father. It’s just the... inconvenient truth.’
Hewitt, 56, last night confirmed that he knows author Jon Conway and spoke to him about his relationship with Diana, and said he had no doubt the play would be ‘accurate’.
He said he had not seen the play or read specific scenes even though Conway claimed he had sent him 15 pages of the script for his approval.
Conway said: ‘I have been talking to James over a period of two years. I met him and he told me some quite remarkable things that have never been said in the public domain, particularly about when his relationship with Diana started.
‘There is a startling revelation that James Hewitt makes and he has allowed me to make it in the play. This is the fact that his relationship with Diana started 18 months before Prince Harry was born.’ He added: ‘We are not saying he is Prince Harry’s father although the audience may take their own view on that.
‘I don’t know if James Hewitt is Prince Harry’s father and James Hewitt has always denied it either because it isn’t true or out of some sense of loyalty.’
The play, about a journalist trying to find out the truth about Diana’s death in 1997, does not feature a depiction of the Princess herself, but it does include claims about her life, including the unfounded suggestion she was pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s baby when she died.
But it is the references to Prince Harry’s paternity which are likely to be the most shocking.
In the play, the character of Hewitt insists that he has always denied being Prince Harry’s father, but the play still includes several references to the issue. When the journalist, who is played by Conway, asks Hewitt if he knows who Prince Harry’s father is, he pauses before answering: ‘Of course I do.’ The subject is touched upon again when Hewitt discusses his decision to pursue a military career like his father.
He is asked if he would like his own son to follow family tradition before two pictures of him and Harry in near identical military uniform appear on screen.
Royal commentators last night branded the play as ‘a nonsense’. But Conway, previously a producer who wrote the successful 2010 musical All The Fun Of The Fair which starred David Essex, said all the revelations in the play were either taken from official documents or were based on interviews with key figures from Diana’s life.
Conway said he had shown Hewitt the scenes in advance and that the former officer had approved them.
Rumours about Prince Harry’s paternity first began to circulate in 1994 when revelations about his mother’s affair with Hewitt became public. For more than a decade Hewitt denied the claims and insisted that his affair with Diana did not start until 1986 when the Prince was already two years old.
But in 2005 the disgraced publicist Max Clifford claimed in a biography that Hewitt had confided to him that the relationship predated Prince Harry’s birth.
Royal commentators last night rubbished the new claims and insisted there was no way Hewitt was the Prince’s father.
Penny Junor, who has just published an acclaimed biography of Prince Harry, said: ‘I have spoken to people around at the time and they all say that James Hewitt wasn’t in the picture before 1986. Diana didn’t hide Hewitt when the relationship began. She kept him in plain sight.’
Respected Royal author Margaret Holder said the claims in the play were a ‘nonsense’ and that Hewitt was simply trying to raise his profile. She said: ‘I think this will put him back in the spotlight and it tells producers of reality TV programmes, “Hello, I’m here.” It’s a nonsense but it’s all a game.’
Biographer Hugo Vickers said the play’s claims were not surprising given the people who had been interviewed by Conway.
He said: ‘If you talk to certain people you will get a version of events these people are keen to peddle. They have an agenda of their own.’
Hewitt last night confirmed he knew Conway but he declined to be drawn on the play’s contents.
He said: ‘I do know Jon. I am aware that he has done a play and I am sure that it is accurate. I obviously have not seen it yet.’
When pushed on the specific line in the play about the timing of his affair with Diana, he said: ‘That is not my quote.’
He also insisted that he had not seen the script for the play. He said: ‘I have not seen the script. Neither have I seen the play. It would be foolish to comment on it before doing so.’
Hewitt last night refused to say when his relationship with Diana began and declined to be drawn on the issue of Prince Harry’s parentage. He said: ‘I wish this subject would go away. It’s never going to and that’s just the way of life.’
A spokesman for Clarence House last night declined to comment.