They\u2019re at loggerheads over almost everything \u2013 except their hatred for Diana\u2019s ex\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-1233751025-e1741195847161.jpg” alt=”Pamela Anderson” title_text=”BRITAIN-ROYALS-DIANA-STATUE” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”19px||16px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|600|||||||” text_text_color=”#FFFFFF” background_color=”#111111″ text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”-2.75%||||false|false” custom_padding=”4px|8px|4px|8px|true|true” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
The brothers are said to be livid over James Hewitt’s return to the spotlight<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
There\u2019s nothing like having a mutual enemy to unite two warring factions. So, despite still being bitterly estranged and, for the most part, more at odds than ever, there is apparently a common feeling extending all the way from Prince Harry\u2019s home in Montecito, California to Prince William\u2019s homebase in Windsor. And that uniting factor is the brothers\u2019 shared antipathy towards the man who has long cast a shadow over their lives \u2013 their mother\u2019s ex-lover, James Hewitt.<\/p>\n
The former household cavalry officer has been an ominous presence lurking in the background ever since he and Princess Diana began their five-year affair in 1986, while she was still married to the then future King, Prince Charles (who was, himself, having his own extramarital relationship with his now wife, Queen Camilla). Diana and James broke things off for good in 1991, but their storied romance plagued the late Princess in the latter years of her life \u2013 and, by proxy, plagued her sons. It especially cast a great deal of pain upon Prince Harry, who \u2013 for years \u2013 couldn\u2019t escape rumours that he was, in fact, Hewitt\u2019s son, thanks to their similarly red hair. The fact that Princess Diana didn\u2019t even meet the former army officer until three years after Harry was born did nothing to temper those whispers. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that Hewitt is persona non grata for both William and Harry \u2013 and anything he has to say about them, or their late mother, is like nails on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, imagine the princes\u2019 recent dismay when the 66 year old hit the headlines again last week, following an appearance on Good Morning Britain. While he was ostensibly there to promote his involvement in Operation Safedrop \u2013 a campaign to deliver humanitarian aid to Ukraine \u2013 the topic of William and Harry\u2019s royal rift inevitably cropped up. Asked by presenter Richard Madeley whether Diana would have been able to \u201cmake a rapprochement possible\u201d between her sons, James replied, \u201cI think any mother would be worried and concerned about such a rift, as you put it, and she\u2019d do her best to try and get them together.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-88920065.jpg” alt=”Pamela Anderson” title_text=”ITV’s %22Hell’s Kitchen%22 – May 31, 2004 – Arrivals” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|600|||||||” text_text_color=”#FFFFFF” background_color=”#111111″ text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”-2.75%||||false|false” custom_padding=”4px|8px|4px|8px|true|true” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
James Hewitt appeared on Good Morning Britain last month<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||0px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Rubbing salt into wounds, he also weighed in on whether Diana would have got involved in his Ukraine work. \u201cUndoubtedly,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was passionate about humanitarian work. I\u2019m sure she would have been involved and very supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the retired officer\u2019s comments, we\u2019re told that both Harry and William are respectively fuming. After all, it\u2019s been over three decades since he was ever involved with Diana, and they\u2019ve both worked so hard \u2013 ever since she tragically died in 1997 \u2013 to heal their own wounds and protect her memory. While they can\u2019t prevent the world from having an opinion on her, the last person they want to hear from is the man who had a part to play in a painful chapter in their lives, during the very public breakdown of their parents\u2019 marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re both quite used to people running their mouths off and giving their opinions, and they mostly can ignore it,\u201d says an insider close to the formerly tight-knit brothers, who have ostensibly been estranged ever since Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and moved to the US. \u201cThis one is very hurtful because this guy had an affair with their mother. Just when they think he\u2019s gone away and they won\u2019t have to hear from him again, he seems to pop up, throwing his two cents in.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while it is acknowledged that the questions were put to him on live TV, we\u2019re told the princes feel \u201cit\u2019s distasteful and brings up memories they don\u2019t want to face.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/imago419902444-scaled.jpg” alt=”Pamela Anderson in Baywatch” title_text=”VJ Day Celebrations HRH PRINCESS OF WALES (HRH Princess Diana). Seen at the VJ Day Celebrations. With Prince Harry and P” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|600|||||||” text_text_color=”#FFFFFF” background_color=”#111111″ text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”-2.75%||||false|false” custom_padding=”4px|8px|4px|8px|true|true” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Harry and William with their late mother Diana<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]
Hewitt\u2019s decision to weigh in on the brothers\u2019 relationship follows years of angst connected to his former romance with their mother. In 2023, during his high court case against Mirror Group Newspapers for alleged misuse of private information (a case he later won), Harry spoke about the pain he felt after a story came out in 2002, investigating whether Hewitt really was the prince\u2019s father. Apparently, the writer had \u201cplotted\u201d to steal a sample of Harry\u2019s hair to test his parentage \u2013 something which prompted the then 18 year old to question his paternity after all. It was only much later, in 2014, that he found out that the conspiracy theory was completely impossible \u2013 considering he was already three by the time his mother met Hewitt. He said in his witness statement: \u201cAt the time, when I was 18 years old and had lost my mother just six years earlier, stories such as this felt very damaging and very real to me. They were hurtful, mean and cruel.\u201d\u00a0
\u00a0
As such, it\u2019s fair to say Harry has a longstanding feeling of discomfort and resentment towards Hewitt. Likewise, William feels equally hostile towards the former military man, given that the topic of their affair formed a large part of Diana\u2019s infamous 1995 Panorama interview. In 2021, the heir to the throne professed his \u201cindescribable sadness\u201d, after an independent inquiry found that Martin Bashir \u2013 the BBC journalist who conducted Diana\u2019s sit-down with Panorama \u2013 had clinched his access to her after faking bank statements, and that the BBC had covered up his \u201cdeceitful behaviour\u201d. The BBC and Martin Bashir publicly apologised to the Royal Family following the inquiry.\u00a0Speaking about the interview, in which Diana famously spoke about there being \u201cthree of us\u201d in her marriage to Charles (referring to Camilla), and also opened up about her affair with Hewitt, William said, \u201cThe interview was a major contribution to making my parents\u2019 relationship worse and has since hurt countless others\u201d.
\u00a0
Hewitt, for his part, has also slammed the interview, but any mention of him inevitable stirs memories of that painful time. As such, both William and Harry respectively, and insistently, want nothing to do with their mother\u2019s former lover. And they certainly don\u2019t want him wading into the very personal, and painful, bad blood that\u2019s simmering between them, nor turfing up any discourse whatsoever on Diana.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cThey\u2019re both so protective over their mother and her legacy,\u201d says our source. \u201cThey feel she was taken advantage of during her lifetime \u2013 not just by the press, but by people like Hewitt, who had a very bad reputation for essentially leading her astray. They\u2019ll never forgive him for that.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Aboreto|||on|||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]
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ex\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"closermag","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4676"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4676\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/closer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Read 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