Diana’s test and Harry’s doubt: Truth about the unexpected royal paternity scandal

In 1984, Princess Diana gave birth to her and King Charles’ (then the Prince of Wales) second child, a son, named Harry.

Born on September 15, Prince Harry was two years younger than his elder brother, Prince William, who appeared a spitting image of his mother for the better part of his life.

While Harry, now also known as the Duke of Sussex, inherited something from his mother as well, his inheritance was not received as warmly as William’s was.

This is the story of an unfortunate scandal which has followed Prince Harry pretty much his whole life.

The ginger ordeal

It has been discovered since Harry’s birth that his father, Charles, had hoped to welcome a daughter around the time Diana got pregnant again.

However, after the late Princess gave birth to the Duke of Sussex, she revealed her husband’s scathing remark, “Oh God, it’s a boy”, in the biographical account called Diana: Her True Words by Andrew Morton.

Furthermore, if that wasn’t disappointment enough, the former Prince of Wales even added, “And he’s even got red hair.”

The red hair was something that the new born younger son of the former couple inherited from his mother’s side.

Princess Diana’s family was known for having striking red hair, with both her brother and sister, Charles and Sarah Spencer, being well known gingers.

Yet, it was Harry’s self described “Spencer gene” which would come to cause significant unrest in the years to come.

The James Hewitt affair

Due to both Diana and Charles being unhappy in their marital life, both of the royals would come to seek love elsewhere soon after marriage.

Though it was the Princess’ affair with a certain James Hewitt which went on to garner the most attention for a very specific reason.

James Hewitt, a former army man and Diana’s riding instructor, became the centre of attention after he disclosed in the mid ‘90s that he and the Princess of Wales had an affair while she was still married to Charles.

Diana’s royal protection officer Ken Wharfe wrote, “Hewitt, a natural womaniser, gave her the attention and affection she relished, and then the passion she yearned for.”

While Hewitt himself revealed on the Australian programme, Sunday Night, in 2017 that the pair would just entertain themselves with “dinner and relaxing and laughing.”

The affair was first disclosed in Anna Pasternak’s book, Princess in Love, where the retired officer himself indulged details about his tryst with Diana.

In turn, the Princess was left extremely disappointed — an admission she made on BBC’s Panorama, as she said, “Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down.”

Being a ginger, rumours soon came to life that it was James Hewitt who had fathered Diana’s younger son, Prince Harry.

Setting it straight

Despite the rumours and speculation, it is on the record that the pair first met at a party thrown by Diana’s lady-in-waiting, Hazel West, in 1986 — two whole years after Harry’s birth.

In 2024, Diana’s longtime hair stylist, Richard Dalton told Fox News Digital of the paternity drama, “It was tough...Harry was already born a while before her relationship with Hewitt. And I don’t think it’s possible.”

A year earlier, Harry had even sued the Daily Mirror for running a 2002 article called Plot to Rob the DNA of Harry, which further peddled the same paternity rumours.

During the trial, the Prince testified, “Numerous newspapers had reported a rumor that my biological father was James Hewitt, a man my mother had a relationship with after I was born. At the time of this article and others similar to it, I wasn’t actually aware that my mother hadn’t met Major Hewitt until after I was born.”

In a considerable detail, Harry went on to win his suit against the publication, a resounding validation for his real roots.

Regarding the article, James Hewitt himself clarified in 2002, “There really is no possibility whatsoever that I am Harry’s father. I can understand the interest, but Harry was already walking by the time my relationship with Diana began.”

Charles’ remarks

It goes without saying that while King Charles has never addressed the scandal of Harry’s paternity publicly, due to obvious reasons, some of his remarks in that direction have been disclosed by none other than his son himself.

In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex wrote that what Charles allegedly said to his mother the day he was born was, “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an Heir and a Spare - my work is done.”

While Harry noted that that remark was “a joke, probably”, he further added, “On the other hand, minutes after delivering this bit of high comedy, Pa was said to have gone off to meet his girlfriend. So. Many a true word spoken in jest.”

What was perhaps an even brutal “joke”, Harry wrote, “Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire. He’d always end with a burst of philosophizing…Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father?”

The Duke branded the whole ordeal as “a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumor circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt.”

Diana’s admission

Aside from the whole scandal and drama surrounding Prince Harry’s birth, it was perhaps Princess Diana’s sorrowful admission regarding the state of her marriage at the time.

Speaking to her biographer, Andrew Morton, Diana’s secret tapes revealed that she and Charles were “very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born, the closest we’ve ever, ever been and ever will be.”

“Then suddenly as Harry was born it just went bang, our marriage, the whole thing went down the drain,” she added.

While Richard Dalton had stated in his memoir, It’s All About the Hair — My Decade with Diana, that his client and friend “used to get very upset” about the James Hewitt rumours regarding her son’s paternity.

Princess Diana’s marriage with King Charles ended in a divorce, which was finalised in 1996.