Prince Harry has hit out at rumours suggesting King Charles is not his father.
It’s been reported in the tabloids for years that Princess Diana’s former lover, James Hewitt, was Harry’s dad.
However, as he made an appearance at London’s High Court on Tuesday amid his ongoing phone hacking lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, he blasted the rumours in his accompanying witness statement.
Referencing a 2002 article from The People with the headline “Plot to rob the DNA of Harry” — talking about an alleged plan to steal a sample of Harry’s DNA to check his who his dad was — Harry said of the rumours: “They were hurtful, mean and cruel. I was always left questioning the motives behind the stories,” according to the Evening Standard.
The Duke added, “Were the newspapers keen to put doubt into the minds of the public so I might be ousted from the royal family?”
Diana and Hewitt were reported to have had a five-year affair between 1986 and 1991, which she spoke about in that controversial BBC Panorama interview back in 1995.
Harry continued, “Numerous newspapers had reported a rumour 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.”
He added: “At 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.”
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Harry also referenced someone referred to as a “highly placed royal source” in The People’s article in question, insisting he didn’t believe the information came from anyone within the Palace, but claimed it proved that Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) — who he’s suing — were using unlawful means of getting information about him for their story.
