James Hewitt - Personal Life

Personal Life

Diana, Princess of Wales, admitted in her 1995 Panorama interview that she had committed adultery with Hewitt. His former military regiment declared him persona non grata at their barracks.

Hewitt had considered committing suicide after his affair with Diana ended. He was preparing for a trip to France, and he wanted to shoot himself. He said, "I got in my car and loaded a few things up to get on the ferry to go to France – to shoot myself". He also said, "And then my mother insisted on coming with me. And, if she hadn't, I would have probably shot myself. So I owe her my life really".

Persistent suggestions have been made in the media that Hewitt, and not Charles, is the biological father of Prince Harry. However, Hewitt stated to the press in 2003 that Harry had already been born by the time the affair between him and Diana began (a statement corroborated by Diana's police bodyguard).

Hewitt opened a golf driving range in 1994. In 2003 he tried to sell his 64 personal letters from Diana for £10 million. The act of selling the letters was considered to be a betrayal of trust, and Sarah, Duchess of York, criticised his decision to sell these letters. She was reported to have said, "Betrayal, I think is the most horrible, horrible, disloyal thing you can do to anyone". He opened The Polo House, a bar in the fashionable Golden Mile of Marbella, Spain, in the spring of 2009.

In July 2004, Hewitt was arrested outside a restaurant in Fulham with Alison Bell, a CNN journalist, for the possession of cocaine. A drunken Hewitt had 0.36 grams (0.013 oz) of cocaine in his pocket. He was given a warning, and Bell was released without charge. As a result, he was refused reinstatement of his firearms licences because of his 'intemperate habits' after police found a disassembled 16-bore shotgun on his living room floor.