James Hewitt (officer)

James Lifford Hewitt (born April 30, 1958 in Derry ) is a former British military man and former lover of Diana Spencer , the then Princess of Wales .

Life

Hewitt is the son of a Royal Navy officer. He attended Millfield Public School in Somerset. Hewitt received his military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, among others . He served in the Household Cavalry Regiment of the British Army and in the Second Gulf War , in which he commanded 14 Challenger tanks in Operation Desert Storm . He finished his military service after 17 years with the rank of captain , after two unsuccessful attempts to become major , but did not meet the requirements for it. He later ran a golf driving range in Marbella . He played Colonel Tugwell in the 2002 semi-documentary drama Bloody Sunday directed by Paul Greengrass . He has also appeared on a number of television programs and shows. In the American television drama Diana - a life for love (original title Princess in Love , 1996) by David Greene , Hewitt was portrayed by Christopher Villiers .

Affair with the Princess of Wales

Hewitt was the lover of Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales, for several years. He met the then wife of the British heir to the throne, Prince Charles , at a party in London in 1986. She first hired him as a riding instructor for herself, and later also for her sons William and Harry . The affair ended in 1992. The relationship was made public that same year by journalist Andrew Morton . The journalist Anna Pasternak published the book Princess in Love in 1994 , which was based on the information provided by Hewitt. On the day of publication, 75,000 copies were sold. The Princess of Wales confirmed the relationship with Hewitt in a BBC interview with Martin Bashir in November 1995 . She said, “ Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down. "(German:" Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very disappointed. ") In 1999, Hewitt published his autobiography Love and War , in which he claimed, among other things, that he had the Princess of Wales admitted to an earlier affair with her bodyguard Barry Mannakee. In July 2003, the British private broadcaster Channel 4 broadcast an hour-long documentary about Hewitt entitled Confessions of a Rogue , in which, among other things, his unsuccessful attempts to sell letters from the Princess of Wales addressed to him were presented.