For years, rumors have circulated suggesting that Prince Harry’s real father is not King Charles but rather Princess Diana’s former lover, James Hewitt.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry, now 40, directly addressed these claims, revealing that the royal family was well aware of the speculation. He also shared that his father, King Charles, often joked about the rumors—something Harry found deeply uncomfortable.
Is Prince Harry King Charles’ Son?
Yes, Prince Harry is the son of King Charles. He was born to King Charles and the late Princess Diana on September 15, 1984, two years after the couple welcomed their first son, Prince William, in June 1982.
What Prince Harry Has Said About the James Hewitt Rumors
In Spare, Harry recounted how his father frequently made jokes about the rumors, despite how hurtful they were.
“Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire,” Harry wrote.
He recalled Charles reportedly saying: “Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father? Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!”
Broadmoor is a high-security psychiatric hospital in the UK, making the remark even more unsettling for Harry. While Charles found the joke amusing, Harry did not.
“A remarkably unfunny joke,” he noted. “Given the rumour circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt.”
Harry emphasized that the timeline of events made the rumor impossible—Diana did not meet Hewitt until 1986, two years after his birth.
Despite this, he acknowledged that the speculation persisted largely because of Hewitt’s distinctive red hair, a feature Harry also has. However, he believed the real reason the rumor thrived was public cruelty.
“Tabloid readers were delighted by the idea that the younger child of Prince Charles wasn’t the child of Prince Charles,” he wrote. “They couldn’t get enough of this ‘joke’ for some reason. Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince’s life was laughable.”
