Being a part of one of the most secretive families in the world comes with serious conspiracy theories. The Royal Family is a breeding ground for them, but Prince Harry has been feeling the heat of one particular theory since his birth and probably wishes it would just go away.
Whatever your opinions of him are, Prince Harry has always been one of the most talked-about Royals, long before he chose to break away from the family. He's always made headlines for being rebellious and the family's black sheep. So, naturally, this caused people to think that he couldn't possibly be one of them.
He has been the subject of one of the longest-standing conspiracy theories in the Royal Family's long reign, and there have been some doozies over the decades. If he's so different from the Royals, especially his own brother, then he must not be biologically related to them, therefore, not Prince Charles's son. But black sheep do happen, and there have been black sheep royals before too.
This conspiracy is just a byproduct of fans trying to rationalize how Prince Harry could be so different. Plus, where did that red hair come from? Here's everything we know about the conspiracy theory that says Prince Harry doesn't have royal blood.
They Think Prince Harry's Father Is Diana's Riding Instructor
The conspiracy theory has been circulating for so long; we're not even sure when it started.
The first thing to understand is Prince Charles, and Princess Diana had affairs during their marriage. When Prince Charles started seeing Camilla Parker Bowles again, Diana started her own affair with the family's riding instructor, British cavalry officer James Hewitt, in 1986.
It lasted five years and ended due to excessive media coverage. The affair was scandalous itself, but it was made worse when the conspiracy theory started to circulate.
Diana herself confessed to the affair in 1995 during her famous interview for BBC Panorama, and what she revealed should have dispelled the conspiracy then.
She confirmed the affair started in 1986, two years after Prince Harry was even born. Hewitt backed that up, telling the Sunday Mirror, "When I met Diana, he was already a toddler." Diana continued to say that she and Hewitt had been in love.
Hewitt said, "It was never her intention to fall in love with me, and it was certainly not my intention to fall in love with Diana, but it happened because of the circumstances throwing us together. [...] It's very difficult to say how physical she wanted the relationship to become. And I'm not going to suggest one way or the other whose fault it was, it developed, and it was mutual."
Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe, who some also think could be Prince Harry's father, wrote in his book Diana: Closely Guarded Secret that Diana and Hewitt "met at an old cottage in Devon belonging to Shirley, Hewitt’s mother, where the creaking bedroom floorboards told the story more loudly than any confession."
It seems as if they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. But after everything, it fizzled out. "Although neither of us said anything, I think both of us realized the situation was impossible," Hewitt explained. "It was more and more obvious to me that she wanted to finish the relationship."
The Daily Beast, however, thinks their relationship timeline started before 1986. Journalist Jon Conway claims Hewitt once said he and Diana first met "more than a year before Harry was born. Now that doesn’t prove that I am his father. It’s just the inconvenient truth." There's no proof he said this, but it's the only statement that challenges the difference in years.
Another thing that seemed to fuel the flames of the conspiracy was that Hewitt spent a lot of time with Diana's boys when they were younger, in a step-father-like fashion.
Hewitt Has Spoken
Hewitt has denied being Prince Harry's father for decades.
In 2002, he told the Sunday Mirror, "There really is no possibility whatsoever that I am Harry's father. I can absolutely assure you that I am not. Admittedly the red hair is similar to mine, and people say we look alike. I have never encouraged these comparisons, and although I was with Diana for a long time, I must state once and for all that I'm not Harry's father."
That same year, Wharfe wrote in his book, "The malicious rumors that still persist about the paternity of Prince Harry used to anger Diana greatly. The nonsense should be scotched here and now...The red hair, gossips so love to cite as proof is, of course, a Spencer trait."
The red hair seems to be the conspiracy theorist's only proof. But even that has been debunked. It's a recessive trait. Diana's sister and brother, Earl Spencer, had red hair, as did Prince Harry's great-great-grandmother Queen Mary.
According to Royal biographer Penny Junor, the News of The World tested Prince Harry's hair in 2003, but it came back negative. If it had come back positive, "you can be sure we’d have known," she wrote.
While some might look at Prince Harry and Hewitt and see remarkable similarities, Prince Harry has undeniable traits from the Mountbatten-Windsor family. When Prince Harry has a beard, he looks exactly like his grandfather Prince Phillip and Prince Charles.
In 2017, Diana's butler Paul Burrell said he never heard the Royal Family talking about Hewitt being Prince Harry's father.
Hewitt shut down the conspiracy for the last time on an Australian TV show that same year. When asked why the conspiracy has lived for so long, he said, "It sells papers. It’s worse for [Harry], probably, poor chap."
So if all that isn't enough proof that Prince Harry is indeed Prince Charles's son, we don't know what is. It's like what Hewitt said; the conspiracy sells papers. It might not have originated for that purpose, but the hype around it certainly egged publications on. The conspiracy saddened Diana, and Prince Harry has to be sick of it by now too. So to honor her memory, it's best if this conspiracy dies once and for all.
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