King Charles made ‘sadistic’ joke about Prince Harry’s ‘real’ dad

Harry has lifted the lid on the staggeringly “unfunny” jibes his father would make to him while he was growing up, describing it as “sadism”.

James Hewitt and Prince Harry.

King Charles made “sadistic” jibes about Prince Harry’s “real” father, the Prince reveals in his new memoir.

Harry, 38, grew up amid public speculation that his true father was Princess Diana’s former lover, Major James Hewitt.

The Prince writes in his new book, Spare, out Wednesday in Australia, how Charles seemingly enjoyed making hurtful comments about his parentage.

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James Hewitt and Prince Harry.

In one segment, seen by Page Six, Harry writes: “Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire. He’d always end with a burst of philosophising … Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father?

“He’d laugh and laugh, though it was a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumour circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt. One cause of this rumour was Major Hewitt’s flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism.”

Charles with his two sons, Harry and William, in 2002. Picture: UK Press/Getty Images

Harry has not spared any details from his past in his new memoir. Picture: Niklas Halle’n/AFP

According to the book, Charles never spoke to Harry about the Hewitt rumours directly.

Harry said that tabloid readers loved the idea that his dad was not really Charles.

“Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince’s life was laughable. Never mind that my mother didn’t meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born,” he adds.

Princess Diana with James Hewitt. Picture: Supplied/Seven

It’s just one of the bombshells in Harry’s book, in which he also breaks his silence on his stepmother, Camilla Parker Bowles, and about his fractured relationship with his older brother, William.

He tells how William allegedly hit him during a fight over Harry’s then-future wife, Meghan Markle, and how they urged their father not to wed Camilla.

Diana, the princes’ mother, infamously had a five-year affair with Hewitt after meeting him at a dinner party in 1986, and their fling went on to make global headlines. Hewitt became a controversial figure in the UK for his attempts to sell love letters he exchanged with the late royal, and he was labelled: “Britain’s biggest cad.”

In 2019, author Anna Pasternak, who co-wrote the book Princess In Love with Hewitt, addressed an aspect of the affair.

“Hewitt was regularly bundled into car boots [trunks] and driven to Kensington Palace when their affair ensued,” the author wrote in the Daily Mail. “He told me he was terrified the first night he stayed in Kensington Palace, relieved at least that Charles and Diana had separate bedrooms.”

This article originally appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission