‘Who Knows If I’m Your Real Father?’ Prince Harry Relives King Charles’ ‘Sadistic’ Jokes in Memoir

"Spare," an explosive memoir penned by Prince Harry, is set to come out on January 10, and teasers of the book have been leaking into the press, offering readers tantalizing glimpses of what bombshell "truths" the Duke of Sussex intends to let loose.

Prince Harry’s father, King Charles III, tormented him with “real dad” jokes, according to media-leaked excerpts from the upcoming memoir by the Duke of Sussex.

“Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire. He’d always end with a burst of philosophizing … Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father?” Prince Harry is cited as saying in ”Spare,” his memoir set to come out on January 10.

According to the royal, his father would “laugh and laugh” at his own “remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumor circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt. One cause of this rumor was Major Hewitt’s flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism.”

Major James Hewitt, an officer who participated in Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War, reportedly met Princess Diana at a party thrown by her lady-in-waiting, Hazel West. He went on to become her riding instructor in 1986. It was then that they became romantically involved, according to a tell-all book, Princess in Love, written by Anna Pasternak, and for which Hewitt offered up the details of the alleged extramarital affair that continued between 1986 and 1991.

At the time, in 1994, the best-seller stirred up a scandal, despite Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles having separated in 1992. In 1995, the Princess of Wales confirmed in her famous interview with BBC's Panorama:

"Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down," in a nod at Hewitt's role in the publication of the book.

Twitter screenshot featuring photos of Major James Hewitt. and Prince Harry.

© Photo : Twitter

In his new memoir, Prince Harry acknowledges the persistent, tabloid-spread rumors that Charles was not his real father.

“Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince’s life was laugh-able. Never mind that my mother didn’t meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born,” he is cited as adding in “Spare”.

Ever since “leaks” from the memoir began to emerge in media reports, there have been intriguing scandalous titbits offered to readers.

For example, Prince Harry, grief-stricken after the death of his mother, allegedly reached out to a psychic to help him contact her.

Diana, Princess of Wales, died on August 31 1997, after the car she was in crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris while the driver was fleeing the paparazzi. The crash also resulted in the death of her companion, Dodi Fayed, and his driver, Henri Paul. At the time, Prince Harry was about to turn 13.

Spare is believed to reveal that the Duke of Sussex got in touch with a woman who “claimed to have powers” to converse with Diana, after which he got a message in which his late mother assured him he was “living the life she couldn’t.” Prince Harry also recalled in the memoir a close encounter with a leopard during his holiday in Botswana with his brother, William. The wild beast, he is cited as claiming, was apparently “a messenger” sent by his mother to tell him that “everything will be fine.”

Princess Diana (R) and her son Harry watch the march past on a dais on the mall as part of the commemorations of VJ Day on August 19, 1995.

© AFP 2023 / JOHNNY EGGITT

In other "revelations", the fifth in the line of succession to the British throne opened up about killing 25 combatants in the course of two tours of military service in Afghanistan.

"I could always tell exactly how many enemy combatants I had killed. And it seemed essential for me not to be afraid of that figure … So my number: twenty-five. It was not something that filled me with satisfaction, but I was not ashamed either," Prince Harry said in his book, as quoted by media reports.

Last year, Penguin Random House, the publisher of Spare, released a statement pertaining to the release of the 416-page memoir, saying, "For Harry, this is his story at last."

Prince Harry is set to tease the memoir in a spate of interviews airing ahead of the release on January 10.