Prince Harry Reveals King Charles Made ‘Sadistic’ Jokes About His ‘Real Dad’: ‘He Would Laugh…’

In his memoir, 'Spare', Harry revealed that Charles often joked about him not being his real father, which he found deeply 'sadistic'.

Prince Harry has given several high-profile interviews and released a bombshell memoir reflecting on his time within the royal fold. In his book, Spare, the Duke recounted that his father, King Charles, once made an insensitive joke about his ‘real dad.’ He claimed that the King had alluded to one of his late mother, Princess Diana’s, ex-lovers.

Long back, it was once widely speculated if Harry’s ‘real father’ was Diana’s former lover, Major James Hewitt. As reported by Page Six, Harry penned in his memoir, Spare, “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?” The Duke added, “He’d laugh and laugh, though it was a 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.”

The Prince opened up about how the rumors about him and Hewitt deeply affected him. He shared, “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.” Interestingly, this was only hearsay. In his memoir, Harry claimed Charles never spoke to him about the Hewitt rumors directly.

Diana met Hewitt in the summer of 1986 at a dinner party, two years after Harry was born. She then infamously began a five-year affair with the Major. Hewitt soon became a controversial figure in the UK for his attempts to sell the love letters he wrote to the late Princess.

In his memoir, Harry also reflected how Charles would rudely refer to him as the ‘spare.’ He claimed that over time, the label was adopted by other senior royals as well, including the late Queen Elizabeth. He revealed that after his birth, Charles allegedly remarked to Diana, “Wonderful! Now you have given me an heir and a spare; my work is done.” While the Prince expressed frustration over his name, OK! magazine reports that the name is usually used to denote the line of succession and carries no judgment. Even Princess Margaret, the late Queen’s younger sister, was dubbed the ‘spare’ by the family, as Prince Andrew, too, was of Charles.

Charles was unsurprisingly not too pleased with Harry’s bombshell revelations in his memoir. According to royal editor Rebecca English, Charles reportedly refused to read his son’s memoir, even after six months of its release. A royal source told the Daily Mail, “Why would he read something that he knows is going to be so hurtful?” The Duke and the King allegedly continue to be on poor terms owing to Harry’s scathing media interviews about the royal family.