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James Lifford Hewitt (born 30 April 1958) is a retired cavalry officer in the British Army. He came to public attention in the mid-1990s after he disclosed an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales, while she was still married to then-Charles III.
On 1 March 1994, he was retired from the British Army after 17 years of military service. The BBC reported in 2003 that in retirement, Hewitt was granted the rank of major which was "in line with common army practice".
He won the Channel 5 reality show Back to Reality in 2004; in 2006, Hewitt appeared as a contestant in , the celebrity version of The X Factor. He also appeared in the first episode of the UK Top Gear in Series 8 in May of the same year to participate with other celebrities in setting power lap times around the Top Gear Test Track in the show's newest "reasonably priced car": when the presenters seemingly did not recognise him upon his arrival, they were apparently too embarrassed to admit as much, and rather than ask him his name, they listed his lap time as "Well Spoken Man".
In 2009, Hewitt opened a bar called the Polo House in the fashionable Golden Mile of Marbella, Spain. It closed in 2013.
Hewitt was portrayed by Daniel Donskoy in season four of The Crown, and by Gareth Keegan in the musical Diana.
Hewitt considered suicide after the affair ended. He was preparing for a trip to France, and he wanted to shoot himself. He said, "I got in my car and loaded a few things up to get on the ferry to go to France – to shoot myself .... And then my mother insisted on coming with me. And, if she hadn't, I would have probably shot myself. So I owe her my life really."
In 2003, Hewitt tried to sell his 64 personal letters from Diana for £10 million. The act of selling the letters was considered to be a betrayal of trust, and Sarah, Duchess of York, who is also divorced from a British prince in Charles's brother Prince Andrew, condemned his action. She was reported to have said, "Betrayal, I think, is the most horrible, horrible, disloyal thing you can do to anyone."
Persistent suggestions have been made in the media that Hewitt, and not Charles, is the biological father of Diana's second son, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (born 1984). Hewitt stated to the press in 2002 and 2017 that Harry had already been born by the time of the affair, a statement also made by Diana's royal protection officer, Inspector Ken Wharfe. Wharfe reiterated this in an interview in 2016, and in his memoir published in 2002 (and reissued in 2017) in which he says "A simple comparison of dates proves it is impossible for Hewitt to be Harry's father. ... Harry was born on September 15, 1984, which means he was conceived around Christmas 1983, when his brother, William, was 18 months old. Diana did not meet James Hewitt until the summer of 1986."
Diana attributed Harry's red hair colouration to Spencer family, calling him her "little Spencer". (2025). 9781782430377, Michael O'Mara Books, Limited. ISBN 9781782430377
On 14 May 2017, it was reported that Hewitt had suffered from both a heart attack and stroke, leaving him fighting for his life in hospital. However, by the end of June 2017, Hewitt had been released from hospital and was said to be recovering well at home; in 2021, he was reportedly working as a gardener.
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