A former hairdresser for the late Princess Diana has addressed rumours that King Charles is not the real father of Prince Harry.
In the years following Harry’s birth, there was speculation over whether James Hewitt, with whom Diana later confirmed she’d had an affair, could potentially be the prince’s father due to their shared ginger hair.
There were rumours that King Charles was not Prince Harry’s real father (Credit: Cover Images)
Princess Diana’s hairdresser spills details
According to PEOPLE, Richard Dalton first met Diana in 1978 and went on to serve as her official hairdresser from 1981 to 1990.
In this time, he got to know her well. As palace restrictions reportedly prevented her from seeing the tabloid papers, Diana would apparently ask Dalton to smuggle them in for her.
“She wasn’t allowed to see the tabloid newspapers,” he said, before adding jokingly: “One of the hairdressers smuggled them in. Did I say that? They were smuggled in, but it’s not to do with me.”
Dalton then heartbreakingly revealed how much the many tabloid stories about Diana affected her.
Princess Diana reportedly read the tabloids in secret (Credit: Cover Images)
‘Is Charles the father of Harry?’
“I’d be doing her hair, she’d be flipping through the pages and she’d go, ‘Ugh,’” he continued.
Dalton said that Diana was particularly hurt by the rumours surrounding Harry’s parentage.
“They always [went] on about, ‘Is Charles the father of Harry?’” The hairdresser recalled. He quickly put the rumours to bed, stating: “Of course he is.”
The Spencers definitely had red hair.
He went on to shut down the press’s obsession with Harry having the same colour hair as Hewitt. Having also cut the hair of several of Diana’s family members, Dalton revealed: “Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, when I used to cut his hair, his hair was bright red, Lady Sarah [Princess Diana’s older sister], also red. The Spencers definitely had red hair. But at that time, I wasn’t in a position to actually say, ‘Hello, Charles Spencer’s hair was red.’”
Members of Diana’s family had red hair (Credit: Shutterstock)
Princess Diana and James Hewitt’s relationship
James Hewitt is a retired cavalry officer in the British Army. He had reportedly been asked to give Diana riding lessons as a part of the Household Cavalry.
James Hewitt has firmly denied that he is Prince Harry’s father (Credit: Shutterstock)
During her infamous Panorama interview in 1995, Diana opened up about her relationship with Hewitt, admitting to the affair for the first time.
The couple are believed to have entered into an affair lasting from 1986 to 1991, a while after Prince Harry was born in 1984.
Hewitt has firmly disputed any suggestion that he is the father of Prince Harry. Speaking in his memoir Spare, Harry also said: “Tabloid readers were delighted by the idea that the younger child of Prince Charles wasn’t the child of Prince Charles.
“They couldn’t get enough of this ‘joke’ for some reason. Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince’s life was laughable.”
He added: “Never mind that my mother didn’t meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born, the story was simply too good to drop.”
Read more: Princess Diana’s ‘response’ to Kevin Costner wanting her to star in Hollywood film
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