Diana’s love letters to Hewitt ‘on sale for $1m’
PRINCESS Diana’s love letters to James Hewitt are reportedly being touted for sale in the U.S. for $1 million, raising fears their intimate contents could be made public.
The selection of 64 letters owned by the former Army officer, who had a secret five-year affair with the late princess, were written between 1989 and 1991, during which he served in the first Gulf War.
A U.S. auction house is said to have lined up a wealthy American collector to buy the missives, penned by
Diana in her distinctive looping script, for as much as $1 million (£ ,000).
But the copyright on their contents is held by Diana’s estate, and Mr Hewitt, 65, agreed in 1999 they would never be sold and would be destroyed when he died.
However, he is reported to have been exploring avenues to cash in on them. Intermediaries acting on his behalf are said to have contacted London’s top auction houses last year, said the Sun on Sunday. But after Bonhams and Sotheby’s refused to sell them, auction house Heritage, based in Dallas, Texas, was contacted.
The Sun on Sunday claims an email sent in January by a Heritage boss discusses a potential buyer for a ‘private sale’.
‘The [Heritage partners] feel this would remove the letters from appearing at public auction for a long time and remove us from any negative fallout,’ the email reads, according to the newspaper.
A spokesman for Mr Hewitt denied the former cavalry officer, who lives with his mother in Devon, intends to sell the letters.
‘Heritage Auctions were approached solely to value and authenticate the letters for personal reasons and insurance purposes. Mr Hewitt has no intention to sell,’ the spokesman told the Sun on Sunday.
Royal author Ingrid Seward said the sale of the letters would be Hewitt’s ‘final insult’ to his former lover Diana.
‘Final insult’ to princess