HARRY’S PATERNITY TEST SHOCK
The prince’s origins have come to the fore again on the 25th anniversary of his mother Diana’s revealing TV interview
For the royals, Princess Diana’s Panorama interview about her marriage that she recorded in secret in 1995 is the damaging headline that will never go away, especially now, given it’s being dredged up all over the world for its 25th anniversary.
And it’s certainly piqued the interest of a younger audience, including Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Sources say it’s the fact that Diana admitted she was very much in love with dashing cavalry officer James Hewitt that has 39-year-old Meghan pushing Harry, 36, to get a DNA test once and for all.
QUASH THE RUMOURS
For Harry’s entire life, his family has been forced to deny rumours that his biological dad is James – who is now 62 and lives with his aged mum in a tiny rural apartment – rather than Prince Charles, though he has never had a DNA test.
Sources tell Woman’s Day that now Harry has cut ties with his family and moved to the US – though he continues to come under fire for breaking protocol by talking about a foreign election – Meghan is the one pushing for him to find out once and for all who his biological father is.
“It could actually solve all their problems if James was Harry’s real father,” says a source. “Now Harry doesn’t actually want to be a royal but is still constricted by their rules, finding out he isn’t actually one of them could be a blessing in disguise.
“It would certainly make it easier for Meghan to explore her political aspirations – there is some basis of truth to the fact that she’s interested in running for president one day.”
It’s believed even Charles, 71, suspected his second son’s paternity might not be as it seemed when Diana gave birth to Harry in 1984, given his flaming red hair so resembled James Hewitt’s.
“His first comment was, ‘Oh, God. It’s a boy,’” Diana miserably revealed at the time, given that her husband was desperate for a daughter. “His next, ‘He’s even got red hair.’”
Sources say that while Charles waved away the comment as a joke, infant Harry’s looks “seriously raised the alarm”, even though red hair was a dominant gene on Diana’s side of the family.
Diana insisted that her affair with James, her riding instructor, began after Harry was born, and indeed the prince himself is waspish about the “ridiculous” suggestion that Charles isn’t his father.
But in a US OK! magazine 2005 special about the monarchy’s biggest mysteries, noted royal author Christopher Andersen revealed that a source had told him the affair began after Prince William’s birth in 1981.
DNA TEST
He reported at the time that Harry had even volunteered to get a DNA test to put the nasty rumour to rest once and for all, but the Queen forbade it because she didn’t want to give credence to idle gossip – though some in the family thought it might be because she was worried about the impact it would have on the monarchy if the results were found to be in James’ favour.
But now, with how quickly things have changed since Meghan arrived on the scene in 2016 and whisked Harry off to her homeland earlier this year with their baby son
Archie, now 18 months, in tow, sources say his wish to revisit the test has arisen again.
“Meghan and Harry will also want to get an accurate picture of Harry’s family medical history and while Charles is healthy as a horse, James had a heart attack and a stroke that was nearly fatal in 2017,” says a source. “Making sure it’s all just a horrible rumour is the responsible thing to do for Archie’s sake, let alone how much easier it would make the Sussexes’ political designs.”
‘It could solve some problems if James was his real father’