Princess Diana's former riding instructor says he was her lover and that she contemplated leaving Prince Charles for him, a tabloid newspaper reported Sunday.
Maj. James Hewitt, who in March sold a fairly innocuous story about his friendship with the princess, this time said they had been "deeply in love," according to the News of the World.Hewitt also declared his sympathy for Prince Charles, who he says has been unfairly portrayed, the newspaper said in its five-page spread.
The newspaper said it held talks with Hewitt about selling this story but that he decided he could not. The paper used quotes from those conversations anyway, possibly because of rumors that the story was coming out in book form on Monday.
"We would not want to dignify these stories by commenting on them," said a Buckingham Palace spokesman. "The public can judge the motives of these people who peddle gossip about their acquaintance with members of the royal family."
Diana formally separated from the Prince of Wales, the heir to the British throne, in December 1992. In a television interview broadcast in June, Charles acknowledged that he had been unfaithful to his wife after the marriage "became irretrievably broken down."
Hewitt gave the princess and her sons riding lessons in 1989. They became best friends, then lovers, he was quoted as saying.
"For three years I was THE man in her life. We were deeply in love. In fact Diana was so in love with me that she even contemplated leaving Prince Charles for me," Hewitt said.
Asked if he had ever made love to Diana, he nodded and said yes, the paper reported.
Hewitt was widely criticized when he sold a story about the princess to the Daily Express in March, not long before he left a 17-year army career. But The News of the World said Hewitt told them he had sold that story with Diana's permission.
The paper said Hewitt praised Prince Charles for publicly acknowledging his own affair and criticized Diana for failing to defend Charles against the "unfair" portrayal of her husband in Andrew Morton's controversial 1992 book "Diana, Her True Story."
"I am very sympathetic toward him," Hewitt said."He is trying to redress the balance of the Morton legend. Well, Diana hasn't stood up and said, `You are not writing the truth about my man."'
News of the World editor Piers Morgan said Hewitt was not paid for his story.