Looking For Love

- 

Warmly sympathetic, confiding and vulnerable, Princess Diana needed a shoulder to cry on as her troubled marriage to Prince Charles went from bad to worse. It has been alleged that the first of her intimate relationships was with Barry Mannakee, her bodyguard and close confidant. The married Mannakee worked at Kensington Palace for about a year, until he was spied “comforting” a depressed Princess Diana and removed from his duties in 1986. Conspiracy theories abounded after Mannakee’s death in a motorcycle accident in 1987.

These conspiracy theories are ridiculous of course, and it is not even certain that Princess Diana and Mannakee took their relationship beyond the close platonic friends stage.

There is no doubt, however, that the Princess was intimately involved with James Hewitt, a former household cavalry officer in the British Army.

Princess Diana confirmed their 5-year affair in the 1995 Panorama documentary, and Hewitt was so distraught when she ended their relationship that he said that he considered suicide. Rumours circulated in the press at one time that redheaded Hewitt was the actual father of Prince Harry but he insisted that his affair with the Princess only began after Prince Harry’s birth, and these comments have been borne out by friends and Princess Diana’s police bodyguard.

Sadly, after Princess Diana’s death, Hewitt tried to sell 64 personal letters from the Princess for £10 million, a disgraceful act of betrayal that brought him universal condemnation.