Princess Diana's extramarital affair with former army officer James Hewitt lasted five years, from 1986 to 1991, and has returned to the spotlight. The romance shook the monarchy to its core.
The affair begins
Hewitt, now 68, met Diana at a cocktail party, where she asked him to be her horse riding teacher. This was later revealed to be a ruse, as Diana had a well-known fear of horses stemming from a riding injury as a child.
The illicit affair, which Hewitt has admitted to, commenced at Diana's Kensington Palace apartment.
In his biography 'Love and War', Hewitt wrote: "She was tall, willowy, strikingly beautiful and utterly adorable. She smelled fresh and very English." Diana told him: "I need you. I can't stand it when I'm away from you."
Bathroom floor romps
Hewitt claimed that Diana initiated the affair, which he says began when they had sex in her four poster bed. According to the former military man, the lovemaking then continued onto the floor of her bathroom.
He wrote of that time: "I would never have dared [to start the romance]. I looked up 'treason' in the dictionary. It carried the death penalty. But I knew the punishment would be worse than death, and I wasn't far wrong."
Former royal bodyguard Ken Wharfe has since revealed that the princess "was ready for an affair" because of her "husband's betrayal".
"Hewitt, a natural womaniser, gave her the attention and affection she relished, and then the passion she yearned for," he said.
Secret meetings at Ebford Cottage
As the affair carried on, the venue for the lovers' liaisons moved to Ebford Cottage in Devon, owned by Hewitt's mum, Shirley. Diana would ring Shirley to arrange meetings, reportedly adopting the alias Julia and putting on a fake cockney accent.
"She could have been an SAS commander, such was her skill and ingenuity at managing our very secret affair," said Hewitt.
Wharfe, Diana's chief protection officer, would chauffeur the couple to the 17th century cottage and prepare Italian meals for the pair while they cuddled on the sofa sipping orange vodka, "purloined from the cellars at Highgrove". Diana would then do the washing up, savouring the opportunity to "play house" far from the staff and ladies in waiting from her royal existence.
"At first, Diana refused to concede to me that her affair was anything less than innocent," Wharfe wrote in his memoirs. "'Nothing is going on,' she would say, her face flushing red, as we drove back from a tryst, usually with the atmosphere tense in the car.
"I would assure her that I had no interest in anything but her safety, but she must have thought I was stupid or deaf."
Playboy mags and love letters
When Hewitt was posted to Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War, the doting Diana sent copies of Playboy and Penthouse magazines to entertain him. She also penned frequent love letters, sometimes as often as twice a day, and sent hampers from Fortnum and Mason which contained bottles of whisky and sweets.
The affair reportedly fizzled out after Hewitt was promoted and spent a two year stint in Germany. In 1991, she stopped returning his calls, while a year later Charles and Diana announced their separation.
