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Princess Diana’s love letters to James Hewitt are set to go on sale in the United States for up to $1.3 million.
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Former cavalry officer Hewitt, who had an affair with the-then Princess of Wales between 1986-91, has 64 letters she wrote to him.
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A U.S. auction house has a rich collector who’s poised to buy the letters, the Daily Mail has reported, adding they’re expected to fetch up to $1.3 million (£780,000).
Some have called this the “final insult” to the memory of the late princess, killed in a car crash in August 1997.
Hewitt, 65, is said to have previously offered the letters as collateral for a $870,000 loan.
“James Hewitt has betrayed Diana in so many ways, so this is just the final insult. I presume Hewitt desperately needs the money, and he sees the value in these letters,” said Ingrid Seward, a prominent writer about the Royal Family. “Diana was a prolific letter writer, but none of this intimate nature — it is unthinkable these notes for such a sensitive time in her life could become public.”
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Diana admitted to the affair with Hewitt in a 1995 interview, saying at the time: “Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down.”
In 1994, Hewitt caused controversy after collaborating with Anna Pasternak, author of Princess In Love, and was paid $520,000 for sharing details of his relationship with Diana.
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A decade later, he said he was willing to sell Diana’s letters, claiming they deserved wider circulation because they were “important historical documents.”
Hewitt said at the time he was prepared to accept an offer of $17 million, and there were suggestions Prince William was considering buying them.
In an email, Bonhams auctioneers reportedly told Hewitt’s intermediaries: “We believe that open market auction would almost certainly be the best way to achieve the best price.
“We would recommend sale in the U.S. because there do seem to be more potential buyers at this level there, and because the sale is likely to be less contentious than in the U.K.”
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