PRINCESS Diana’s intimate love letters to James Hewitt are being offered for sale in the US in what is being called his “final insult” to her memory.
A US auction house has lined up a wealthy collector to buy the 64 notes with a price tag of up to $1million (£780,000) — raising fears they could be made public.
Former Army officer Hewitt, now 65, had previously offered the letters as collateral for a £500,000 loan.
They were written between 1989 and 1991, including the period Hewitt — who had a secret five-year affair with the princess until 1992 — was serving in the Gulf War.
They are in Diana’s distinctive script, are highly intimate and would cause embarrassment to the royals if released.
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Ingrid Seward, author of royal book My Mother and I, said: “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.
“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.”
The Sun on Sunday can reveal that in October last year intermediaries on behalf of Hewitt contacted top London auction house Bonhams with a view to selling the cache.
Experts at the firm valued the trove — which include many sent on distinctive military paper known as “Blueys” — at between $400,000 (£311,000) and $600,000 (£466,000).
In an email, the company stated: “We believe that open market auction would almost certainly be the best way to achieve the best price.”
However, Bonhams declined to sell them and advised seeking a buyer in the US.
An expert at the firm wrote: “We would recommend sale in the US 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 UK.”
Rival London auction house Sotheby’s was approached about the letters the month before.
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They declined to estimate what they may be worth.
US auction house Heritage, based in Dallas, Texas, was then contacted.
It claims to be the “world’s largest collectibles auctioneer”.
A spokesman for Hewitt told The Sun on Sunday: “Heritage Auctions were approached on behalf of a representative of James Hewitt solely to value and authenticate the letters for personal reasons and insurance purposes.
“He has no intention to sell and is not soliciting offers to buy.”
But an email sent in late January by a Heritage chief states: “After much discussion, it was decided that the best way forward to proceed was to work with a likely potential buyer they already have in mind for a private sale.
“They (the Heritage partners) feel this would remove the letters from appearing at public auction for a long time and remove us from any negative fall-out.”
The email then discusses arrangements for “the material to be fully insured at $1million”.
When The Sun on Sunday approached Heritage Auctions’ executive vice-president Joe Maddalena, at their Dallas HQ, he said: “We can’t comment, I can’t comment.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t comment on that. No comment.”
It is not the first time Hewitt — a tank squadron commander in the Gulf — has been accused of trying to cash in on the documents.
Diana would later speak of her “utter betrayal” by Hewitt, who she believed had burned them.
The princess, who first met Hewitt at a party hosted by her lady-in-waiting, Hazel West, in 1986, confirmed the relationship in her 1995 BBC interview with Martin Bashir.
In it, she said: “Yes, I adored him. Yes I was in love with him. But I was very let down.”
She officially divorced from the then Prince Charles in 1996 before her death the next year in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris alongside her partner Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul.
Two years later, in a deal with the Spencer family’s lawyers, Hewitt promised to store the letters in a safe place, to never be sold and to be destroyed when he died.
At that time they were reluctantly returned to him by the Royal Family, under threat of legal action, after they were handed over to police by a national newspaper which received them from another of his exes.
In 2000, Hewitt was involved in a newspaper sting where it was revealed he had suggested selling the mementos for £10million.
Three years later, he admitted live on CNN that he wanted to sell the 64 letters that the couple had exchanged for the right price.
He told talk show host Larry King that they were “important historical documents” and it might be “irresponsible” not to sell them.
He said they were “extremely well written and nothing to be ashamed of”.
It was reported around this time, that senior royals and Diana’s estate executors had considered exploring ways to acquire the letters.
Their existence had become public knowledge back in 1994.
Author Anna Pasternak said she had read them while researching her book, Princess In Love, about Diana and Hewitt’s affair.
The written words are the copyright of Diana’s estate, managed by her sisters and other family members.
However, legal experts have said that copyright would not be breached if they were displayed in a museum or exhibition, for example, rather than published.
Hewitt earned around £100,000 from Pasternak’s book and a substantial sum for his memoirs.
He also cashed in with reality TV appearances on the back of his affair with the princess.
He is now living under his widowed mother’s roof, sharing her two-bed flat in an old, converted mansion in the Devon village of Farringdon.
