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Posted on 01/10/2003 10:01:19 AM PST by Happygal
James Hewitt has put intimate love letters from Princess Diana up for sale at £10 million ($A27.9 million) during an interview on American television.
The 44-year-old former Life Guards major, who had a five-year affair with the Princess, once proclaimed he would "never dream" of parting with them.
The 64 letters contain personal details of their affair. Many were sent to him as he served with the army during the 1991 Gulf War.
Mr Hewitt told a US chat show on Thursday: "Yes, I would be available to sell them." He made it clear he hoped to raise up to £10 million, claiming he had already been offered £4 million for 10 of them.
Mr Hewitt, who plans to leave England this year to begin a new life abroad, said that, ideally, the correspondence, mainly written on blue airmail paper, would go to a private collector or a museum archive.
"I think it is important to understand that they are, or will become, important historical documents," he told CNN's Larry King Live.
"I think it might be irresponsible not to sell them and to generate something one can do some good with."
The letters reportedly include passages in which the Princess refers to their physical relationship as well as to his dalliances with other women.
Americans are the most avid collectors of royal memorabilia. Collectors pay vast sums for items connected to the Princess.
Mr Hewitt dismissed King's suggestion that he donate the letters to the British Library to be displayed in 100 years, saying selling the letters was better than donating them to "rot in a safe somewhere".
He told King that "a lot of good" could be done with the money, without stipulating what, or if any of it would go to charity. He brushed aside a suggestion that he give the letters to Princes William and Harry.
There was silence from St James' Palace and the Spencer family.
Mr Hewitt's willingness to sell the letters was uncovered by a Sunday tabloid, posing as representatives of a wealthy Swiss businessman, during which a £10 million price tag was suggested for the entire bundle.
The letters were the subject of legal action in 1998 when a former girlfriend of Mr Hewitt tried to sell them to the Daily Mirror for £150,000. The newspaper returned them to the estate of Diana, Princess of Wales, but they were then handed back to Mr Hewitt after he issued a High Court writ.
Legally the paper on which the letters are written belongs to Mr Hewitt, to dispose of as he wishes. But the copyright of the words remain with the author and after her death, with her mother and sister, as trustees of her estate, and Princes William and Harry as her heirs.
free dixie,sw
We knew that years ago. Committing adultery with another man's wife certainly is the act of a pig. However, there's also the little matter of what to be said of the woman committing adultery against her husband.
no DECENT man would do such a thing.
FRee dixie,sw
it could be argued sucessfully that the PIGS should be OFFENDED!
FRee dixie,sw
i am "one of those adoring & brainless fools who left giagantic, vulgar floral displays on the steps of the British Embassy in Washington, DC"-- (from the London Mirror), when "the people's princess" passed away AND am one of those "men of a certain age", who wouldn't have been too distressed if Prince charles had made a fool of himself over a GEORGEOUS film star (who looked/acted like the late MM for one!), but are DISGUSTED that he'd even LOOK at "that overaged,half-educated,horsefaced,cold-looking, FRUMP"!
FoR dixie LIBERTY,sw
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