In an excerpt obtained by NBC News (via E!), Harry addresses the rumours that British military officer (and Diana's former lover) James Hewitt is his real father. In the pages of "Spare," he recounts how Charles "liked telling stories," and that one alluding to Hewitt "was one of the best in his repertoire."
"'Who knows if I'm really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I'm even your real father?'" Charles would joke, according to Harry. "Maybe your real father is in Broadmoor, darling boy!'"
Harry writes that Charles would "laugh and laugh" over that joke, despite it being "remarkably unfunny," conceding that the widespread rumour picked up steam because Diana's former lover shares Harry's red hair. "Tabloid readers were delighted by the idea that the younger child of Prince Charles wasn't the child of Prince Charles," Harry writes. "They couldn't get enough of this 'joke,' for some reason. Maybe it made them feel better about their lives that a young prince's life was laughable."
However, Harry makes clear that he is, in fact, King Charles's son: "Never mind that my mother didn't meet Major Hewitt until long after I was born, the story was simply too good to drop."