Prince Harry hurt by King Charles 'poor taste' joke about his paternity

Prince Harry shared details of his father's "remarkably unfunny" joke in his memoir, claiming  King Charles III made a "poor taste" joke about his paternity after meeting a mentally ill individual who believed he was the real Prince of Wales.

In Spare, The Duke of Sussex tried to highlight the the incident, claiming that his father especially liked to tell a story about his visit to a mental asylum where he met man who claimed he was the Prince of Wales.

According to the Duke, the monarch allegedly "wagged his finger at the patient" and told him: "Let’s see, you can’t be the Prince of Wales, I am the Prince of Wales." 

In response to Charles's clarification, Harry says the man responded to the King "with the same gesture".

Meghan's hubby noted that his father then acknowledged that no one could be sure they weren’t “living in a fantasy” before joking about the possibility he's not Harry’s "real father".

"Who knows if I’m even your real father? Perhaps your father really is in Broadmoor, my dear son!" Harry recalls his father saying.

The excerpt reportedly sees Harry describe the joke as "in poor taste,” as he noted it was made at the same time a rumour was circulating that his real father was Major James Hewitt.

"He’d laugh and laugh, though it was a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumour circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt."

Hewitt, a former cavalry officer in the British Army, reportedly had an affair with Harry’s mother Princess Diana, in the mid-nineties. Hewitt became Diana’s riding instructor after meeting at a party, with the pair later becoming romantically involved. 

The affair - according to Hewitt’s book Princess In Love - lasted five years from 1986 to 1991, and took place while Diana was still married to Charles. The couple were married in 1981, with Diana giving birth to Prince William in 1982 and Harry in 1984. She and Charles officially divorced in 1986.