In some ways, Diana, 33, had been prepared for the fact that tale tellers were monitoring her relationship with Hewitt (who volunteered to teach her riding after they met at a 1986 party). In 1991—about five years after Hewitt claims the affair began—his ex-girlfriend Emma Stewardson told the press that she was "torn apart" by his relationship with Di. That same year, The Sun reported that Di and Hewitt had met secretly at a house in London and that he had bragged to a friend about their "physical relationship." And in September 1992, Hewitt's groom, Lance Cpl. Malcolm Leete, revealed that he had spied the two in an embrace in the riding-school arena at Windsor in the fall of 1988.
Hewitt had been comparatively circumspect, however, when the Daily Express paid him $150,000 for his story last spring. In that five-part series, he said only that Di had been so unhappy with Charles that she once collapsed into his arms, sobbing. He also is said to have phoned her to report that, although a book about their affair was in the works, he had had no part in it. But the gentlemanly discretion didn't last: On Oct. 2, the tabloid News of the World revealed that in August, Hewitt (though stung when he was labeled a rogue after his first "confession") had tried to peddle a less gallant version of his tale. The paper alleged that, in a meeting with its editors, Hewitt had asked, "HI had slept with [Diana] and was prepared to tell all, what would it be worth? It's big stuff—the biggest ever, really.