When she discovered the depth of her betrayal, Emma Stewardson was bitterly hurt.
Like Diana she too had been besotted with the copper-haired cad and for long afterwards the couple traded insults.
But now after two decades of rancour there has, I learn, been a remarkable rapprochement between the ex-cavalry officer and the businesswoman.
After a series of private meetings — one in London and two in Spain where Hewitt now lives — the two have settled their differences.
Reconciliation: James Hewitt and Emma Stewardson are now on speaking terms
‘James and I are in touch,’ Emma tells me. ‘Things had been really cool between us for many years, things said in the heat of the moment. I apologised and he apologised and generally just cleared the air.’
It was while dating Emma, now 49, that Hewitt began his affair with Diana after giving her riding lessons. Both women wrote long adoring love letters to the tank commander while he was serving in Iraq during the first Gulf War.
As Hewitt’s relationship with the Princess of Wales cracked up in the early Nineties, so too did Emma’s patience. She later married publisher Christopher Younghusband, although that ended in divorce eight years ago.
Over the years Hewitt, 53, and Emma indulged in what a friend calls ‘verbal battling and insulting each other’ through the media. ‘Some terrible things were said. Emma vented her sorrow and anger and James’s ripostes upset her a lot.’
At one stage Emma, who runs a curtain business, Back On Track, in Shaftesbury, Dorset, was on the verge of consulting lawyers.
‘In the end she didn’t because she didn’t think it worthwhile raking up all the past again,’ says the friend.
I understand they had their first reunion at a friend’s flat in London after a go-between had put them together.
Emma then dropped in on Hewitt in Marbella where he runs The Polo House restaurant. ‘They had lunch on the beach and it was all very agreeable,’ I am told. ‘They have both said sorry and put a line under it all.’
Adds Emma: ‘I wanted to get the rubbish out of my system once and for all.
‘Who knows, his restaurant might be the perfect location for my office Christmas party!
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