Prince Harry's ex-girlfriends are at the royal wedding

Some people may feel uncomfortable with their ex-partners attending their big day, but that’s what has happened for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding.

Both Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas, Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriends, are in attendance of today’s royal wedding.

Chelsy was Harry’s first great love.

The daughter of one of the largest private landowners in Zimbabwe, the pair met through friends at Buckinghamshire’s prestigious Stowe School in 2004, and dated on and off for over six years until they split in May 2010.

After their relationship started as a long distance one, with Chelsy living in Cape Town, she eventually returned to the UK to study at Leeds University to be closer to the prince.

Unfortunately however, while they were in the same country, Harry spent most of Chelsy’s time in Leeds completing his military training on base.

The last event the pair publicly attended together was Prince William’s and Kate Middleton’s wedding in April 2011, where Chelsy was said to have seen exactly the future that was waiting for her should she go on to marry Harry.
Intense public scrutiny, distance and Harry’s partying ways all contributed to the couple’s eventual demise, and it wasn’t until recently that Chelsy spoke candidly about their split.

‘[The public scrutiny] was so full-on: crazy and scary and uncomfortable,’ she told The Times. ‘I found it very difficult when it was bad. I couldn’t cope… I was trying to be a normal kid, and it was horrible.’

When they broke up in 2010, Chelsy retreated to her native Zimbabwe to handle the break-up away from the spotlight.

‘It was nuts,’ she said. ‘That’s also why I wanted to go back to Africa. Now it’s calm, it’s fine.’

Cressida was Harry’s other significant love, and the pair started dating in 2012 after meeting her through his cousin Princess Eugenie.

The couple tried to keep their romance out of the limelight, with actress and model Cressida going on her first official event with the Prince two years later when they attended the launch of We Day at Wembley arena.

Harry and Cressida dated for two years before breaking up “amicably” in April 2014, ending speculation they were heading for the altar.

At the time, reports were circulating that the repeated speculation about a wedding was the final straw for the couple’s relationship.

But the former couple, not unlike Chelsy and Harry, have remained friends and have since been spotted together at weddings.

He even turned up to watch her perform in a play.

Read more:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding: The date, details and latest news

Prince Charles will walk Meghan Markle down the aisle at the royal wedding

Meghan Markle’s fractured family scandals: From ‘faked pap shots’ to tell-all memoirs