Poor Harry. He might be handsome, brave, single and a royal prince, but he just doesn’t see himself as eligible. Quite the reverse: he positively mocks the idea that any woman in the world would want to be his bride.
‘You ain’t ever going to find someone who’s going to jump into the position that it would hold. Simple as that,’ he said in a recent interview to mark the end of his tour of duty in Afghanistan.Asked whether he was actually single, he cryptically replied: ‘I’m just out here doing my job. That’s all I can say at the moment.’If the reports of hours spent at camp playing computer games and watching re-runs of Borat and The Hangover on DVD (was that where he got the inspiration for his Vegas jaunt?) between helicopter missions sound pitiful and lonely, then hold off your sympathy a little longer.
For his friends believe that Harry doesn’t regard himself as single at all — hence the tight-lipped answer.Since May last year, he has been in a relationship of sorts with model/actress/waif-like society blonde Cressida Bonas. They were introduced by their mutual friend Princess Eugenie, and for most of last summer enjoyed a discreet romance.Then they sat next to each other at the Batman premiere, and afterwards went dancing until 4am — at which point the cat was out of the bag. Later in the summer, they went on holiday together to Richard Branson’s Necker Island.
And reports that Cressida was so incensed by his naked exploits in Vegas that she had dumped him were apparently wide of the mark. She didn’t mind at all, although she was said to be worryingly fond of her ex-boyfriend from Leeds University, polo-playing surveyor Harry Wentworth-Stanley.Still, there is nothing like a bit of competition to focus the male mind. Harry, since he has been in Afghanistan, has apparently been phoning Cressida regularly and plans to meet up with her as soon as possible to reignite their nascent romance.Perhaps they will go to South Africa or somewhere similar during his weeks off. Harry pines for Africa almost as much as he pines for a well-spoken blonde.
Their friends have acknowledged that while he has been away, she has held the title of ‘girlfriend-in-waiting’. She even spent a weekend in December at the country house of his friend, the multi-millionaire film-maker Arthur Landon (Prince William was a fellow guest while Kate was in hospital).As ‘girlfriend-in-waiting’, Cressida has been welcomed into the royal inner circle while Harry is on tour. But Harry is right about one thing: she has been telling friends that she is nervous about him coming back, about the attention that goes with being the girlfriend of a prince. It took her by surprise last summer; perhaps Harry could have prepared her a little better.
Being only 23, with an education at Stowe and a degree from Leeds University (both just like Chelsy Davy, Harry’s previous long-term girlfriend), Cressida does not have much to hide. But her parents’ rackety pasts — they have six marriages between them — were raked over, most particularly her mother’s lively youth.Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, daughter of the 6th Earl Howe, from whom Cressida inherits her willowy English rose looks, was once no stranger to publicity herself, being an It-girl in the Sixties. She posed in a book called Birds Of Britain, dripping in oil — a reference to her father’s fondness for motor-racing.
Cressida’s father Jeffrey Bonas (her mother’s third husband) owns a fabric company called MacCulloch & Wallis, and lives quietly in a farmhouse in North Norfolk.Oddly enough, it is not the family’s first brush with royal romance. Cressida’s half-sister, Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe — a blonde beauty and aspiring actress now engaged to Richard Branson’s son, Sam — turned down Prince William because she didn’t want a life in the royal goldfish bowl, even though she once caused Kate to storm out of a party because he spoke to her for so long.
Will her little sister feel the same way about such a union? Certainly, in many ways Cressida seems like ideal royal girlfriend material: polite, contained, well-connected and — importantly for Harry — fun-loving, beautiful and blonde.Her ex-boyfriend Harry Wentworth-Stanley is the stepson of a royal cousin, the Marquess of Milford Haven, so we know she likes well-bred, sporty types.Chelsy Davy wanted to live a low-key life and was known to hate the publicity. The last girl Harry was linked to in any meaningful way, the model Florence ‘Flee’ Brudenell-Bruce, seemed more comfortable with it, but that romance never took off. Of course, anyone seen to relish the attention too early is probably not the answer either.
The real question is, although he is keen on his pretty, sweet, blonde girlfriend, who may well regard herself as too young to marry, are there any signs — other than his interview lament — that Harry wants to settle down?Now William and Kate are having a baby, the heat is truly off him: he will be bumped one down the succession pecking order the moment that child arrives. No wonder he ‘can’t wait’ to be an uncle.He says: ‘I don’t think you can ever be urged to settle down. If you find the right person and everything feels right, then it takes time . . . especially for myself and my brother.’
For Harry, not yet 30, there is certainly no rush. He enjoys being on active service and has chosen a corner of the Army that is particularly incompatible with family life. If he did marry, he would probably have to leave — and he certainly doesn’t seem ready to do that.Chelsy Davy is said to have tired of his immaturity. At 23, Cressida has time to wait for him to grow up a little more. The prince who cavorted naked in Vegas didn’t look like a man desperate to walk up the aisle.And why should he? For now, he can be what Prince Andrew was to the Falklands era: dashing, brave, popular (hard to remember, but that was Andrew once) and live a life of undiluted, unadulterated pleasure between Army missions.
Thanks to his father — and to his mother’s legacy — he has far more money to spend than Andrew ever did. He is about to move into his own house, Nottingham Cottage, at Kensington Palace, a charming residence with plenty of room for dinners and parties close by his nearest and dearest, William and Kate.Though friends think he will be ‘beating a path to Cressida’s door’, he has no reason to rush into wedlock.As for the woman who does eventually coax him up the aisle, in spite of the sudden fame and the inevitable media attention, you could say that hers will be the princess opportunity without strings.
Whoever marries Harry gets the title, the London house and a life of grandeur and opportunity without the same level of duty that awaits William and Kate.She’ll have a husband unembittered by the rivalry (or difference in financial status) that separates Charles and Andrew.In other words, the lucky girl will become the Pampered Princess of Kensington Palace — the one who has to do little work, apart from entertain the ginger one.So if not Cressida Bonas, who else might fill the role?
THE WILD ONE
Cara Delevingne is only 20 and has a reputation for being a little wild — which would probably only enhance her in Harry’s eyes.But Cara is the model of the moment, a face of Burberry and Chanel, and well-connected to boot. Next month, she stars on her first Vogue cover. She’s also on the way up as an actress: her debut was in the film Anna Karenina, as a charming young princess. Blonde, leggy and a member of the right circles (her grandmother was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret), she also seems happy in the spotlight.
THE CRESSIDA CLONE
Blonde model/actress Gabriella Wilde, 23, is related by marriage to Cressida. Her father (real surname: Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe) was married to Cressida’s mother.In fact, they look rather alike, too. Perhaps Wilde, who has appeared in the film The Three Musketeers and has a role in the soon-to-be released Carrie (with Julianne Moore) could replace Cressida at Harry’s side if it doesn’t work out. People may not notice the difference.
THE FOXY FASHIONISTA
Harry had a crush on Lady Natasha Howard, the Earl of Suffolk’s pretty, blonde daughter at one stage, and she has yet to marry anyone else.She is a politics graduate from Bristol University, and Harry has been to a festival at her father’s seat, Charlton Park. Currently a fashion stylist — which is always good practice for princesses.
THE UNFLAPPABLE PAL
Susanna Warren, the former girlfriend of the Princes’ pal Guy Pelly, is already a friend of Harry’s, and is known for her calm and soothing ways.Her grandfather, the Earl of Carnarvon, was a confidant of the Queen. With famously long legs, blonde hair, and aspirations to be an actress, how could she not be in the frame as a mate for Harry?
AND FINALLY…
There’s always Pippa! With her writing career not panning out as hoped, and the fact she is still ‘dating’ yet single, there seems one obvious solution.She has already shown her predilection for toffs with guns. Her (Actually) Royal Hotness, anyone? – DailyMail
