The royal family has to be the most talked-about in the world, with the public captivated by their social media activity and public appearances, but mostly by what happens behind closed (Palace) doors.
This is something that Prince Harry in particular is no stranger to, even releasing his memoir Spare earlier this year to tell his story from his point of view.
Unsurprisingly, it went on to become the fastest-selling non fiction book of all time.
One of the narratives that Prince Harry wanted to clear up was that of his relationship and break up with Zimbabwean heiress Chelsy Davy, who he dated in his early 20s.
After meeting in Cape Town during Prince Harry’s gap year in 2004, the former couple shared an on again off again relationship for the next six years.
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“I remember her being different,” Prince Harry recalled of meeting Chelsy in Spare. “Unlike so many people I knew, she seemed wholly unconcerned with appearances, with propriety, with royalty. Unlike so many girls I met, she wasn’t visibly fitting herself for a crown the moment she shook my hand. She seemed immune to that common affliction sometimes called throne syndrome.
“I’d always wanted to know what it might be like to meet a woman and not have her eyes widen at the mention of my title but instead to widen them myself, using my mind, my heart. With Chelsy, that seemed a real possibility. Not only was she uninterested in my title, she seemed bored by it. ‘Oh, you’re a prince? Yawn.’”
And so began their six-year relationship, with the former couple ultimately parting ways in 2010.
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Why did Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy break up?
Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy split in 2010, and while the notoriously private couple kept tight-lipped about it at the time, they have since opened up about their relationship and the nature of their break up.
According to both parties, they split due to the lack of privacy – with Chelsy not wanting a life in the spotlight and Prince Harry unable to avoid it.
Both Prince Harry and Chelsy have recalled the intense media attention and public scrutiny, including Chelsy being followed and even once having a tracking device put on her car.
“It was so full-on: crazy and scary and uncomfortable,” Chelsy recalled. “I found it very difficult when it was bad. I couldn’t cope. I was young, I was trying to be a normal kid and it was horrible. It was nuts. That’s also why I wanted to go back to Africa. Now it’s calm, now it’s fine.”
“The whole world isn’t made to put up with constant scrutiny, and I don’t know if Chels could bear it, and I couldn’t ask her to,” Prince Harry wrote about their break up in his memoir, Spare. “Chels insisted that she was not sure if she was prepared for all of that. A whole life with someone on your heels? What could I say to her?”
He added: “I completely understood her desire for freedom. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t want this life either. I would miss her very much, but I understood she put her freedom first.” He concluded: “If I had the choice, I’d want to live like that as well. The day I got my wings, I figured she got hers.”
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Prince Harry also opened up in his memoir about the moment the exes came face to face once more, with the former couple running into each other at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 wedding.
“She and I weren’t in regular touch, which was why Willy checked with me before inviting her to the wedding,” Prince Harry recalled of the wedding in Spare. “He didn’t want either of us to feel uncomfortable.”
He continued: “There were loads of feelings still there. Feelings I’d suppressed, feelings I hadn’t suspected. I also felt a certain way about the hungry-looking men trailing after her, circling her, nagging her to dance. Jealousy got the better of me that night, and I told her so, which made me feel worse. And a bit pathetic.”
Either way, the former couple appears to have a solid friendship now, with Chelsy Davy receiving some lovely mentions in Prince Harry’s memoir, and even attending his and Meghan Markle’s 2018 wedding.
We will continue to update this story.