Prince Harry Wanted To Marry His Zimbabwean Ex
Prince Harry has claimed that the late Queen Elizabeth II’s opinion on his ex-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, led to their breakup.
In an excerpt from the Duke of Sussex’s forthcoming book obtained by Page Six, Prince Harry reflected on his on-again, off-again romance with the Zimbabwean businesswoman, whom he dated from 2004 to 2011.
In his Spare memoir, the royal writes that he “couldn’t help” but think what his grandmother thought about Davy’s free-spirited lifestyle at the time.
“I loved Chels’ ease, that she wasn’t complicated,” he said, according to Page Six. “She didn’t care what anyone thought. She wore miniskirts and high-heeled boots, danced however she wanted, drank tequila like me, and all of this made me really happy. I couldn’t help what my grandmother thought about it. Or the people. And the last thing I wanted was for Chels to change to please them.”
Harry, 38, also admitted that he “wasn’t sure” at the time whether Davy, now 37, was “the one” for him.
“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,” he said.
The royal went on to describe how paparazzi stalked Davy throughout their relationship, claiming they once placed a tracking device underneath her car.
“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 wrote. “I would miss her very much, but I understood she put her freedom first. If I had the choice, I’d want to live like that as well.”
The former couple split in 2011, shortly after he was awarded his helicopter pilot’s wings in May 2010. Davy attended the ceremony in Strockbridge, Hampshire, where Harry received his Flying Wings during a graduation ceremony from an advanced helicopter training course at Museum of Army Middle Wallop.
“The day I got my wings, I figured she got hers,” he writes.
The pair met in Cape Town in 2004, while Harry was on his gap year. After meeting, the two began dating and she pursued a law degree in Leeds which allowed her to be closer to Harry.
Davy is said to have met the Queen at a society wedding during her relationship with Harry, and attended Princess Diana’s memorial service alongside Harry on the 10th anniversary of her death. She was also invited to Prince Charles’ 60th birthday.
Speaking to the Times in 2017, Davy opened up about the press attention she received while with Prince Harry. “It was so full-on: crazy and scary and uncomfortable. I found it very difficult when it was bad. I couldn’t cope,” she said. “I was trying to be a normal kid and it was horrible.”
Despite calling it quits in 2011, Chelsy Davy has maintained a close relationship with the royals over the years. That same year, she attended Prince William and Kate Middleton’s April wedding – which Harry writes as being difficult to see “Chels at Willy’s wedding” and remembers feeling “a certain way” about seeing Davy speak to other men throughout the night.
Davy was also invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018 and Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank later that year. In May 2022, Davy married hotelier Sam Cutmore-Scott and gave birth to their son, Leo, earlier that year.
Prince Harry has made many revelations in his forthcoming memoir, Spare, which will be released on 10 January. Extracts from the autobiography were leaked on Wednesday evening after The Guardian obtained a copy of the book ahead of his release.
In one shocking excerpt, Prince Harry claimed that his brother William physically attacked him in an argument over Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle. The father of two wrote that the alleged physical altercation took place at his Nottingham Cottage home in 2019 when his brother grabbed him by the collar, ripped his necklace off and “knocked” him to the ground.
During the argument that preceded the physical altercation, William called Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”, which the prince argued was a “parrot[ing of] the press narrative” about his wife.
Harry reportedly wrote that William told him to fight back, but he refused. William left his house, before returning “looking regretful, and apologised”.
