Zimbabwean Chelsy Davy started dating Prince Harry in 2004 while she was still a student at Stowe, and their on-again, off-again relationship continued until 2009. The pressures of being a royal girlfriend, in turn with the violation of her privacy by the paparazzi and the media, were ultimately too much for Chelsy, and the couple split up for good ahead of the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales. However, in a sign of how close the family had become to her, she was still invited as a guest. Indeed, her relationship with her ex-boyfriend remained strong enough for her to be invited to his wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018.
Exactly why the Prince and Chelsy ended their relationship is unknown, but evidence points to press intrusion being a major factor. In November 2021, private investigator Gavin Burrows maintained in a BBC documentary that her communications had been targeted and her voicemails hacked by the media while she was dating the Prince, although these claims have never been substantiated. However, in a witness statement that was part of the civil action Prince Harry brought against Mirror Group Newspapers, he claimed that the news company obtained information about him and his then girlfriends through unlawful means. In a summary of his witness statement, the Duke’s lawyers alleged unlawful activity ‘caused great challenges’ in the relationship, and led Chelsy to decide that ‘a royal life was not for her’.