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Prince Harry‘s romance with Chelsy Davy was always an intriguing one because it was his first serious relationship. Their on-again, off-again love lasted from 2004 until 2011, when they called it quits for good.
Davy, who is the daughter of a wealthy Zimbabwean entrepreneur, marched to the beat of her own drum. While Kate Middleton patiently waited for Prince William to be ready for marriage, Davy was more independent and wanted to live her life to the fullest.
Royal author Katie Nicholl chronicled their relationship in the 2011 book, The Making of a Royal Romance. Harry thought that Davy was the “best thing that ever happened” to him, but their partnership started to fizzle out — again— in 2009 while he was training at the Royal Air Force.
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Meghan Markle, Chelsy Davy.
Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images, JAB Promotions/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images
“While Kate had been prepared to wait for William as he embarked on his flying career, Chelsy was not,” wrote Nicholl, per the Daily Mail. “She was lonely and desperately homesick. She told Harry she felt the relationship had run its course and removed from her finger the blue topaz ring he had given her as a birthday present.”
Then Davy made a very early social media move that “infuriated” Harry by changing her Facebook relationship status.
“The relationship was over in the click of a button. Harry could not believe Chelsy had done it so publicly, and he was angry and upset when the story broke on the front page of The Mail on Sunday,” she wrote.
Davy didn’t want the royal life that Kate was seeking, but Harry still had kind things to say about his ex in his 2023 book, Spare.
“I loved Chels’s ease, that she wasn’t complicated,” the Duke of Sussex wrote. “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.”
The former duo stayed friendly over the years, and Davy even earned an invite to Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding ceremony in 2018. Davy knew early on that royal life wasn’t for her, and it was almost a forewarning to Meghan of the troubles that lay ahead.
Before you go, click here to see everyone Prince Harry dated before meeting Meghan Markle.
