REVEALED: How Kate Middleton ‘stuck together’ with Prince Harry's ex before Meghan Markle
KATE “stuck together like glue” with Prince Harry’s former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, despite the pair having very different personalities, according to a royal biographer.
Prince Harry is now happily married to Meghan Markle. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are well-known for their free-spirited nature, and many royal commentators have noted the contrast with the more traditionally-minded Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Before Meghan, Chelsy Davy was Prince Harry’s most well-known flame, and they were in an on-and-off relationship together for seven years.
Katie Nicholl, in her 2017 book “Harry: Life Loss, and Love” goes behind the scenes at the high-profile wedding of Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips in 2008, which was Chelsy’s “first official meeting with the Queen”.
According to Ms Nicholl: “The Queen was pleased to meet her and Kate, who had been dating William for nearly eight years by that point.”
With William away for a close friend’s wedding, Ms Nicholl reports how “Chelsy and Kate stuck together like glue.”
She continues: “It was the first time either had navigated such an important social occasion, and they were keen to make a good impression, particularly in the presence of the Queen.”
Ms Nicholl explains how, despite being very different people, Chelsy and Kate made an effort to bond.
She writes: “While Chelsy had always got along more easily with Kate’s younger sister Pippa, she and Kate had made an effort to be friends.
“Both were in long-term serious romances with two of the world’s most famous princes and both were being groomed to be future princesses.”
Despite their similarities in position, however, Ms Nicholl describes how, like Meghan, Chelsy was “fundamentally different” from Kate.
Kate Middleton gives speech at mental health conference
She says: “They were fundamentally different young women.
“Kate was sensible, careful, and conservative when it came to how she dressed and behaved.
“Chelsy was a much freer spirit who threw caution to the wind.
“She loved Harry, but the fact that he was a prince was often more of a drawback for her than an advantage.”
She adds that Zimbabwean-born Chelsy "loved Africa and the freedom she enjoyed there".
Chelsy would eventually decide to split with Harry for good in 2010.