I had to look this up because I forgot about it completely – did you remember that Cressida Bonas did attend Prince Harryâs wedding last year? I remembered that Chelsy Davy attended – and she looked a bit upset in one of the cutaways – but I had completely forgotten that Cressida attended too. There were reports that she was not even invited, that Meghan threw a fit or something, but Harry and Cressidaâs breakup was pretty mutual. I always believed that they cared about each other a lot, but that Cressida didnât want the lifestyle or the spotlight, and she did want to try her hand at an acting career. So they split and there were no hard feelings (after a few months). So, look at this – Cressida found love with another Harry! (I updated this post because I got some of this wrong!!)
Cressida Bonas is heading to the altar! The British model and actress â best known for having dated Prince Harry from 2012 to 2014 after being introduced by his cousin, Princess Eugenie â is engaged to boyfriend Harry Wentworth-Stanley, the latter announced on Instagram Sunday.
Bonas, 30, and Wentworth-Stanley flash big smiles at the camera in the outdoor selfie, taken in what appears to be a field. The bride-to-beâs ring is on full display, featuring a center stone surrounded by red and white stones.
According to multiple outlets, Bonas and Wentworth-Stanley, who are very low-key about their relationship, are rumored to have been dating for about two years. A source close to Prince Harry, 34, and Bonas confirmed their split to PEOPLE in late April 2014 after two years of dating, saying that it was âamicableâ and adding that Bonas was hoping to concentrate on her career.
Cressida was hyped as potentially having a big opportunity as a model/actress, but beyond a few blink-and-youâll-miss-them performances, I havenât heard anything about this acting career. I think she mostly just didnât want the royal life and all of those responsibilities. In retrospect, she made the right choice and so did Prince Harry – he could see that she wasnât well-suited for public life too. He needed someone like Meghan, someone who was prepared for the fishbowl existence and all of the unhinged press temper tantrums. As for Cressida and her Nu Harry⊠he seems like a quiet sort of bloke. The engagement ring is kind of wacky, but hey, itâs not MY ring.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
Cressida did attend Harry and Meghan’s wedding. Both of his exes were invited.
https://m.eonline.com/news/936892/cressida-bonas-arrives-at-prince-harry-s-wedding-to-meghan-markle
GAH! I will fix it.
Exactly – I remember the ghastly dress she wore. Whilst Chelsy was dressed as the aggrieved widow who became famous for that meme….
I feel so bad for Chelsy the way that blew up. The camera just caught her at a random time when she had that expression on her face. She was probably thinking of something else.
As for Cressida, sheâs a pretty aristo but she doesnât have the it factor. Sheâll be fine even if she doesnât make it as a model or actor.
Does anyone know which one (Chelsy or Cressida) Harry really wanted to marry or was he equally interested in both Chelsy & Cressida?
@BayTampaBay – Harry and Chelsy were together (off and on-ish) for over 10 years and I think Harry wanted to get engaged at one point but Chelsy was in law school and wanted a career, not the fishbowl life/dutiful wife kind of role that Kate M. aspired to. She’s now got a successful and ethically sourced jewelry company, AYA, in S. Africa and turns a lot of the profits over to improving the quality and accessibility of schooling in the local communities.
while I think if she had married Harry the press would have been a pain it would most certainly not be what it is now. She would have had it much easier than Meghan. But, looks like both moved on and are happy so yay for her! I quit like the ring, strangely original. Maybe it’s a family heirloom or something?
I’m not so sure she would have had it so easy. Clearly the race and class dimensions would not exist but they would have ripped both Cressie and Chelsy to shreds.
Cressie’s family is HIGHLY dysfunctional with multiple marriages, affairs and children between her two parents (mirrors Diana’s family a little), Whilst Chelsy’s father is a highly suspect figure with links to the Mugabe regime.
I think the RF would have allowed the marriage to Cressie but NEVER in a million years to Chelsy. I think senior Royals viewed Harry’s relationship to Chelsy as him “cutting his teeth.”
The BRF is dsyfunctional anyway, they just like to think they’re normal when they want it.
Chelsy is the one who didn’t want to be royal because of all the hate and scrutiny. I don’t know if people remember this, but Chelsy and Kate attended several public royal functions together to solidify their statuses as royal girlfriends. It was a way to solidify that the brothers were serious about the girls and that they could potentially get married in the future. Most people thought Harry and Chelsy would eventually find their way back to each other. Meghan and Harry’s relationship shocked a lot of royal watchers. They thought it was just going to be a fling.
Cressy or Chelsy not wanting to marry Harry claims are just total BS. I guess Meghan’s critics think by yelling this loud enough everyone will start believing the nonsense that Meg was Harry’s last option. Is there any proof that Harry ever proposed to at of these two women? I mean, how many break ups and make ups were there between them? And every single time, each woman took Harry back with no questions asked. Both Harry/Cressy and Harry/Chelsy relationships were way to dysfunctional. It was good that all parties saw this and agreed that it would never work. They loved each other but we’re never in love with each other.
Tanteesha I love you! All Harry ever did was cheat on Chelsy and she always forgave him until the last public shaming where he kissed some waitress in a club with the paps catching it all.
Such tired narratives about these fragile blonde beauties not wanting the headache that comes with the tiara. Pffft. Cressida certainly seemed willing to cash in on the connection even after Harryâs humiliating naked billiards tryst. But the narratives have been set in stone so meh.
@Taneesha, great post. Iâll add that while Cressida/her PR team eventually put out the narrative that she walked away, the initial aftermath was different. Ingrid Seward is close friends with her mother and she wrote an editorâs letter begging Harry to take back âbeautiful, free-spirited Cressie.â It was cringeworthy to say the least.
Interesting whatâs considered HIGHLY DYSFUNCTIONAL, like everyone should stay in miserable marriages forever. THATS the dysfunction that needs to be eradicated. If staying married was all the jam infidelity wouldnât even exist. Better divorced and working to be better.
The press was mean to Cressida when she dated Harry. I remember reading quite a few nasty articles about her in the Sun and Daily Mail, but it was not as horrible as the treatment of Meghan. Cressida would have been miserable in the royal family, so kudos to her for avoiding the abuse that comes with being a royal wife.
I always think it’s Maggie Lawson at first when I see pics of Cressida. She’s pretty but if trying to make it as an actress, unless she has mad skills or unique talent to make her stand out, she has that generic look like so many others.
Congrats but I never got the hype around her – she seems like a nice person but in terms of her career as a model/actress she is forgettable with a very generic look.
Kinda like Kate I think. And that would make her fit in perfectly.
Doubt she would be happy with Harry. It’s harder for Harry to settle down than William. Harry and wife will always be relegated to spare status anyway. But Meghan gets it doubly worse because of her race. I hope Harry and Meghan have the tenacity to prove their critics wrong and support each other.
Actually I think William had a harder time.
He has the burden of continuing the British monarchy so it must have been harder for him to find someone who wanted that responsibility and that he also loved.
Oh, I can tell you about her acting career.
She did a play at the same theatre festival as me a few years ago. Basically a smaller version of Edinburgh, where you have to self-produce (basically where you pay to perform). By all accounts she was decent and a perfectly nice person, but itâs a very odd career choice. Most of the shows there are put on by âalternativeâ theatre-makers and writer-directorâs showcasing new work. She also did a pub fringe show once which is real beginner level stuff. Of course both plays got a level of attention youâd normally only expect a West End show to have.
Cressida is with one of the top agents and youâd expect an actor at that level to be landing regular screen gigs, and not doing theatre except for proper professional productions at big theatres. But no one in London has ever seen her on the audition circuit.
I think she is really a debutante who very occasionally will use her connections to land her the lead role in something extremely tiny and basically âhome madeâ so she can work with friends and not have the pressure of auditioning or being part of a professional production, because the status of âactorâ gives her kudos.
Don’t forget her stand-out performance in Bye Bye Man! I wonder if she did that first, figured she didn’t really like the set schedule of shooting a movie or something (because once you’re in a Blumhouse production, it seems like you can always come back for another if they like you), or if that was her ‘break’ into movies that didn’t pan out.
She was dating this Harry for years before she dated Prince Harry. The two Harrys are related through the Mountbattens and cousins in aristocratic terms. I donât think she was really over this Harry when she was dating Prince Harry. The relationship probably wouldnât have even survived the Vegas incident if the York sisters and Cressidaâs mom hadnât pressured her to stay with him. They were never going to work out as a couple. There was too much in their way from the beginning.
Thank you! That is what I was thinking… isn’t this guy her ex from before RF Harry??!!
+1 Thank you! Came here to write the same thing. They were dating during uni.
I don’t really have any opinion on her one way or the other- she always struck me as a little blah, but I didn’t really follow her and Harry’s relationship – but her selfie at Eugenie’s wedding did crack me up.
Cressida and this Harry dated in college too. Very good looking couple!
I agree, I love the photo of the two of them. She looks stunning all natural vs on the red carpet.
Oh and I like her ring! It’s different but still kind of classic with the setting. It’s pretty.
It looks Art Deco target-style to me.
It is! I love target rings, they’re a cooler version of a halo.
They look alike. At least to me. . .
I like Cressida, from afar. She seems like a genuinely nice person.
Congrats to them.
Harry was never serious about Cressy. He cheated on her at his jaunt in Vegas and broke up just before going to a friends wedding.
There is no doubt in my mind that had he proposed to either Cressida or Cheley they would have grabbed the ring before he said âwill you…â. I donât believe the narrative that they both broke it off because of the pressures of public life. Thatâs the story they want us to believe.
The ring is not my style, but they look very happy together. Congratulations!
Happy for her. Life under a microscope is HARD. Props to both of them for finding someone better suited to their needs and lifestyles.
Wentworth-Stanley: Ah, age old, true and tested strategy of joining two common last names with a hyphen to give them that aristocratic sparkle.
ummm….his mum is Clare Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven. đ
I think Cressida Bonas was a dancer, and she did a Burburry commercial. She’ s pretty enough, but the camera doesn’t love her: in that there’s nothing of her that’s luminous or eye catching. She’s just a pretty girl in an industry filled with pretty girls.
To be fair to her, she did work. Harry has always been drawn to women with a work ethic – Chelsea did under grad and then law and internships before going into her jewellery business. Bonas did part time work for an agency (PR I want to say).
But yeah, Bonas like tons of aristos already have access and money. Why marry into the BRF when you can have almost as much being aristo adjacent?
She was the prettiest of his girlfriends. Her current Harry is cuter than the previous.
Personally do not believe Harry or Cressida were that in to each other. A marriage between the two would have ended in divorce. A marriage between Chelsea would have ended in divorce too. And i can see Meghan getting tired of all the nasty BS and bouncing out with Archie.
Harry’s problem is that he is not interested in dull insipid women.