How Prince Harry’s Ex-Girlfriend Became Convinced That They Should Split After William’s Wedding

Prince Harry got into a long-term relationship with Chelsy Davy after they met each other in school in 2004. But their on-again-off-again romance ended abruptly before one huge royal event.

In 2011, the Duke of Sussex invited his ex-girlfriend to attend the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey. But Chelsy declined the invitation.

According to royal author Angela Levin, seeing the pomp and pageantry of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s royal wedding made Prince Harry’s then girlfriend realize that royal life is not for her. After this, she decided to end things with Prince Harry.

“A friend [of the royal family] revealed that seeing the enormity and pomp of the day convinced Chelsy that she and Harry had been right to separate,” Levin wrote in “Harry: Conversations With The Prince.” “Although they had a lot in common, she clearly saw that because they came from such different worlds it could never have worked, especially as she valued her privacy and guarded it so carefully,” she added.

But even after their split, Prince Harry reached out to Chelsy so that he could practice his best man’s speech before Prince William’s big day. Chelsy was in South Africa at that time, but she accommodated Prince Harry’s request.

“Harry had read it out at first over the phone to Chelsy in South Africa, who despite no longer being his steady girlfriend, has also been invited to the wedding,” Levin said. “She suggested he remove some of the racier anecdotes, including a reference to Kate’s ‘killer legs,’ as she didn’t think the Queen would take kindly to laddish humor.”

Even after their split, Prince Harry and Chelsy stayed friends. In fact, the new dad invited his ex-girlfriend to his and Meghan Markle’s wedding last year. A source told Vanity Fair that the former couple even shared an emotional phone call before Prince Harry tied the knot.

“It was their final call, a parting call in which they both acknowledged Harry was moving on,” the source said. “Chelsy was quite emotional about it all, she was in tears and almost didn’t go to the wedding. In the end, she went and promised Harry she wouldn’t try and gatecrash the party,” the source added.