Harry spends his birthday with old f lame Cressida
A smitten HANNAH BETTS says his new beard is proof not all royal men are chinless wonders
PRINCE Harry spent his birthday with ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas on the day it emerged that she had split with her latest boyfriend.
The fifth in line to the throne met the actress and a group of close friends to celebrate his 31st at a London pub, the Daily Mail can reveal.
After spending the day on an official engagement in Sussex on Tuesday, the prince flew to the capital by helicopter to link up with his old flame.
He left the venue at 1.30am with pals, including another blonde woman, but Cressida was not among the group.
The news will inevitably add to fuel to rumours that the royal is keen to rekindle his romance with 26-year-old ‘Cress’. The couple dated for two years before splitting last March after a row over attending the wedding of Harry’s good friend, Guy Pelly.
But well-placed sources insisted last night that the couple are ‘definitely’ not back together. Since they split last year the prince has been linked – sometime erroneously – with a number of women, including Dr Who star Jenna Coleman.
Meanwhile Cressida dated fellow thespian Edward Holcroft, 27, who appeared in Wolf Hall. But they recently drifted apart, with sources close to Cressida insisting that the brief relationship had ‘never been that serious’ and she hadn’t wanted him to meet her family. ‘It just didn’t get to that stage,’ they said.
She and Harry have remained good friends after going their separate ways. They were introduced by the prince’s cousin, Princess Eugenie – one of Cressida’s best friends. They also share many mutual pals including the Branson family and Cressida’s half-brother, Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe.
One friend last night dampened speculation that the pair were making a go of it again, saying: ‘They were out with a group of friends having a drink to celebrate Harry’s 31st. It was also a chance for him to say hello to some of his pals, having spent the summer working in Africa. Harry and Cress have always kept in touch and are fond of each other.
‘They aren’t together at the moment and although you can never say never, I would be very surprised if it happened [again]. ‘Cressida is very fond of him but, well, he didn’t quite cut the mustard. The issues that were there when they broke up haven’t changed.’ Asked what those issues might be, the friend said: ‘I think Harry just expected Cress to keep up with his lifestyle.
‘But she isn’t wealthy, she’s a hardworking girl who just couldn’t do that.’ Other sources said Cressida had struggled to cope with the public attention caused by dating a member of the royal family and feared it would hold her career back.
Since the split she landed a wellreceived lead theatre role and a modelling contract with Burberry. She is due to appear in the film Tulip Fever later this year and yesterday it emerged that she is to star in TV drama Doctor Thorne, the latest project by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.
Kensington Palace declined to comment, but a source close to Harry said: ‘He went out with a group of friends to celebrate his birthday and Cressida was among them. She is just a friend.’ Harry the hairy hunk: Femail
‘Still fond of each other’
Women of Britain, I ask you to contemplate the following: not only is the nation’s favourite bachelor finally back in the country, but he has brought with him a friend. Ladies, be upstanding, be grateful, for Prince Harry and his beard.
The Prince, who turned 31 this week, returned from his threemonth wildlife conservation trip to Africa bearing a handsome souvenir in the form of some rather dashing facial fuzz.
The beard had its British debut at a Battle of Britain flypast at Goodwood Aerodrome on Tuesday and provoked a storm of approval. The nation — indeed, the world — it seems, is very much in lust.
enthusiasts everywhere took to Twitter pronouncing that the already ‘ hot’ Prince Harry was looking ‘hotter than ever’.
Among images of females fanning themselves, admirers cooed their approval. ‘Yum Yum,’ said one, going on to declare ‘you sexy thing!’ Another impassioned fan sighed: ‘I’d like to thank not only Jesus but God herself for blessing us with Prince Harry’s beard.’
naturally, Harry’s beard already boasts its own Twitter account. ‘one at a time, ladies, I can’t handle all this attention,’ the spoof account posted yesterday. ‘There’s only one of me.’
even Vanity Fair magazine has not been immune to its charms, noting on its website that the royal growth is ‘more vibrant, more lush, than ever before’.
I must confess, I have long carried a torch for the House of Windsor’s resident ginger nut: a man who is witty, brave, self-deprecating, genuinely does things, and serves as a charming and relaxed ambassador for our country. There is also the small matter that he is as hot as Hades.
However, the beard has pushed the ardency of my crush seriously off the scale, propelling me into a whole new level of middle-aged, yet curiously girlish, adoration.
It’s so rugged, so outdoorsy, a fitting symbol of the fact that his recent trip to Africa wasn’t some posho ‘gap yah’ jaunt, but proper, exposed-to-the-wilds derring- do of the great white hunter-turned-conservationist variety.
This week’s Goodwood guise was Top Gun meets Bear Grylls, a symbol of the fact that the Prince is the first modern royal who has really taken to military life — no token swanning around in uniform for Harry Wales. CAPTAIN Wales is a soldier loved, teased, and respected by his peers. Before taking control of an Apache helicopter, he was a forward air controller with the Household Cavalry Regiment, a post that entailed calling in airstrikes mid-battle.
notoriously, he was also a scalp that the Taliban fought hard to acquire: a situation he bore with maturity and no little heroism. When not letting off steam in Las Vegas, that is.
And — is it just me — but doesn’t his facial hair actually suit him? Harry’s beard speaks of throbbing testosterone, emphasising his manly features, not least his iron jaw — a macho break from the chinless wonderdom that plagues the male Windsor line.
His lustrous chin growth balances his tousled locks, the effect suavely, yet insouciantly, sexual.
men’s style bible GQ has christened it a ‘starter beard’ — that is a sprouting ‘coming in at the 4mm bristle mark, this type of beard is not only the easiest to maintain, but it’s also the smartest, adding definition to a man’s face no matter how chiseled it might actually be underneath. In short, Prince Harry: man of the people (at least when it comes to facial hair).’
For as the spare, rather than the heir, Harry can enjoy his role as the royals’ resident bad boy, unlike his necessarily goody-goody – and let’s be frank — slightly too boring older brother.
We love him best doing the Lightning Bolt pose with his 100m hero Usain; giving up his seat for a veteran at Tuesday’s flypast, then looking after — and brandishing — the old fellow’s stick; and falling and refalling in love with blonde beauties such as Chelsy Davy and aristocratic waif Cressida Bonas.
As such, he looks best when roguishly dishevelled — the very spirit of Prince Harry contained in one glinting golden chin.
Britain hasn’t enjoyed a decent royal beard for a while. To be sure, Prince michael of Kent’s facial fixture makes him popular in Russia, so uncannily does his resemble that of his ancestor, Tsar nicholas II.
However, among the Firm’s principal players, beards have proved thin on the ground. Prince Andrew sported one as recently as 2011, but this was a grey and mangy affair, not much hankered after by anyone. Prince William and his father both sported Windsor whiskers when serving in the Forces or on expeditions, but renounced them just as quickly.
Philip boasted a lustrous growth during his war career, but with a comically upturned moustache, which may account for the Queen’s notorious loathing of them.
So it has been left to Harry to champion the royal stubble. In doing so, he not only upstages his sister-in-law Kate’s new fringe, but is also rightfully crowned as the royal with sex appeal.
This is not to say that, as a rule, beards are without controversy. Far from it. Women maintain a love-hate relationship with face topiary, largely coming down on the side of hate. FOR while men tend to regard them as symbols of raw, primal masculinity, women tend to think: ‘Good God, what a ghastly neanderthal / Joy of Sex / Jeremy Corbyn lookalike. Keep that monstrosity away.’
even love gods Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp are rendered unappealing behind them: Pitt resembling a ZZ Top tribute act, Depp a piratical plonker.
But cometh the hour, cometh the beard, and Harry is the exception to the rule, as indeed he is the exception to many others.
And yet I must issue a note of warning. For the last occasion on which our hero sported such a virile look was after returning from Antarctica in December 2013, when the Queen is said to have made it clear that he could keep it only for Christmas.
According to Palace insiders, Hm detests any form of facial sprouting, disapproving of it among her staff and forbidding it among her offspring.
Alas, it was a decree her grandson obeyed, despite fans among the younger royals, including his cousin Zara, who nicknamed him ‘Prince Hairy’.
History must not be allowed to repeat itself. Join me, sisters, in a campaign to keep the Windsor Whiskers alive. Please, ma’am, your nation (politely) demands it.