Has the countdown begun to Princess Cressida?
From inside court of Cressie, tantalising clues that show she’s f inally made up her
WHEN Cressida Bonas was photographed not once, but twice, cuddling close to Prince Harry, it may have seemed a coincidence. After all they are a young, carefree couple who spend most week-nights in one another’s company.
But those close to the beautiful 24-year-old know that Friday’s subtle, but very public, displays of affection were far from accidental.
Indeed, those two moments were the result of weeks of planning, months of discussion and more than a year of adjustment for the boho dance graduate who prides herself on her free spirit.
For behind Cressida’s easy smile now lies a woman who has replaced her timid reservations about dating a Royal with a steely determination to forge ahead with what has become a meaningful and strong relationship.
After a year of conducting a relationship in hiding, she now wants nothing more than to emerge from the shadows and become a visible presence in Harry’s life.
Friends of the pair – once dubbed H&C for hot and cold – have revealed that the couple are planning many more public appearances following Friday’s successful photo-opportunity at Wembley Arena, where Harry was addressing 12,000 students.
Cressida, dressed casually in hightop trainers, beamed at the cameras with her hands placed ever-so-casually in the back pockets of her jeans, and later cuddled up to Harry in front of dozens of cameras.
Indeed, a plan is being hatched for them both to join at least one leg of a mammoth charity trek abroad which
Their first semi-official trip overseas together is in the pipeline
is being overseen by Cressida’s brother-in-law Sam Branson, who stood with her on Thursday’s red carpet. If the plans come to fruition, as they are expected to, it will mean that, by May, Prince Harry and Cressida Bonas will be making what will be essentially a quasi-official charitable tour abroad together.
The trip, led by Sir Richard Branson, will see participants row across the Channel, then cycle to the Matterhorn and finally climb the 14,692ft peak.
In Royal terms, the trip is, of course, dwarfed by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s month-long tour of Australia and New Zealand next month. But there is no doubt that H&C’s little adventure abroad is in
fact another step for Cressida – a bookish blonde from Norfolk – on a road which could see her marry the fourth in line to the throne. A friend of the couple told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Cress is bored with staying in and hiding away. She has told him: “I want to be out with you more, I don’t mind being more visible.”
‘She wants them to be a normal couple and to get out and enjoy their time together. They have been very low-key until now, taking the time to get to know one another without having their every move analysed.
‘But Cress thinks they are in a strong enough position at this stage to be in the spotlight a bit more: dinners, public outings are all going to be on the agenda.
‘This is all part of them becoming more and more serious.’
Harry has drifted much deeper into his girfriend’s fun friendship gang – including Sam Branson, Princess Beatrice and her boyfriend Dave Clark, and Cressida’s halfbrother, the polo-playing socialite Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe. And after being reported to have kept Jacobi at arm’s length a few years ago, Harry has been spending more and more time with the Bonas family. Harry’s friends know that he suffers deeply from loneliness and responds well to affection and nurture. He will no doubt be feeling now what his brother Prince William felt a decade ago when he was first welcomed into the Middleton fold and saw, for the first time, how relaxing it can be to spend time with a normal, close-knit family.
Indeed, when given generous gifts on his 29th birthday in September by members of Cressida’s family gathered at her aunt’s home in Buckinghamshire, Harry was moved almost to tears.
A confidante revealed: ‘Harry loves to stay with Cressida’s family for roast suppers in the country and he was showered with gifts from them on his last birthday. He’s certainly very, very happy to be part of the family and was almost moved to tears by their show of affection.’
Cressida is the youngest of a large brood of siblings. Her mother, the 1960s It Girl, Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, has five children by three of her four husbands. Cressida’s father Jeffrey Bonas, a retired company director, was Mary-Gaye’s third husband but they remain great friends and have spent time with Harry together.
Mary-Gaye approves deeply of the relationship, not least because she adores Harry’s playful personality. And she is used to having Royals floating around her Chelsea home.
Cressida’s half-sister, Isabella Calthorpe, was once the object of Prince William’s affection but the love was unrequited so Mary-Gaye – who met Carole Middleton on the royal barge for The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pageant last year – did not then get the chance to be a Royal mother-in-law. Now, friends are affectionately teasing her, insisting she should not miss her second opportunity.
And with Harry and Cressida both based full-time in London after the prince quit flying military attack
Harry was near tears when her family showered him with affection
helicopters, Cressida’s mother his i doing all she can to encourage the relationship.
While Cressida works in Soho, where she has a £20,000-a-year marketing job, Prince Harry is hard at work organising the Invictus Games for wounded servicemen.
Cressie has – tellingly – been given a security pass for Kensington Palace. But despite her hippy-chic trendiness, she will not move in with Harry until their union becomes truly official. The friend said: ‘Cress won’t move in with him until things get more formal. She’s not that kind of girl. She is looking for a flat with a girlfriend and has been living with one of her sisters.
‘She is looking in West London but nowhere expensive like Kensington because she’s got to economise. People think she’s wealthy, but she’s got to save her pennies.’
Another source said: ‘What no one seems to have picked up on is that she has been a great influence on making him a more responsible character. The Royal Family are using Harry a lot more for quite responsible things like the Mandela service in Westminster Abbey and the fact that he has changed is partly down to his experience in Afghanistan and partly down to Cressida’s good influence.
‘He’s going to be used more for important things and become more of an ambassador for the Royal Family because he’s so charming, even more so than his brother, and that’s thanks to Cressida too.
‘Cressida is definitely the one who wears the trousers. She is very strict with him really.
‘She’s rather a sensible person and hates bad behaviour. She jokes “Don’t be so silly!” and “Put that drink down!” when they are in public or around her family. She doesn’t like him drinking too much or being too boisterous.’ The signs of Harry’s devotion are very clear – for those who know where to look. When he and Cressida took a train to Leeds together recently, he curled up on her lap and dozed as she watched their favourite show, Breaking Bad, on her iPad.
A down-to-earth, carefree girl, she was initially uncomfortable with the attention being Harry’s girlfriend would inevitably bring.
According to the friend: ‘She is not a socialite, that’s for sure.
‘She wants a fairly ordinary relationship, just like anyone else of her age, and could do without the big security team.’
Nevertheless, it is now Cressida who has said she wants to put the relationship on a more solid footing. She has already been to stay in Sandringham ‘a couple of times’, in a small house on the estate which the Duke of Edinburgh sometimes uses.
Cressida is too sensible to rush into a wedding – although Harry spoke wistfully last year of finding a woman who would ‘jump into’ the royal melee at his side.
As one friend puts it: ‘You are going to see them together for a long, long time before you see anything more formal but she does now want Harry to take her out and about.’
What is for certain is that last week’s show of affection was the first, crucial, start to a long journey towards her entering public life as Harry’s official partner.