Before Meghan Markle, Prince Harry was hoping for a happily ever after with another woman, whom he hoped would be his princess.
But Cressida Bonas was “spooked” by the fame that follows members of the royal family and despite Harry wanting to marry her at one point, she refused to join the media circus.
In 2014, when his two-year-relationship with the British actor ended, he “begged” her but “her mind was made up,” and she “really broke his heart.”
Keep reading to learn why Harry was begging his ex-girlfriend about 10 years ago!
Before Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, he was involved in another high-profile relationship with Cressida Bonas, a British actor and model.
In 2012, the young prince sparked a romance with the beautiful Bonas, after the two were introduced by Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie.
In his revealing memoir “Spare,” the Duke of Sussex outlines a “painfully awkward” moment from their first date.
“I leaned in to give her a kiss, but my aim was off,” he writes. “She turned, I tried again on the return trip, and we managed something like a graze.”
The next morning, Harry called Eugenie to share the details of his date and the attempted kiss that “left something to be desired.”
But Bonas, now 35, had beaten him to it and already spoken with the princess.
“Then came the good news,” Harry continues. “Cressida was game to try again.”
Begged her to wait
With their first kiss behind them, adorable couple – whose pet names for each other were Ken and Barbie – stayed together for another two years.
In his book, Harry reveals that he considered marrying the British actress, and that his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate had “mentioned, pointedly, repeatedly, how much they liked Cressida.”
Bonas, then 24, was reportedly not onboard with marrying so young and was upset that the prince was ready to take that leap.
Mourning his mum
When the founder of the Archewell Foundation returned for a second tour in Afghanistan – his first was cut short – the young couple maintained a long-distance relationship. Between visits, Harry regularly called his love, begging her to “wait for him.”
In “Spare,” the Heart of Invictus producer shares that one weekend, him and Bonas went on a ski trip to Kazakhstan, when the woman broke him down with a question about Princess Diana, who died in 1997.
He explains the Bye Bye Man actor asked about his mother with “just the right blend of curiosity and compassion.”
While starting his response, he started to cry, the first time he wept since Diana’s burial.
“[Bonas] was the first person to help me across that barrier, to help me unleash the tears,” he pens of the intimate moment he shared with Bonas. “It was cathartic, it accelerated our bond and added an element rare in past relationships: immense gratitude.”
‘Spooked’ by attention
Serving as tabloid fodder, rumours of a royal engagement started swirling, and Bonas is said to have become increasingly overwhelmed by the public attention.
“It’s incredibly frustrating, especially in the industry that I’m in,” she says about the scrutinizing public. “But you know, it is the way it is.”
Confirming her statement in his tell-all book, Harry writes that Bonas “was always clear about not wanting to take on the stresses of being a royal.”
“…I was never sure I wanted to ask her to do so,” the prince writes, adding the fame that accompanied his status as a royal was an “unalterable fact.”
Royal expert Robert Lacey says that as a “rising actress, Cressida did not enjoy the critical remarks.” Discussing the prince’s relationship in his book “Battle of Brothers: William and Harry – The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult,” Lacey writes, “She felt that the fame of her relationship put her ‘in a box.’”
Furthering her fears, the author shares that Bonas was “completely spooked” by “the TV coverage of William and Kate…” and “regretfully explained [that] to Harry.”
‘Massive affection’
Despite feeling “indebted” to the Tulip Fever star for the emotional breakthrough in Kazakhstan, the prince split with Bonas shortly after the ski trip.
“There was massive affection, deep and abiding loyalty – but not love everlasting,” Harry writes of their 2014 split.
And Bonas didn’t disagree. “None of it seemed to surprise her,” he reflected. “These things had been on her mind as well…She looked at the floor, tears running down her cheeks. Damn, I thought. She helped me cry. And now I’m leaving her in tears.”
After he left, he tried to convince Bonas to give it another shot, says biographer Katie Nicholl. “Harry didn’t want things to end. He was in love with her and he tried to convince her they could make it work, but Cressida’s mind was made up,” says Nicholl, the author of “Harry: Life, Loss and Love.” “I think she really broke his heart.”
Family and friends were shocked over their breakup, with one source suggesting it was just a “breather.”
Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine, tells People that “Nobody had any idea that this was coming…I thought they were very happy together.”
Bonas’s half-brother Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe offers some insight into why the couple didn’t work out. “It’s not something that is easy for anyone – dating a royal or marrying into the family,” he said in a 2013 interview with the Evening Standard “She’s not a tough cookie at all. She’s a sensitive, sweet girl.”
‘Labelled’
After the White House Farm actor and the Duke of Sussex went their separate ways, they reportedly stayed friends, and the British star even attended his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.
In 2020, speaking with the Standard, Bonas was asked if she felt for Markle, “a fellow actress, for the scrutiny she receives.”
She responds, “I wouldn’t take a position on that because it would be a headline. Also out of respect. It feels like a long time ago. When it comes up it feels strange because I’m in a different place.”
Explaining that she feels “labelled” as a royal ex-girlfriend, Bonas adds, “No one likes to be labelled. The hurdles for me are when I’m trying to do my work and people want to talk about [Harry]. I work very hard and love what I do but it is still something I have to contend with.”
A new Harry
The “different place” that Bonas referred to earlier is her relationship with Harry Wentworth-Stanley, whom she married in 2020.
Wentworth-Stanley is the stepson of the Marquess of Milford Haven, George Mountbatten, who’s a cousin of the late Queen.
In 2022, Bonas (now Cressida Wentworth-Stanley) was spotted with her newborn son, Wilbur James, who was named after her husband’s brother who died by suicide in 2006 at age 21.
