Prince Harry had two of his ex-girlfriends attend the royal wedding on Saturday between himself and Meghan Markle. And while most people wouldn’t’t want their former flames in attendance for their big day, the Royal Family wasn’t surprised.
Both Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas ended their respective relationships with Prince Harry when the public scrutiny became too much for them, according to a report by PEOPLE. Davy dated the prince on and off for years starting in 2004, while Bonas dated him from 2012 to 2014.
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While most people don’t consider inviting exes to their weddings, Harry has reportedly kept on good terms with both women. For one thing, Prince Harry, Davy and Bonas all run in overlapping social circles. Bonas is very close with Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, and the two have stayed cordial. In fact, in 2015 he attended at least two plays that Bonas was performing in.
Meanwhile, Davy and Prince Harry have made no secret of their ongoing friendship. Davy, now 32, was the prince’s first serious relationship. They began dating while they were both in their early 20s, and continued until 2011. Davy even accompanied Prince Harry to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding that year before they ultimately called it quits for good. Still, she has said that they have never lost touch.
“I think we will always be good friends,” Davy told The Sunday Times in 2016. She also confirmed that the spotlight played a role in their break up.
“I found it tough,” Davy confessed. “It’s not something you get used to.”
Prince Harry isn’t the first member of the royal family to invite an ex to his wedding. There were reportedly five ex-girlfriends in the pews when Prince William married Kate Middleton, including Jecca Craig, Rose Farquhar, Olivia Hunt, Arabella Musgrave and Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe.
Likewise, their father, Prince Charles, invited an ex-girlfriend named Camilla Parker-Bowles when he married Princess Diana. After Diana’s tragic passing, he reconnected with Parker-Bowles and the two are now married.
On Saturday, Davy and Bonas filed into St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Town along with the rest of the guests at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. Many viewers watched their expressions closely, assuming the surreal sensation of watching an ex-boyfriend get married.
“Love that Chelsea has turned up in BLACK,” wrote one person, though it was a navy-blue color. “Hoping to see her marching up the aisle, drunk, mascara running down her face, carrying a bouquet of dead flowers, belting out It Should Have Been Me, just after midday.”
Still, there was some assumption that Prince Harry’s commitment to Markle was genuine, as he stood stoically wiping tears from his eyes at the altar.
The wedding, intimate by royal standards, housed only 600 guests inside the chapel. That is small compared to Prince William’s 2011 wedding to Kate Middleton, which saw 2,000 guests in Westminster Abbey.
