bitchy | Mail: What if Prince Harry married a white woman like Cressida Bonas??

Prince Harry dated Cressida Bonas for several years in his late 20s. They broke up somewhere around his 30th birthday. For years, I believed that Harry and Cressida cared about each other and were moving towards a more serious relationship, but Cressida wanted no part of the royal machinery. There were consistent rumors (from Cressida’s friends) that Harry did propose to her and that she turned him down. Harry ended up disputing that in his memoir, describing how he broke up with Cressida in 2014 when he decided that they weren’t really right for each other long-term, even if he cared about her a great deal. Cressida went to Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding and she ended up married to another bloke named Harry. Cressida tried her hand at acting for a few years, but now she’s a podcaster, wife and mom. Obviously, the Daily Mail has a new story about “why didn’t Harry marry a white woman like Cressida?!?” It’s been over a decade.

She’s a former actress who has moved away from a burgeoning career in TV drama to write, make podcasts and create content around her experience of raising two children with her husband Harry. This might sound just like a quick summing up of the trajectory of Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle, but in fact it’s a potted history of the royal’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas – his last serious relationship before meeting his now wife.

The similarities, down to the women’s personal projects and Instagram content, are notable, but where they diverge is in their relationship with the Royal Family. In his memoir Spare, Harry revealed how Cressida had the seal of approval of Wiliam and Kate, and to this day she is close with Beatrice and Eugenie – with the latter being the one to introduce the couple in the first place.

It certainly raises intriguing ‘what if’s’ about the future Harry may have had if he’d wed his last serious girlfriend before finding his ‘soulmate’ Meghan. Much like Meghan, Cressida kicked off her career as a model, actress and dancer, and was championed as a rising star by Harvey Weinstein when she was given a part in his £19 million costume drama Tulip Fever – before the disgraced movie mogul’s downfall. She also had a leading role in the ITV true crime drama White House Farm.

In recent years however, the Hampshire-born ‘It-Girl’, who is expecting her second baby with husband Henry Wentworth-Stanley, 35, has moved into writing and podcasting, with her social media feed turning from chic, artsy selfies to wholesome sunny snaps with her two-year-old son. It’s a similar trajectory to that of the Duchess, who burst into the spotlight after playing paralegal Rachel Zane in the 2011 drama Suits – but shifted her focus after marrying Harry in 2018.

The As Ever founder has, since making an Instagram comeback in the New Year, also come out with a Netflix cooking show and launched a lifestyle brand – As Ever – where she sells the likes of raspberry ‘spread’, flower sprinkles, herbal teas and cookie mixes.
Meghan’s path is comparable to Cressida’s, with the British star going from wowing audiences as Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby play to sharing heartfelt op-eds on motherhood in national magazines.

The pair have even released new podcasts within days of one another – with Meghan announcing Confessions of A Female founder just days before Cressida launched Lessons From Our Mothers, hosted with her half sister, Isabella Branson, for a ‘series of conversations that celebrate motherhood and mothering in all its forms’. The series features cameos from a variety of A-listers, including the likes of Kate Winslet, Giovanna Fletcher and Mary Berry – who made the duo a tasty homemade cake and a cup of tea.

[From The Daily Mail]

In some ways, I actually feel sorry for Cressida, because they’re still going to be doing this when she’s 60 years old – “remember when she dated Prince Harry/why didn’t Harry marry Cressida.” That being said, I’m actually positive that she has no regrets – even in the “what if” scenario where Harry married the blonde, beautiful white woman, the Windsors would have made her life a living hell. The biggest difference is that Cressida was so young and inexperienced, she really would have been trapped in that system with zero way out. Anyway, it’s funny that the Mail is basically promoting Cressida here as “the could-have-been white wife.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.