Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy would enjoy cosy double dates with Prince William and Kate Middleton at the pub before the Duke of Sussex met Meghan Markle, a palace insider has revealed.
Former staffer Grant Harrold served as a butler to King Charles from 2004 until 2011, and knew both Princes William and Harry as well as Catherine.
Mr Harrold recently spoke to GB News for the launch of his book “The Royal Butler: My remarkable life of royal service” about life inside Clarence House and Highgrove.
It was during this period that Harry dated Zimbabwe-born society beauty Chelsy Davy, who Mr Harrold claimed had the seal of approval from Kate as a possible sister-in-law.
Mr Harrold recalled seeing Kate and Will as well as Harry and this then-girlfriend enjoying double dates at local pubs.
“I’d seen him in the local pubs. It was quite weird. That doesn’t happen now,” Mr Harrold said.
“There’s a local pub near Tetbury (and) we used to go in there, and you’d walk into the bar and you’d have William and Harry and Kate and Chelsy Davy, all sitting there.
“They were just fun. As I’ve said all the way along, they were just a family that all got on really nicely.”
Ms Davy and Prince Harry dated on and off for a period of about seven years between 2004 and 2011 and was at one point tipped to become the Duchess of Sussex.
The romance was Prince Harry’s most significant relationship before he met his now-wife Meghan Markle in 2016.
Harry also dated socialite Cressida Bonas, a friend of his cousin Princess Eugenie, but the romance fizzled out the year he cross paths with the newly divorced Markle.
According to aristocrat and biographer Lady Colin Campbell, Harry’s previous relationships before Markle broke down because Bonas and Davy were uninterested in royal life.
“Harry had one or two really nice girlfriends,” she told Best magazine’s Suddenly Single podcast in April.
“He had wonderful taste in girls, the problem is after a point when the excitement of being with a prince and the possibility of being a royal duchess has worn thin it had no appeal.”
In the end, Harry wed Markle at St George’s Chapel in 2018 with both his ex-girlfriends in attendance.
The Sussexes would ultimately stay in the royal family less than 18 months before abandoning royal duties and starting new lives in California.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.skynews.com.au ’
