Back in July of last year, Prince Harry started going out with a then 23-year-old blue-blooded heiress named Cressida Bonas. Their relationship is still happening, although I think it was put on “hold” during his Vegas romp and subsequent deployment to Afghanistan. Still, they are together now and the current round of reporting seems to indicate that Harry is really into her but she’s not looking to join the royal family. Which I still don’t believe, but sure.

So what happens when Harry turns to his sister-in-law for advice about Cressida? Well, Duchess Kate has her own agenda, that’s what happens. You see, Cressida’s half-sister is Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, one of the (many) women William dated during one of the (many) breakups he and Kate had. It’s said that William was really “taken” with Isabella and that he even wanted to marry her, but she turned him down. And ever since, Kate has always been especially watchful of any association William has with Isabella and her family. So if Harry married Isabella’s sister? OH NO, thought Kate. That must not happen! So Kate is trying to shut it down:

Prince Harry’s love of a good party is no big secret. But watching his older brother, William, settle so happily into married life has made such an impression on Harry – who’s been dating blonde dance student Cressida Bonas since last summer –may be walking down the aisle himself in the not-too-distant future.

“He’s head over heels for Cressida,” explains a royal source. “He’s determined to make her his princess.”

But not everyone is jumping for joy. While Harry’s aunt Sarah Ferguson is “pushing him to propose as soon as possible,” his sister-in-law Kate Middleton is skeptical of Cressida, 24.

“Kate’s very close to Harry and wants to protect him. She thinks Cressida might be leading him on.”

The thought of life in “the royal fishbowl” does scare Cressida – a British socialite who used to work as a bartender in Australia. The source says, “Her half-sister Isabella turned down William for the same reason.”

That William had an unrequited crush on Isabella is well-known in the couple’s inner circle – and may be contributing to Kate’s less than supportive stance.

“Kate feels William will always have a soft spot for Isabella,” says another insider. Now Kate’s disapproval is distancing her from Harry – and she’s torn.

“She misses hanging out with him. She loves when he asks for her advice… she just wants to make sure Harry knows what he’s doing.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

What is the general thought on whether Harry ever got around to proposing to Chelsy Davy? I think he probably did propose to her (but maybe not with a ring) and that they talked about the possibility of getting married, and she wasn’t into it. So if Harry wants to propose to Cressida, my guess is that he will, with or without encouragement from Kate. And if and when he does, I hope Cressida says yes, if only to see Kate’s face.

A few more Duchess Kate stories – the Enquirer has a weird/dumb one about how William loves to rub cocoa butter on Kate’s pregnant body every night. But I don’t buy it, just because I doubt they’re even spending the night together in the same place all that often. And here’s an even weirder story that’s been making the rounds this week – apparently, the Middleton family inspired universal jealousy amongst the mothers of Kate’s classmates. Because the Middletons had the best name-tape, the best tennis rackets, and the best picnics. It’s a total piece of Middleton-organized fluff, but it makes me think that our friend over at Duchess or Diva is dead-on about the Middletons hiring a PR firm to handle their business these days.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here are some photos of Prince Harry at yesterday’s Virgin London Marathon. The London Marathon took place just six days after the Boston Marathon, and as with the Boston Marathon, London attracts some of the most elite runners in the world. In London, many of the runners wore black ribbons in honor of Boston, and they also had a moment of silence before the race started. I think Harry helped hand out medals and such, and I swear he looked kind of wistful, like he wished he could run with them. Also: how much stuff is Richard Branson going to tag with ‘Virgin’? Pretty soon they’ll just have to change the names to Virgin London and Virgin England.

Meanwhile, you know that Harry is still with his blonde, aristocratic girlfriend Cressida Bonas, right? Well, The Telegraph’s gossip guy Mandrake had a really eye-rolly story about how Harry is “ready to settle down” and how Cressida thinks she’s “far too young” to get married, so she’s been crying about it. Hahahaha. Yeah. I’m sure that’s exactly how it is!

Prince Harry wants to settle down with his girlfriend Cressida Bonas, but she is said to feel too young to marry. Characterised as a playboy, Prince Harry is, in fact, facing problems in his personal life because of his desire to settle down. Mandrake hears that the Prince, who turns 30 next year, has talked about marriage with his girlfriend, Cressida Bonas.

While many young women would be thrilled at the prospect of a royal wedding, the 24-year-old student at the Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance has, however, been upset.

“Cressida has been in floods of tears,” claims one of her friends. “Harry is coming on very strong, but she is all over the place. She thinks she is far too young to get married and is scared by all his talk of marriage and settling down.”

Mandrake disclosed last November that Prince Harry had been in frequent telephone contact with Cressida from Afghanistan, where he was serving a four-month tour of duty as an Apache helicopter co-pilot gunner.

“Harry has been ringing Cressida regularly,” one of her friends told me at the time. “He’s been pleading with her to ‘wait for him’ until he comes back. Cressida is still very fond of her ex-boyfriend and, since Harry’s been on the scene, he’s been after her again. Cressida is torn. She likes Harry, but is not the sort to be bothered about his title.”

The former boyfriend was Harry Wentworth-Stanley, 23, whose stepfather, the Marquess of Milford Haven, is a cousin of the Queen. The pair were a couple while students at Leeds University, but he went travelling after graduation and their romance cooled. Last July, she was said to be “desperate” to rekindle their relationship.

In January, the Prince gave a bad-tempered television interview from Camp Bastion in which he complained about his difficulties in finding love. He said potential princesses were put off by his position, rather than attracted by it.

“You ain’t ever going to find someone who’s going to jump into the position that it would hold,” he said. “Simple as that. If you find the right person, and everything feels right, then it takes time … especially for myself and my brother.”

Harry is understood to have been influenced deeply by the happy marriage of the Duke of Cambridge, 30. His best friend, Thomas van Straubenzee, 30, is to marry Lady Melissa Percy, the Duke of Northumberland’s daughter, later this year.

Cressida began her flirtation with Harry before he went to Afghanistan. Her half-sister, Isabella Calthorpe, once spurned Prince William’s affections. Last month, she married Sam Branson, the son of the Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson.

[From The Telegraph]

Okay, I’ll be fair to Cressida for one moment: I think it’s perfectly reasonable for any young woman to find the idea of spending one’s life as a royal consort to be… overwhelming, to say the least. Being a princess/duchess is not the best job at all, and as we can see with Duchess Kate’s predicament, if you’re not interested in public work or charity work, it shows. But! If you’re an aristocratic (or even just wealthy) young woman in the UK, and you don’t have a lot going on, this is what is expected of you. You marry someone like Harry. Someone titled, someone wealthy, someone well-connected. It’s not like Cressida is some naïf unaccustomed to this kind of life at all. She was born into it, she’s friends with princesses and she runs in the wealthiest echelon of English society. And at the end of the day… she wants it. I don’t believe this report, because I just think Cressida is trying to reel Harry in and he’s the one with his eye on other things (or other girls).

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Prince Harry is still “with” Cressida Bonas. They were out together (sort of) this weekend in London. And by “sort of” I mean that it’s not like they actually arrived or left the restaurant together, but reports indicate that they were at the same place for a few hours and witnesses claim they were all over each other. The restaurant is “The Rum Kitchen” and they apparently did a dinner thing with Princess Eugenie for her birthday – Cressida is tight with both Eugenie and Beatrice, and the York girls apparently set Harry and Cressida up months ago, late summer 2012. But, again, Harry and Cressida cannot be photographed together (in England). It’s not allowed! We don’t even have photos of Cressida from that night – you can see some here.

It’s taken eight months, a posting to Afghanistan and a few false starts. But it seems Prince Harry has finally got his girl, emerging from a London nightclub early yesterday morning with a smile on his face after his first proper ‘date’ with Cressida Bonas. Royal sources said the Prince and the 24-year-old dance student are at last officially a couple – having first been linked last July.

On Friday their closeness was plain to see as they enjoyed a night at Caribbean-themed bar The Rum Kitchen in Notting Hill, West London. The couple arrived just after 10pm with a group that included Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie, 24, and his close friend Tom Inskip, and headed straight down to the nightclub in the basement. Onlookers said they spent the evening propping up the bar drinking rum cocktails, dancing to reggae music and demonstrating their closeness in front of other clubbers.

One said: ‘They looked very much like a couple. They were very affectionate. They were hugging and they kissed a few times. It was very sweet. Both of them were milling about with other guests. The music is loud so it was quite lively.

‘There are no tables or booths so everyone was dancing, including Harry and Cressida. Cressida looked amazing. She’s a professional dancer and her training was very obvious. She was a natural. Harry was also getting into the swing of things, but next to Cressida some of his moves were more like amateur limbo dancing, but it was all taken in good heart. They seemed very happy together and no different to any other couple on a night out.’

But their intimacy didn’t stop a male guest approaching the Prince to try his luck, offering Harry his phone number.

Events organiser Vincenzo Ianneillo later posted on Twitter: ‘I gave Prince Harry my number tonight, he promised he’ll call me if he changes his mind about women. Or men.’

Just after 1am, Harry and Cressida left the venue separately. The Prince, wearing a sleeveless jacket over a checked shirt with jeans and suede loafers, was whisked away in his car, flanked by bodyguards.

[From The Mail]

I don’t understand why Harry had to leave alone with a phalanx of bodyguards? Why couldn’t he exit, wait in the car, and have Cressida come out a few minutes later so they could go back to his place (or her place) and they could get it on? Are we supposed to believe that Harry would NEVER put the moves on a pretty blonde, especially after a rum-soaked night? Or are we supposed to believe that Harry likes Cressida so much because she’s “classy”. “Classy” = doesn’t put out all the time? Or ever? Or maybe I’m just reading too much into this. Maybe Cressida agreed to meet Harry back at his place an hour later. But that’s just it… why all the drama? They’re both single. No one expects Harry to marry every girl he takes home. Why can’t Ginger McRummy get some, openly and honestly? Is this “discretion”? Harry is NOT discreet.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.

Last July, Prince Harry seemed to have gotten himself a new blonde girlfriend. Her name? Cressida Bonas. She comes from a well-connected British family – her sister briefly dated Prince William, and Will was said to be quite smitten. Cressida lives a pretty typical life for a wealthy English girl – she’s like a model/socialite, just looking to land a wealthy guy of her own. Princess Eugenie is said to have initially introduced Harry and Cressida, and they hit it off. Then time passed and Harry showed the royal jewels in Vegas and then he went to Afghanistan, and there were mixed reports about the state of Harry and Cressida’s relationship, everything from her dumping him to him being hung up on Chelsy, etc. Anyway, Cressida is BACK!! She and Harry were spotted at Swiss ski resort – you can see the photos here.

High above the Swiss snowline, the temperature is rising. Locked in a tight embrace on the slopes of the Verbier ski resort yesterday, Prince Harry and his society girlfriend Cressida Bonas seem to be closer than ever. The very public display of affection, in front of dozens of fellow skiers, came only a few hours after even more intimate revelries at a restaurant in the town. Fellow diners in the wee small hours at the Pot Luck Club restaurant in the resort’s Farinet Hotel were entertained by the sight of the Prince bouncing the 24-year-old blonde model and would-be actress on his knee.

The pair were said to have ‘kissed like love-struck teenagers in the back of a cinema’.

The other end of the same table was an altogether more sober affair. Harry’s uncle, Prince Andrew, whose 53rd birthday on Tuesday they were celebrating, sat with his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, and their two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Eugenie’s boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank, briefly strolled over chatted to Harry and Cressida. But for the most part they had eyes only for each other. The Yorks traditionally enjoy a week’s skiing in the resort every year to mark Prince Andrew’s birthday, often inviting photographers to capture the event. This time, perhaps not unsurprisingly, the invitation was not extended.

Shortly before midnight, Miss Bonas, who wore a minuscule black dress and heels, showing off a pair of endless legs, stood up and walked over to sit on Harry’s lap. The pair then began to kiss, with Harry stroking the back of her head as they did so, in a passionate clinch for several minutes.

A witness said: ‘We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. They were not being discreet about it. The Duchess of York and Eugenie sat just a few seats away at the time and seemed to be deliberately looking the other way, making polite conversation while it was happening. Afterwards, Harry’s girl stayed sitting on his knee while they chatted to his friends.’

The diner went on to reveal: ‘At one point, a waiter brought over a tray of vodka and Red Bull and Harry shouted: “Free drinks on the house!” Everyone seemed to be having a great time.’

Although Prince Andrew left shortly afterwards, the younger royals went on to an exclusive bar above the restaurant, before moving to a basement nightclub, where they stayed until 3.30am. Despite the late night, however, Harry and Cressida still hit the slopes yesterday morning and were again seen openly hugging and kissing on the slopes, which were packed with half-term visitors. Both appeared to be extremely competent skiers and spent most of the day on the mountain. At one point, taking a break from their fun, Harry was seen putting his arms around Cressida’s waist while she rested her head on his shoulder.

The daughter of renowned Old Harrovian businessman Jeffrey Bonas and Sixties model Lady Mary Curzon — who posed semi-naked for a coffee table photographic book and went on to get married and divorced four times — Cressida is a familiar figure in London’s upper-class social scene. As a teenager, she was labelled by society bible Tatler as ‘really pretty, really nice and absolutely obsessed with Eva Cassidy (the late American singer)’.

Last year she and Harry flew together to the Caribbean island of Necker for the birthday of tycoon Sir Richard Branson’s son Sam, who is engaged to be married to Miss Bonas’s beautiful half- sister, the actress Isabella Anstuther-Gough-Calthorpe.

This week’s ski holiday, to which the Prince had flown on budget airline easyJet, is significant in royal terms for more than one reason. It is the first time in many, many years that Harry has been seen in public with the snubbed Duke of York’s ex-wife.

[From The Mail]

Can I just say? I think the Duke of York is probably a major ass in general, but I still kind of love that he and Fergie still spend so much together. She’s crazy, no doubt, but I like that Andrew and Fergie’s relationship – even post-divorce – has always been solid and loving. Anyway, as for Cressida and Harry… we’ll see. I think Cressida seems like she’s in to win it. She’s well-connected, she doesn’t have a lot going on, and Harry seems to like her. It will be interesting to see how she plays it from here. Also: her family will make Duchess Kate very uncomfortable. Kate is said to have been very jealous of William’s relationship with Isabella Anstuther-Gough-Calthorpe.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Back in July, Prince Harry began hooking up with a blue-blood English girl named Cressida Bonas. Bonas was and is very well-connected, with an aristocrat mother and a friendship with Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice (they went to school together!). Cressida’s half-sister Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe also dated Prince William briefly, during one of the (many) times he had split up with Kate Middleton. So… Cressida looked like a keeper. She definitely looked like she had the potential to last a bit longer than Prince Harry’s normal hookups, and many of us hoped that Cressida might help him finally get over Chelsea Davy. Unfortunately, Prince Harry went to Las Vegas and hooked up with random girls and those girls took photos of his ass. So… Cressida and Harry are probably over. Sort of.

Prince Harry’s naked high-jinks in Las Vegas may have cost him his latest girlfriend. Model Cressida Bonas, 23, a Leeds University graduate who has been dating the Prince over the summer, is said to have been ‘humiliated’ by the pictures of Harry enjoying the company of a young blonde in a hotel room.

Although sources say the couple have not split up, Ms Bonas, who has seen the pictures of the naked Prince on the internet, has hinted that she wants some time out.

‘He’s ruined his chances now.’ a friend of the heiress is quoted today.’ Harry has blown it. Cressida saw a future with him, but he clearly isn’t as serious about her as he claimed to be.’

Her torment was revealed as it emerged that one of the women who partied with the Prince on the 63rd floor of the Wynne Las Vegas and Encore Resort Hotel is set to ‘tell all’ on American TV in ‘the next few days.’

Ms Bonas, the daughter of Sixties cover girl and banking heiress Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, enjoyed a holiday with Harry on Necker, the island owned by Sir Richard Branson, shortly before his jaunt to ‘Sin City’. Together with a group of friends, they were on Necker to celebrate the 27th birthday of Sir Richard’s son, Sam. Ms Bonas is said to be ‘less than impressed’ by the pictures that have emerged from the boys-only break in Las Vegas.

Photos of Harry naked and bear-hugging a nude blonde in his private suite have gone viral on the internet since they were published on the American website TMZ. During the Necker holiday, the Prince and Ms Bonas were acting very much as a couple, according to friends.

One told the Sunday Mirror: ‘They had been for a few dates including one just before Necker. Things went further there between them and they had a great time fooling around. Everyone in their group thought they were getting it on. Cressida definitely saw the romance as a goer and is gutted by what happened.’

A friend of Ms Bonas told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The relationship was pretty low key to begin with, but some of Cressida’s friends say it won’t get off the ground now, Cressida is pretty peeved.’

She and Harry were introduced by Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie. Last month they attended a screening of the new Batman movie where they were reportedly spotted in a clinch and they were recently seen at the Womad music festival in Wiltshire.

Yesterday, the U.S. media firm Bad Girlz PR claimed that a woman at the Prince’s party was prepared to reveal what happened that night and to take a lie detector test to back her version of events. The woman, from California, has hired a PR who acts as a go-between for people who have intimate stories about celebrities and want to go on the record.

A spokesman told the Sunday Mirror: ‘What she says is quite incredible and paints a different side to the prince and his behaviour.’

But the spokesman added that the woman is ‘nervous’ about coming forward because she fears a royal backlash. A spokesman for Prince Harry declined to comment last night.

[From The Mail]

Well… Prince Harry definitely acted like a fool, and I wouldn’t blame Cressida for walking away. That being said, let’s not act like they were completely coupled-up and in love. It really sounds like they had only begun dating and hooking up, and Cressida was merely hopeful that it would turn out to be something more. Plus, it doesn’t even sound like Cressida can get Harry on the phone long enough to dump him. Poor Cressida. She’s pretty, she’s young, and she’s wealthy. She’ll end up with someone in Harry’s circle of friends and Harry will end up going back to Chelsea for another round. I doubt Chelsea was impressed by Harry’s Royal Jewel-gate either, but Chelsea will be the one Harry reaches out to in his time of need.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

In yesterday’s coverage of the “Hot Guys” of The Dark Knight Rises premiere in London, I included photos of Prince Harry rubbing his nips as he left the movie. Something about The Dark Knight “rising” had put a “rise” to Harry – it’s always the violent movies, isn’t it? Ladies always think the sexy movies will get them all riled out, but really, dudes tend to get randy after violent movies. So there was Harry, having just sat through a three-hour epic of destruction, and he was ready to go. So he headed to the nearest leggy blonde. Her name is Cressida Bonas, and I’m including photos of her exit from the premiere too. The Mail is suggesting that Cressida, 23, could be Harry’s new girlfriend.

With a mane of blonde hair, endless legs and an impeccable pedigree, Cressida Bonas would certainly appear to be – as her friends suggest – ‘posh, pretty and perfect’. And the 23-year-old model’s charms have not been lost on Prince Harry.

The Mail can reveal that the third in line to the throne has been kissing and cuddling up to Miss Bonas, the daughter of Sixties cover girl Lady Mary-Gaye Georgiana Lorna Curzon. On Wednesday night the pair went to great lengths to convince photographers they were not together – a tactic which, when it comes to the royals, is often the biggest clue that something is going on.

As well as boasting the ideal credentials to become Harry’s new princess, Miss Bonas bears an uncanny resemblance to the 27-year-old prince’s past amours, long-term girlfriend Chelsy Davy and last year’s summer fling, Florence Brudenell-Bruce. Indeed, like Miss Davy, whose seven-year relationship with Harry was often tempestuous, Miss Bonas went to Stowe public school followed by Leeds University.

She is a familiar figure in London’s upper-class social scene and as a teenager was labelled by society bible Tatler as ‘really pretty, really nice and absolutely obsessed with Eva Cassidy’.

Currently a model for luxury brand Burberry and an aspiring actress, she is said to be a ‘sweet, bubbly’ character and was introduced to the prince by her close friend, Princess Eugenie. On Wednesday she joined Harry and his cousin for a party following the London premiere of Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, at the Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden – where they were at pains to walk in and out separately. Miss Bonas was, however, quietly but significantly chaperoned by Harry’s best friend, Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip.

When the pair arrived – separately again – at their second venue for the night, Le Salon, Miss Bonas made a huge show of entering the Central London brasserie and nightclub with her arms around a handsome dark-haired decoy, who in fact was Eugenie’s boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank.
Inside the club, according to onlookers, it was not long before she and Harry ‘hooked up’ and were seen kissing in a corner.

Dressed in a clinging white dress and vertiginous heels, and with a plait in her hair, Miss Bonas left at just after 4am, jumping alone into a cab. Harry departed with his bodyguards just ten minutes later.

The liaison comes after the prince complained in a US television interview earlier this year that girls were put off by his title and indicated he was keen to settle down.

Miss Bonas is the daughter of four-times married and divorced Lady Mary, who was the It girl of her day. Lady Mary – herself the daughter of pre-Second World War racing driver Earl Howe, a godson of Edward VII – has five children with three of her husbands. Miss Bonas was the product of her third marriage, to Old Harrovian Jeffrey Bonas, which ended in divorce in 1994. Another of her daughters, Isabella – by her second marriage, to property magnate John Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe – was once falsely romantically linked with Prince William. She is currently engaged to Sir Richard Branson’s son, Sam.

Lady Mary was one of the most glamorous debutantes of her era, appearing in daring Sixties coffee table book Birds of Britain posing half naked and covered in engine oil as a nod to her father’s racing past.

When asked last night about her daughter’s relationship with Harry, Lady Mary, who lives alone in a Chelsea townhouse, burst into giggles. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about it,’ she said, amid further laughter.

A spokesman for Prince Harry, who hopes to return to Afghanistan as a helicopter pilot, declined to comment.

[From The Mail]

A 23-year-old blonde model and aspiring actress with enough old-money, blue-blood connections to impress the royal family? Eh. It sounds like Harry and Cressida are definitely hooking up and she’s probably up for whatever he wants (23-year-olds usually are). But will this end up being something more? Or will it just be a few months of royal shagging and then Harry will run back to Chelsea Davy as soon as she crooks her little finger?

Interesting sidenote: I’ve read in several unauthorized tabloid pieces that Prince William was really, really into Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, Cressida’s older sister (UGH THESE NAMES!!!!). I’ve read that Isabella (who is completely beautiful, btw) had no desire to have a royal life, and she turned down William’s advances many times – and this is during the same time period when he was with Kate Middleton.

Photos courtesy of WENN.