Prince Harry and ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas: what they were like

There was once. For Prince Harry meet woman Megan Marklehe dated Cressida Bonas for two years.

The pair struck up a romance in 2012 after being introduced by Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie. In his January 2023 memoir, Reservethe Duke of Sussex recalled a “painfully awkward” moment from their first date.

“I leaned in to kiss her but my aim was wrong,” he wrote. “She turned around. I tried again on the return trip and we managed to avoid something like a scrape.” When the Prince called Eugenie to complain about the less-than-smooth hug, he learned that his cousin had already heard the story from Bonas.

‘But then the good news came,’ Harry continued. “Cressida was a game to try again.”

With their lackluster first kiss behind them, the pair continued dating for another two years. In ReserveBetterUp’s CIO recalled the Goodbye man actress who helped him mourn the death of his mother, Princess Diana, years after the tragedy happened. (The late royal died aged 36 in a car crash in August 1997.)

During a 2014 skiing trip to Kazakhstan, Harry’s then-girlfriend asked him about Diana with “just the right mix of curiosity and compassion”. As he answered her, he began to cry.

The prince wrote that the intimate moment was the first time he had cried over his mother’s death since her funeral. “She was the first person to help me cross that barrier, to help me let go of the tears,” he wrote. “It was cathartic, it accelerated our bond and added an element that was rare in previous relationships: immense gratitude.”

Despite feeling “owed” to the model, the Archewell co-founder broke up with Bonas shortly after the holiday.

“There was enormous affection, deep and abiding loyalty – but no eternal love,” Harry wrote of their split in 2014, noting that Bonas had always been “clear that he didn’t want to take on the stress of being a royal.”

He recalled that Bonas didn’t seem surprised when he told her he wanted to quit. “These things had been going through her mind too,” he said. “’I’ve learned so much from you, Cress’. She nodded. She looked down at the floor and tears ran down her cheeks. Damn, I thought. She helped me cry. And now I leave her in tears.”

Although their love story didn’t last, the exes have apparently remained on good terms. Bonas attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, donning a custom Eponine London gown and a pink feathered fascinator for the occasion. The actress got married Harry Wentworth-Stanley in 2020 and the couple welcomed son Wilbur in 2022.

Harry and Meghan meanwhile share son Archie and daughter Lilibet, born in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

Keep scrolling for a look at Harry and Bonas’ relationship over the years: