It was fortunate that Meghan had finally made the leap from the areas of uncertainty which she characterised as ‘greyness’ to embracing her bi-racial identity, for this would prove to be yet another of the pivots which saw her make an even more important leap, from actress on a cable television show to member of the British Royal Family.
There is some doubt as to whether the relationship between Cory and Meghan had actually ended before Meghan met Prince Harry. Although Meghan would later claim it had, Cory has refused to be drawn, which leads one to suspect that it had not. Overlap or not, it was definitely limping to an end and if Meghan was fortunate enough to replace one handsome and celebrated Adonis with an even more famous and important hunk, she would have been crazy not to seize the moment.
Amongst the many things Harry and Meghan had in common was a checkered romantic past. Shortly before entering Sandhurst, he had started a romance with Chelsy Davy, a bright, bouncy, blonde Zimbabwean whom he had met the year before through Simon Diss, one of his Gloucestershire friends who formed the circle known as the Glosse Posse. She had been educated in England at Cheltenham College before transferring to Stowe School to do her A Levels, but, when they met, she was about to return to South Africa, where her family lived, to read PPE (politics, philosophy and economics) at the University of Cape Town. It was while he was in Lesotho and in need of diversion that Harry reconnected with her.
Chelsy Davy is a very attractive girl and bouncy, as I can attest, having met her at polo. She is bright and sociable. Harry joined her and a group of her friends for a night out at a nightclub called Rhodes House, and the evening went so swimmingly that they ended up spending most of their time on the dancefloor, entwined in passionate embraces. It was the beginning of a romance that would last, on and off, for seven years. They had much in common. Both were fearless physically. She was a superb horsewoman who could ride bareback and had been known to wring the life out of a snake with her bare hands. Both she and Harry loved Africa, whether it was going on safari in Botswana or just chilling at her family properties. Her father Charles Davy was one of the largest white landowners in Zimbabwe, with properties covering 800,000 acres, while her mother Beverley nee Donald had been Miss Rhodesia in 1973. Upon discovering that Charles Davy was also in business with Webster Shamu, Minister of State for Policy Implementation, at a time when Robert Mugabe’s government was being reviled internationally for its policy of land grabbing, not to mention the intimidation and abuse of power which were characteristics of the Mugabe regime, the British press created such a monumental hue and cry that Davy ultimately had to sever his connections with Shamu. This cannot have been easy for either Chelsy or Harry, who were innocents caught up in a game not of their own making. Once news of their relationship broke in the Mail on Sunday, with staff at the lodge in Argentina where they had gone for a romantic weekend tipping off the newspaper that ‘Harry and Chelsy were like any young couple in love, kissing and holding hands, and he seemed quite besotted. They looked madly in love and at one point Harry admitted that she was his first true love’, the publicity proved an unwelcome pressure on the relationship.
Of course, the press can never get enough of a good romance, and once Harry turned 21 and gave the customary interview to mark the occasion, he was inveigled into commenting, ‘I would love to tell everyone how amazing she is. But, you know, that is my private life and once I start talking about that, then I’ve left my own self open, and if anyone asks me in the future, then they’ll say “Oh well hang on, you told them but why aren’t you telling us?”’ This was just enough to satisfy the newspapers, whose absorbing interest in the Harry and Chelsy affair seemed never-ending.
In the beginning, though, the real strains between the couple were their youthfulness and the enforced separations they had to endure. Chelsy remained in South Africa for the first two years to obtain her BA from the University of Cape Town in 2006, while Harry entered Sandhurst, completed his officer training course, before being commissioned into the Blues and Royals. Although royal protocol deemed it inappropriate for her to be in attendance at his graduation ceremony, she flew in for the graduation ball.
In 2006, Chelsy moved back to England to take the LLB law degree at the University of Leeds. Harry, meanwhile, was flourishing in the Army. It was announced that his unit would be deployed to Iraq the following year, which created a tremendous kerfuffle, with the Defence Secretary agreeing with Harry, who wanted to be sent to the front line. ‘If they said “no, you can’t go front line,” then I wouldn’t drag my sorry arse through Sandhurst and I wouldn’t be where I am now,’ Harry announced, gaining the admiration of the public. The Queen, who had previously allowed Prince Andrew’s life to be put on the line during the Falklands War just like every other serving soldier, sailor, and airman, agreed with her grandson. Although Harry would ultimately not be sent to Iraq, because his presence would provide a magnet for insurgents, endangering the lives of the other men, he was sent instead to Afghanistan for two separate tours of duty. This gained him the respect of the public in a way
