\nBefore Meghan Markle appeared, Prince Harry was hoping for a happily ever after with a woman, whom he hoped would be his princess.\n
However, Cressida Bonas was \u201cspooked\u201d by the fame that follows members of the royal family and though Harry wanted to marry her at one point, she refused to join the media circus.\n
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In 2014, when his two-year-relationship with the British actor ended, he \u201cbegged\u201d her but \u201cher mind was made up,\u201d and she \u201creally broke his heart.\u201d\n
Keep reading to learn why Harry was begging his ex-girlfriend about 10 years ago!\n
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Before Prince Harry married Meghan Markle in 2018, he was involved in another high-profile relationship with a British actor and model named Cressida Bonas.\n
In 2012, Harry sparked a romance with the beautiful Bonas, after the two were introduced by his cousin Princess Eugenie.\n
In his revealing memoir \u201cSpare,\u201d the Duke of Sussex outlines a \u201cpainfully awkward\u201d moment from their first date.\n
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\u201cI leaned in to give her a kiss, but my aim was off,\u201d he writes. \u201cShe turned, I tried again on the return trip, and we managed something like a graze.\u201d\n
The next morning, Harry called Eugenie to share the details of his date and the attempted kiss that \u201cleft something to be desired.\u201d\n
But Bonas had beaten him to it and already spoken with the princess.\n
\u201cThen came the good news,\u201d Harry continues. \u201cCressida was game to try again.\u201d\n
\nWith their first kiss behind them, adorable couple \u2013 whose pet names for each other were Ken and Barbie \u2013 stayed together for another two years.\n
In Spare, Harry reveals that he considered marrying the British actress, and that his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate had \u201cmentioned, pointedly, repeatedly, how much they liked Cressida.\u201d\n
Bonas, then 24, was reportedly not onboard with marrying so young and was upset that the prince was ready to take that leap.\n
When the founder of the Archewell Foundation came back Afghanistan
\nfor a second tour \u2013 his first was cut short \u2013 the young couple maintained a long-distance relationship. Between visits, Harry regularly called his love, begging her to \u201cwait for him.\u201d\n
In \u201cSpare,\u201d the Heart of Invictus producer shares that one weekend, him and Bonas went on a ski trip to Kazakhstan, when the woman broke him down with a question about Princess Diana, who passed away in 1997.\n
He explains the Bye Bye Man actor asked about his mother with \u201cjust the right blend of curiosity and compassion.\u201d\n
While starting his response, he started to cry, the first time he wept since Diana was buried.\n
\u201c[Bonas] was the first person to help me across that barrier, to help me unleash the tears,\u201d he pens of the intimate moment he shared with Bonas. \u201cIt was cathartic, it accelerated our bond and added an element rare in past relationships: immense gratitude.\u201d\n
When rumours of a royal engagement started swirling, Bonas is said to have become increasingly overwhelmed by the public attention.\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly frustrating, especially in the industry that I\u2019m in,\u201d she says about the scrutinizing public. \u201cBut you know, it is the way it is.\u201d\n
Confirming her statement in his tell-all book, Harry writes that Bonas \u201cwas always clear about not wanting to take on the stresses of being a royal.\u201d\n
\u201c\u2026I was never sure I wanted to ask her to do so,\u201d the prince writes, adding the fame that accompanied his status as a royal was an \u201cunalterable fact.\u201d\n
According to Royal expert Robert Lacey, as a \u201crising actress, Cressida did not enjoy the critical remarks.\u201d Discussing the prince\u2019s relationship in his book \u201cBattle of Brothers: William and Harry \u2013 The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult,\u201d Lacey writes, \u201cShe felt that the fame of her relationship put her \u2018in a box.\u2019\u201d\n
Furthering her fears, the author shares that Bonas was \u201ccompletely spooked\u201d by \u201cthe TV coverage of William and Kate\u2026\u201d and \u201cregretfully explained [that] to Harry.\u201d\n
Though the prince felt \u201cindebted\u201d to the Tulip Fever star for the emotional breakthrough in Kazakhstan, he split with Bonas shortly after the ski trip.\n
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\u201cThere was massive affection, deep and abiding loyalty \u2013 but not love everlasting,\u201d Harry writes of their 2014 split.\n
And Bonas didn\u2019t disagree. \u201cNone of it seemed to surprise her,\u201d he reflected. \u201cThese things had been on her mind as well\u2026She looked at the floor, tears running down her cheeks. Damn, I thought. She helped me cry. And now I\u2019m leaving her in tears.\u201d\n
After he left, he tried to convince Bonas to give it another shot, according to biographer Katie Nicholl. \u201cHarry didn\u2019t want things to end. He was in love with her and he tried to convince her they could make it work, but Cressida\u2019s mind was made up,\u201d says Nicholl, the author of \u201cHarry: Life, Loss and Love.\u201d \u201cI think she really broke his heart.\u201d\n
Family and friends were sh:oc:ked over the couple\u2019s breakup, with one source suggesting it was just a \u201cbreather.\u201d\n
\u201cNobody had any idea that this was coming\u2026I thought they were very happy together.\u201d, Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine, tells People.\n
Bonas\u2019s half-brother Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe offers some insight into why the couple didn\u2019t work out. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that is easy for anyone \u2013 dating a royal or marrying into the family,\u201d he said in a 2013 interview with the Evening Standard \u201cShe\u2019s not a tough cookie at all. She\u2019s a sensitive, sweet girl.\u201d\n
After the White House Farm actor and the Duke of Sussex went their separate ways, they reportedly stayed friends, and the British star even attended his wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018.\n
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In 2020, speaking with the Standard, Bonas was asked if she felt for Markle, \u201ca fellow actress, for the scrutiny she receives.\u201d\n
She responds, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t take a position on that because it would be a headline. Also out of respect. It feels like a long time ago. When it comes up it feels strange because I\u2019m in a different place.\u201d\n
Explaining that she feels \u201clabelled\u201d as a royal ex-girlfriend, Bonas adds, \u201cNo one likes to be labelled. The hurdles for me are when I\u2019m trying to do my work and people want to talk about [Harry]. I work very hard and love what I do but it is still something I have to contend with.\u201d\n
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The \u201cdifferent place\u201d that Bonas referred to earlier is her relationship with Harry Wentworth-Stanley, whom she married in 2020.\n
Wentworth-Stanley is the stepson of the Marquess of Milford Haven, George Mountbatten, who\u2019s a cousin of the late Queen.\n
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In 2022, Bonas (now Cressida Wentworth-Stanley) was spotted with her newborn son, Wilbur James, who was named after her husband\u2019s brother who died by suicide in 2006 at age 21.\n
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