The Royalist was reporting all last week that there seemed to be fresh impetus on the part of Camp Harry to move towards an engagement with his girlfriend Cressida Bonas, and this weekend the British royal gossips were abuzz with further speculation on the matter, after the Sunday Telegraph reported that Cressida’s friends were confidently expecting a 2014 wedding.
“Cressie is going to marry Harry,” one of her friends told The Telegraph. “Harry never stops talking about marriage and children, and she has now got used to the idea. The wedding is likely to take place next year.”
Harry (29) has made little secret of the fact that he is actively wife-hunting, going so far as to explicitly bemoan the difficulty of finding someone to fill the “role” of royal wife in interviews, and this, understandably, ‘freaked Cressida out’ according to one of the Royalist’s sources.
Friends of the young royals have previously told the Royalist that the romance with Cressida (24) represented Harry’s most serious relationship since the Chelsy Davy days, but with Harry’s and Cressida’s friends now allowing themselves to believe that the still-rowdy royal and his blue-blooded girlfriend could actually tie the knot next year, it’s clear the relationship is moving up a gear. Cressida has been unwilling to commit, and also to give up on her dreams of a showbiz career (she is a dance graduate).
One outward sign that Harry and Cressida may be preparing for a new reality came last week when, after months of playing cat and mouse with the press, the couple finally emerged into the glare of London nightlife together, first hitting a James Blunt concert on Monday night then going to see the Book of Mormon together on Tuesday.
One of the defining characteristics of the relationship of Prince Harry and Cressida Bonas has been the extraordinary lengths the couple have gone to in order to avoid being photographed together.
Except for when they got papped kissing and hugging on the slopes at the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, the relationship has been conducted largely behind closed doors, with the two preferring to meet up at friends’ houses in Fulham and Chelsea, rather than the clubs Harry used to frequent.
The Swiss PDA between Harry, 28, and Cressida, 24, came after the two spent an evening kissing and cuddling at a birthday dinner for 20 hosted by Prince Andrew at a local restaurant. At that dinner, Cressida sat on Harry’s knee as they kissed and cuddled, to the astonishment of other diners at the party, which was being held to celebrate Prince Andrew’s 53rd birthday on Tuesday. The party also included Fergie and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie (Eugenie is one of Cressida’s best friends, and Cressida joined her for a farewell dinner before the young royal headed off to New York to work for an online auction house last week).
The decision by the two to effectively make public the depth of their affection – even if it is just by leaving a theatre together rather than seperately - is a sign that the relationship is moving on to a more serious footing, and, crucially, that Cressida is comfortable with publicly being nown as Harry's girl. The two have been dating since May 2012.
Their willingness to be seen together in public has increased speculation among Harry's set that Cressida may be ready to "go public" as Harry's girlfriend - something that has never been officially confirmed - which could in turn be a first step to an engagement.