Who is Chelsy Davy, the unwitting protagonist of the trial of Henry of England against the media

When Harry of England went up on Tuesday to testify as a witness in his legal battle against the Mirror Group Newspapers corporation, the publishing group that owns the Daily Mirror, which he accuses of having obtained information about his private life illegally for years, a name resonated in the room up to 118 times: that of Chelsy Davy. The woman, who maintained an intermittent relationship with the Duke of Sussex between 2004 and 2011, thus became the unwitting protagonist of the day, while the prince explained how the excessive attention of the press, which pursued them during the seven years they were together, caused "enormous unnecessary tension and stress" in the couple and, Finally, he separated them.

During the first decade of the 2000s, when many of the events mentioned by Prince Harry during his statement took place, a young Chelsy Davy, now 37, appeared in the British media day in and day out. The relationship was labeled by the press at the time as "turbulent." Henry of England was portrayed, in his own words, as "the womanizer, the failure, the school dropout, the zoquete, the underage drinker or the irresponsible drug addict." Davy, who at the time worked long hours at a law firm in the City, London's financial district, continually appeared as a party girl. Today she is married to businessman Sam Cutmore-Scott, with whom she has a son, born in 2022, named Leo. She owns a jewelry firm and remains friends with her ex. In fact, she was one of the guests at his wedding to Meghan Markle, held on May 18, 2018 at Windsor Castle.

Prince Harry launches his court battle against the tabloids: "The press has been hostile to me since I was born"

Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 1985, Davy is the daughter of Charles Davy, a millionaire safari businessman and one of Zimbabwe's most prominent landowners, and Beverly Donald, a former model and Miss Rhodesia in 1973. She was raised in a privileged environment, in the city of Victoria Falls, within her father's game reserve, a land twice the size of Surrey County. In her teens, she was sent to study in the United Kingdom, passing first through Cheltenham College, an exclusive boarding school that, with an annual cost between 31,000 and 43,000 pounds (between 36,000 and 49,000 euros, at the current exchange rate), is one of the most expensive schools in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, he went through the no less prestigious Stowe School to study the baccalaureate. It was in this period that she met Prince Harry, although it was not until a short time later, when they met in Cape Town, during the sabbatical period that he took between university graduation and his entry into the British Army in 2003, when they began their relationship.

Chelsy Davy at Henry's graduation ceremony as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force (RAF), on May 7, 2010. Today, Davy maintains a life away from the spotlight. Max Mumby/Indigo (Getty Images)

From there, Chelsy Davy's life would take a radical turn. He moved back to the UK and began studying law at the University of Leeds, to be closer to his partner. She and Prince Harry were together for about seven years, albeit intermittently due to the extreme pressure she, allergic to the spotlight and being the center of attention, felt during this period. During his testimony at the London trial, Prince Harry recalled some of the news at the time that weakened their relationship, such as when it was published that the Duke of Sussex had visited a strip club while they were together. "These kinds of articles made me feel like my relationship with Chelsy was doomed to failure. Ultimately, they led me to make the decision that a life within royalty was not for her, which was incredibly painful for me at the time," Harry told the court.

In an interview in the Sunday Timesin 2016, Davy spoke for the first time of that period, calling it "a harsh and horrible experience". "I was young, trying to lead a normal life and it was horrific," he said.

Chelsy Davy (center) arriving at the wedding of her ex, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle, on May 19, 2018 at Windsor Castle. Chris Jackson (Getty Images)

"I think Enrique and I are going to be very good friends forever," he also said in that same interview. The couple broke up on friendly terms in 2011, but "maddening, threatening and unbearable" pressure from British tabloids then forced the lawyer to give up life in London and return to her native Zimbabwe.

In his controversial memoirs, the Duke of Sussex wrote that he "appreciated Chelsy's carefree and authentic spirit" because he "never cared what others thought." Chelsy "wore short skirts and high boots, danced with rapture, drank as much tequila as I did," she wrote. He also gave more details about their breakup, claiming that she wanted to "travel, have fun and enjoy her youth" while he began his military career. "If we had stayed together, we would have been lucky if we had been able to see each other a few times in those two years; And that's not a relationship," the duke wrote.

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In 2016, Chelsy Davy appeared before the media again, this time to promote her new jewelry brand, Aya, which she debuted after leaving the law. In 2018, she was photographed at Harry and Meghan's wedding, which was also attended by another of the Duke's exes, Cressida Bonas. In 2020, he announced that he had "met someone." It was Sam Cutmore-Scott, a British businessman who, curiously, coincided with Prince Harry at Eton College, the elitist school where emblematic figures such as Ian Fleming or George Orwell have also studied, passing through numerous politicians and almost twenty British prime ministers. In January 2022, the couple had their first child, whom they named Leo. Later, they married in an intimate ceremony. Davy didn't post any of this on his social media. In fact, the first image in which he appears with a baby on his Instagram account, without specifying if it is his son, dates from October 2022. Information that it is was published in the Daily Mail.