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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have just made their home in a $14.7 million estate in Montecito, Santa Barbara, California.
But things were different for Harry before he and Meghan were looking to put down roots in southern California at the 7.4-acre, 9-bed, 16-bath property they bought in early July from Russian oligarch Sergey Grishin.
Back in 2011, when William and Kate tied the knot, the prince was in a relationship with Zimbabwean businesswoman Chelsy Davy.
And the royal wedding of William and Kate signalled the end of Harry’s on-off romance with Chelsy.
He had invited Chelsy to the royal wedding of his brother and delivered the best man’s speech to the couple and 300 guests at the Buckingham Palace reception.
Now it has been revealed that Harry made Kate Middleton weep on her wedding day with touching comments in that speech, the Mirror reports.
A record two billion people watched the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge become man and wife on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey.
Royal author Katie Nicholl, in her 2017 biography Harry: Life, Loss, and Love, gives details of the speech.
She said: “It was affectionate, warm and funny and touched William deeply.
“When he said the couple’s decade-long romance was his inspiration, there was a shy smile from Chelsy, while Kate shed a tear.
“The speech was peppered with Harry’s classic sense of humour, and he ribbed his brother ‘William didn’t have a romantic bone in his body before he met Kate, so I knew it was serious when William suddenly started cooing down the phone at Kate.’
“Famous for his mimicry, Harry then impersonated his brother calling Kate ‘Babykins’, to much laughter from the guests.”
She added that Chelsy made him delete one line of his speech for fear it would leave Kate red-faced.
Ms Nicholl writes: “She had helped Harry edit the best man’s speech, sensitively advising him to take out a line about Kate’s ‘killer legs’ that might have embarrassed the bride.”
Prince Harry – along with Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton – helped transform the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace into a nightclub by putting up disco balls and placing “giant glass bowls of Kate and William’s favourite Haribo sweets.”
Ms Nicholl writes: “Harry happily took on the role of master of ceremonies and made sure everyone was having a great time.”
However, according to Ms Nicoll, Chelsy decided the royal life “was not for her” after the wedding.
Ms Nicholl explained: “Being part of the royal wedding had made Chelsy’s mind up once and for all.
“The life of a royal bride was not for her and she told Harry she could never make the sacrifices Kate had made.”
One of Chelsy’s friends told the royal author: “It was just after the royal wedding when she realised she couldn’t cut it.
“She saw what it would be like in the spotlight, and she didn’t want that life for herself.
“She truly loved Harry, but knew this wasn’t a life she could lead.”
Harry and Chelsy stayed friends and she was a guest at his 2018 wedding to Meghan at St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
