The romance was blossoming at a hectic pace.
CHAPTER 5
BOTSWANA
Prince Harry might have been forgiven for thinking his 2005 ski trip to Klosters was, from his own point of view, a success. Any thoughts of his Nazi gaffe dominating the news had been totally overshadowed by the fact that his brother William had taken Kate Middleton on the annual trip with Prince Charles.
The rare glimpse of Kate in public with her university sweetheart was enough to send the photographers into a frenzy. Even some of the seasoned ‘old boys’ of the Royal press pack found themselves grabbing their cameras and waiting for a frame of Kate as she turned up at the main ski lift each morning. This was the first time since the death of Princess Diana that any of these veteran snappers had dared try and take a Royal photograph against the wishes of the palace press office. For seven years they had obediently refrained from pursuing the young princes, only turning up to official photocalls carefully managed by the press office.
But Wills and Kate were huge news. It was the second year in a row this mysterious brunette had joined the princes on the slopes, which was inevitably seen as a sign of just how serious their relationship had become behind the closed doors of St Andrews University.
For his part, Prince Charles had also inadvertently taken the heat away from Harry with his televised rant at the BBC’s Royal correspondent. His wedding to Camilla was due to take place the Friday after they returned from the slopes and again this attracted media attention all over the world.
But when Harry woke up on the last morning of his holiday that year, any thoughts that he had been able to slip under the media radar were immediately dashed. The News of the World had written a story claiming the 20-year-old prince had cheated on Chelsy on the same night he had laughed and joked with me in the nightclub.
For three days the paper had worked on its world exclusive, which was splashed across the tabloid’s front page under the damning headline: ‘Harry Cheats on Chelsy’. The scoop was based on claims made by a friend of a 17-year-old Swedish stunner called Alexia Bergstrom. According to the paper she had confessed to a friend how the randy young Royal had invited her back to his hotel in the small hours.
Chelsy meanwhile was 6,000 miles away at her home in Cape Town and was oblivious to what her boyfriend of nearly a year was claimed to have been up to.
This was a tragic blow for Harry. The girl he had fallen for was now alone in South Africa trying to come to terms with salacious claims she was the victim of a cheating boyfriend. Horrified, the prince immediately went to see his father’s director of communications, Paddy Harverson, who was part of the entourage on the trip. He begged Harverson to help him because he feared the impact this sort of story would have on Chelsy.
The prince is surprisingly good at taking stories about him on the chin but, like his brother William, he has no such tolerance of stories that may affect other people in his life. Harry was extremely protective of Chelsy and furious that her name was splashed over the front pages in a negative story, purely because of her association with him.
The carefully written story was correct in every way except one. Harry had met the Swedish beauty in the club that night and she had been invited back to the hotel. But Harry’s role in the events of that evening remained purely as a ‘wing man’ for one of his closest pals. It wasn’t Harry who had lured Alexia back to the hotel that night, it was one of Harry’s friends.
A source close to the prince revealed at the time: ‘This was a case of Harry playing wing man to his mate. The fact Harry was there was enough to set tongues wagging, but on this occasion it really had little if anything to do with Harry. The reality is Harry only has eyes for Chelsy. She is all he talks about and it is quite clear there is no way he would risk ruining his first serious relationship for a one-night stand.’
Despite the misunderstanding being quite swiftly sorted out, the episode certainly acted as a wake-up call to Chelsy. What was she letting herself in for by dating Harry? Her friends knew she was not interested in being famous or becoming a Royal WAG. The cost of being in a relationship with the third in line to the throne comes with its own unique baggage and challenges. The News of the World story was a sign of what was to come for Chelsy, and the first real doubts about whether she had a future with Harry began to worry her.
Harry flew home at the end of his ski trip wishing he could be with Chelsy and have time to sit down and explain what really happened. But it was impossible for him to fly out and see her. The following week he was going to be paraded in front of the world as his father finally married the woman who had been in the background for more than twenty-five years.
Chelsy was not a guest at the wedding. It had been decided that Prince Charles and Camilla would tie the knot in the relatively low-key surroundings of Windsor Guildhall.
Because they were both divorcees and Camilla was from a Catholic background, the wedding plans had been thrown into chaos. The Queen felt she could not attend the ceremony itself because of her official position as Defender of the Faith, the theoretical head of the Church of England. But Prince Charles was determined to press ahead with the nuptials and in an astonishing break with Royal protocol booked the closest civil registry office to Windsor Castle.
Although Her Majesty attended a service of dedication in the castle’s chapel afterwards, the compromise meant the guest list for the ceremony itself was extremely limited.
A close friend of Harry revealed that even if the wedding had taken place with all the pomp and ceremony usually associated with the marriage of a future king, there is no way he would have invited Chelsy. ‘The constant theme throughout Harry and Chelsy’s relationship was the battle between his position and her free-spiritedness. It was clear from the start that Chelsy was not interested in becoming a princess, with all the grandeur and baggage that would entail. But what option did Harry have? He was besotted with Chelsy and the fact that she wasn’t interested in all the trappings of royalty was one of the things he found so irresistible.
‘This situation was a constant elephant in the room for Harry and Chelsy. Right from the start he avoided inviting her to any events that might put her off or blow his chances of continuing the relationship. Because of this, there is no way he would have invited Chelsy within 100 miles of his father’s Royal wedding. Harry did everything he could to play down the Royal thing, it was a constant difficulty which in the end probably explains why they had such a rocky time.’
On the day of his father’s wedding, Harry dutifully supported Prince Charles, knowing that once the day was out of the way he was free to fly out to Africa to try to build bridges with Chelsy.
He was due to start his training at the military academy in May that year, which gave him just enough time to fly out to Africa and see his sweetheart. There was no doubt in Harry’s mind that he had to see her before starting at Sandhurst.
The officer training school, considered one of the finest in the world, was going to be a huge challenge for the young Royal. Harry was not academic, and the forty-four-week course would mean him having to knuckle down to sit exams on basic maths, English and military history as well as being tested on the theory of basic infantry skills. For someone who had struggled at school, this was going to be a huge hurdle. Failure in the classroom at Sandhurst would risk him being put back, or even thrown off the course.
It is a high-pressure environment for any aspiring officer cadet, with a high drop-out rate. New recruits are thrown in at the deep end with an intensive regime that tests the resolve of even the toughest. The course is designed to test every aspect of a cadet’s abilities. Harry was not so worried about the gruelling training regime outside the classroom. He revelled in the challenge of being woken each day at 5 a.m. and going on military exercises, including long yomps through rugged terrain.
But if he didn’t fly out to see Chelsy before his course began, Harry was all too aware that he wouldn’t be able to explain about Alexia, the ski trip and
the damaging headlines. For the first five weeks at Sandhurst cadets are forbidden to leave the base to see loved ones.
Harry’s problem was convincing Chelsy to see him in the short window before he started at Sandhurst. Once again the couple had the added difficulty of where to go. Chelsy’s home in Zimbabwe was still off limits because of the Mugabe regime. And to spend weekdays sitting around her student home in Cape Town was never going to be ideal.
Strangely, the solution for the young couple was staring Harry in the face. As a child he and William had been taken to Africa on holiday by their late mother, Princess Diana. She was keen for them to experience a true African adventure, far away from the public gaze and the lavish surroundings of Royal palaces. Diana’s instinct to give her boys an experience they would never forget now gave Harry the answer he was looking for.
The landlocked Republic of Botswana was the perfect compromise. It bordered South Africa to the south and Zimbabwe to the north. But unlike the busy suburbs of Cape Town, Botswana was and remains one of the most sparsely populated nations in the world. And unlike Zimbabwe, it had enjoyed decades of peaceful democratic elections and relative political stability since becoming a republic in 1966. Harry could happily visit Botswana without any of the political controversy that would come with a trip to Zimbabwe. Here, he and Chelsy could experience the real Africa without a care in the world.
It was Diana’s legendary work with the victims of HIV and AIDS that first brought Botswana to her attention. A former British protectorate, the diamond-rich country was one of the places hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, with around a quarter of the population feared to have been infected. Despite its relative wealth by African standards, Botswana was in desperate need of Diana’s high-profile intervention.
She had fallen in love with the country following an official visit there and decided to return for a holiday with her young boys. Harry and William spent days sitting around campfires, rafting on hippo- and crocodile-infested rivers, and travelling out into the wilds looking for elephants, rhinos and lions. For any child this must have seemed like the adventure of a lifetime. There is no doubt that, for Harry, his mother’s decision to take him to Botswana as a child was to have a profound impact on him in later life.
Fortunately for Harry, Chelsy shared his excitement when he suggested they meet up in Botswana for a break before Sandhurst. She got permission to take time out from her studies and arranged to fly from Cape Town up to the tiny town of Maun, Botswana, where their romantic adventure could begin.
After arriving at Maun airport the couple planned to head off and explore the Okavango Delta, one of the world’s best wildlife wildernesses. Harry had arranged for them to spend the first three days of their adventure on a horseback trek, sleeping under the stars and enjoying the remote beauty of the Moremi Game Reserve. Here, they spent their days looking for wildlife before setting up camp and enjoying cocktails and champagne as the sun set over the pools and dunes of the Delta.
In many ways this seemed like a dream for Harry: quality time in the wilderness with his first true love. Any anxiety he may have been feeling about starting his military career the following month, and being separated from Chelsy for the rest of the summer, faded away as they held hands, talked and forgot all about what was to come.
A source from one of the safari firms that helped organize the trip told me shortly afterwards: ‘The one thing they wanted was to be alone, to be out in the wilderness and enjoy their time together. The Delta is the kind of place wealthy businessmen and even Hollywood stars come for their honeymoons. It’s very basic and you really feel as though you are in the middle of nowhere. You can go for days out here without seeing a single person.
‘If it’s solitude you want, then this place ticks all the boxes. We are used to dealing with famous people in this part of Botswana. No one here cares who you are and that is part of the appeal. The trip that Harry organized had its splash of luxury, but anyone who comes on safari here has to be prepared to rough it. You are totally exposed to the elements. In the daytime temperatures often hit 40°C. And the cool evenings you have to be prepared for mosquito bites and the possible dangers of snakes, spiders and wild animals. In the heat you have to be prepared for the dust to stick to you and it can get quite uncomfortable.
‘But that is all part of the draw for people. This is a safari experience like no other. Guests really feel like they are experiencing a taste of what it is like to be in the wild. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and Harry must know that his girlfriend is not precious about sleeping rough and coping without the luxuries of running water or nice cool showers.’
News of Harry’s romantic pre-Sandhurst trip with Chelsy soon spread. Several newspapers were sent to Maun to report on the blossoming relationship. I arrived with a photographer at Maun’s tiny airport, only for my heart to sink as I realized the scale of difficulties this choice of holiday destination posed. To the south of Maun was the vast Kalahari Desert, 900,000 square kilometres of remote savanna. The Moremi Game Reserve to the north may have been much smaller but with 5,000 square kilometres and only a handful of sandy tracks our chances of spotting a prince were next to zero.
We decided therefore to stay in Maun itself and wait for Harry and Chelsy to come to us. At the time I didn’t feel at all easy with being sent thousands of miles to try and find the prince. It was quite clear that if – as I suspected – Harry didn’t want to be found, we wouldn’t stand a chance of getting a picture or story to send back to London. In these situations, as with Harry’s trip to Bazaruto, the previous December, our presence there is little more than a ‘watching brief’. The last thing we want to do is ruin the Royal’s holiday, but at the same time the public had a right to know what was going on.
On the final day of his trip, Harry was photographed as he and Chelsy returned from safari. They were pictured in an open-top game jeep designed to give tourists the real-life experience of animals in the wild without fear of them being attacked by any of the deadly creatures that roamed the reserve. Harry looked every bit the adventurer with a pair of dark sunglasses and a blue bandana on his head.
The couple looked as though they had enjoyed the adventure even though the heat must have been unbearable. From that moment on there was no doubt that he had hit the jackpot in finding Chelsy. She may have been used to dressing up and partying in Cape Town, but Chelsy clearly had no issues with being in the wild, unwashed and without make-up. Not many of the women who would love to boast Prince Harry as a boyfriend would ever tolerate being in the wilderness for days at a time. There was no doubt these two shared a love of Africa and the outdoors, a bond that would only bring them closer together over the coming years.
In the back of the jeep was a trusted Royal protection officer. In the driver’s seat, a Canadian-born and wild-looking safari guide who had been entrusted to take the VIP couple out into the reserve.
The night after the picture had been taken, a small group of us went for a meal in Maun’s only sports bar. The air-conditioned saloon with its pool tables and freshly made pizzas was a rare oasis in an otherwise dust-ridden, sweltering town. This was one of the few places we could go to file our stories, eat a meal and relax with a much-needed cold beer. We also knew we could safely hang out there without fear of bumping into Harry and causing an issue. The odd mix of local drifters who earned their money guiding wealthy tourists through the reserve all knew each other. And we had made it clear to them we wanted to stay out of Harry’s way.
However, that night as the small group of us enjoyed the relative sanctuary of the sports bar we were in for a shock. A much larger group of white locals stormed into the bar. These redneck drifters were clearly furious that Prince Harry had been pictured and they were out for revenge. Like the women I had met at Tonbridge station in the first week of my journalism career as I covered the fall-out from Diana’s death, these guys saw us journalists as the enemy.
Wrongly assuming we had taken the pictures that day, th
ey had slashed the tyres on our two rented 4x4s that were parked outside and stormed inside for a fight. One group, led by the Canadian guide who had been pictured with Harry, surrounded us at the bar and demanded to know who took the photograph.
At six foot four and the wrong side of seventeen stone I’m not easily intimidated. But there were at least a dozen of these guys and they all looked like South African rugby players. I had visions of being dragged out and dumped in the reserve with only my notepad to protect me from the lions that roamed the area at night.
Fortunately, one of our group was an attractive and streetwise female reporter from the Daily Mail. She smiled at them and suggested we buy them a drink. Within minutes she had expertly defused the tension and we were soon drinking beers and laughing about what we would have written if they had attacked us as planned.
I said: ‘Prince Harry’s Evil Henchmen would make a good front page, and if I survived the lions and the bruises I guess it would have been worth it.’
Once we had been given the chance to talk to the mob they realized we were not to blame and instead bombarded us with questions about what it was like to report on the Royal family all over the world.
I don’t know how close we came to getting a Botswanan-style hiding that night, but we left the sports bar with new friends. They were very apologetic when we went outside to find our hired vehicles with slashed tyres and even decided it was the least they could do to drive us safely back to our hotel.
A few months later I was back in the sports bar and the same Canadian man came in to find me. It was quite ironic that this time he would storm into the bar, not to rip my head off, but to politely ask if I could send him the picture of him driving Harry and Chelsy that had caused all the fuss. He wanted it as a souvenir of the day he took Prince Harry on safari.
Prince Harry Page 7