By KATE LEAVER
“Nah, I don’t want to be a princess. I’ve got better things to do.”
OK, so those are not words Cressida Bonas actually said with her mouth. But they do accurately sum up her decision to break up with Prince Harry.
25-year-old Cressida reportedly ended her relationship with the naughtiest royal in Britain because she wanted to pursue her career as an actress. She wanted her own life.
A friend of Cressida’s has said she moved on from her Prince because, “She felt her ambitions would have been trampled by the royal ‘machine’.”
Ah, a woman after my own heart. She’s absolutely right – of course ambition goes out the Buckingham Palace window when you sign up for duchess duty. If Cressida had stayed with Prince Harry, she would have been required to give up her identity, her career, and her autonomy over every decision in her own life, be it trivial (the length of her hemline) or life-changing (the bearing of royal children).
Any adult who has watched Kate Middleton become Duchess Catherine knows that. When you become a princess, it’s a clean swap – your identity for the privilege of marrying into royalty. And yet, we insist on teaching our little girls that being a princess is the ultimate fairytale ending for anyone with a double x chromosome.
Cressida Bonas had the option to live that life, and she declined. A+ for that decision.
Now, I’m not suggesting you can’t do wonderful things as a princess. I happen to like Kate Middleton a lot, which is a complicated position for someone who believes Australia should be a republic. Like Princess Diana before her, she’s done some extraordinary philanthropic work and she’s certainly produced a very sweet child. Her choice belongs to her, and it’s a perfectly legitimate one, especially because she seems to genuinely adore her husband, Prince William.