Today she’s the girlfriend of Britain’s most eligible prince but in 2010, Cressida Bonas was an aspiring lingerie model.
An old image of Prince Harry’s girlfriend of nearly a year modelling a bikini for upmarket underwear company Beautiful Bottoms has resurfaced, much to the horror of the lady in question.
The picture — which shows Cressida, then 21, in a frilly green two-piece — is being circulated on a new promotional flyer for the underwear brand, which is owned by her aristocratic friends Poppy Sexton-Wainwright, Isabel Bradshaw and Lauren Skerritt.
Cressida wanted to be a model as a teen, and it is believed she agreed to do the Beautiful Bottoms shoot to help kick-start her career.
But she has since changed her mind and is now studying to be a dancer at Greenwich’s prestigious Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
The UK’s Mail on Sunday published the image yesterday, quoting a friend who said Cressida would be disappointed the picture is back in circulation.
“She is especially sensitive to exposure at the moment — she totally wants to avoid the limelight,” the friend said.
The flyers, which offer recipients 30 per cent off all Beautiful Bottoms collections, were given away in goody bags at a fashion launch party last week, although the style Cressida is wearing is no longer on sale.
The paper reported Cressida was lying low and has hired someone to help shape her public image after photographs of her partying at university were published in a British magazine last week.
“She was very hurt and saddened by pictures of her drinking shots which emerged recently in a magazine, which were unfairly compared to Sarah Ferguson, who is a family friend.
“It was incredibly embarrassing and cruel. She was at university — who doesn’t drink shots at university?”
Cressida, 24, is good friends with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and has known Harry for years. Their friendship developed into something more last June and they’ve been spotted canoodling in hotspots from London to Switzerland in the month since.
Harry is believed to be keen to marry Cressida, but friends say she thinks she is too young to marry.
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