Prince Harry's girlfriend - colonial upstart or first true love?

The young blonde woman on board flight BA55 from Cape Town had gone unnoticed by her fellow passengers until the aircraft drew up to Heathrow's Terminal 4 shortly before 7am on Tuesday. But when four armed police officers greeted her at the gangway, indifference rapidly turned to curiosity.

Who was this stony-faced girl in skin-tight jeans being whisked through the arrivals lounge pursued by a dozen paparazzi? A film star? An off-duty supermodel? Or, as one British MP speculated, a terrorism suspect?

The subject of such extraordinary security measures was Chelsy Davy, a 20-year-old undergraduate at Cape Town University and alumna of Cheltenham Ladies' College.

Then there is the small matter of her being the Zimbabwe-born girlfriend for the past two years of Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, better known as Prince Harry. It is an alliance which places the House of Windsor in discomfiting proximity to the strange worlds of Robert Mugabe's ruinous rule of Zimbabwe and the hunting of the big game of the savannah.

"Chelsy is not something the Royal Family has had to deal with before," a former royal adviser said. "She's more [footballer's wife] than Princess Grace. But nonetheless she is being accepted ... into the royal circle."

But while the populist press has made approving noises about Kate Middleton, the girlfriend of Prince William, Chelsy has not quite attracted universal approval. Coverage of the relationship between Harry and Chelsy has been dominated by tales of drink-fuelled partying, exotic holidays and the inter-mingling of two privileged upbringings. The pair first met while Chelsy was at school in England.

She was one of a group of exuberant teenagers invited to Club H - the basement at Highgrove converted for Harry and William to entertain friends. But the romance did not flourish until 2004 when Harry travelled to Lesotho to work with Aids orphans and met Chelsy in Cape Town.

Descriptions of Chelsy from friends and enemies range from a bright, good-natured young woman to an arriviste socialite (said to have once exclaimed "I really, really want to be famous") who set out to bag a prince.

Michelle Schultz, whose daughters went to the same exclusive Bulawayo school as Chelsy, told one reporter: "My girls didn't like Chelsy. She's a typical spoiled rich kid who runs with a fast crowd. At school, she thought herself better than anyone else."

During interviews last year to mark his 21st birthday, Harry said: "I get to see how upset she gets and I know the real her. Unfortunately, I can't turn round to the press and say, 'listen, she's not like that, she's like this'. I would love to tell everyone how amazing she is. But you know, that is my private life and once I start talking about that, then I've left myself open."

Chelsy's father Charles Davy, a South African-born businessman, owns Zimbabwe's most successful big-game hunting operation. His wealth has brought persistent questions about its origins. While the number of white farmers in Zimbabwe has dwindled due to requisitions of Mugabe's government, Davy has stayed in business.

This, according to opposition politicians, is because of his business connections with the regime, in particular his business partner of six years, Webster Shamu, now a senior minister in Mugabe's cabinet.

Chelsy looks set to move to London once her studies are finished. Whether she will enjoy a royal address is still anyone's guess.

- INDEPENDENT