Why Did Prince Harry Invite Ex-Girlfriends Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas to His Wedding?

Two of Prince Harry's past loves were present at St. George's Chapel for his royal wedding

Photo: IAN WEST/AFP/Getty Images

When Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle at St. George’s Chapel on Saturday, there were two familiar faces sitting in the church: His ex-girlfriends Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas.

And though inviting your exes to your wedding isn’t always standard protocol, for Harry, it isn’t much of a surprise.

Harry had an on-again, off-again relationship with Davy for several years in his early to mid-twenties, with their last attempt at a reconciliation coming in 2011. He dated Bonas for two years, splitting up in 2014. It was reportedly a dislike of the media attention and public scrutiny that came along with dating Harry that led to the demise of both relationships.

“She’s really low-key, sweet and down-to-earth,” a friend who studied with Bonas at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance told PEOPLE in May 2014, just after the couple split. “She didn’t talk about Harry at all. She wasn’t like that.”

However, since their respective splits, Harry has remained on good terms with both women. But is he friendly enough with them to warrant an invitation to his nuptials?

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Harry runs in similar social circles to both women: Bonas is close friends with his cousin, Princess Eugenie (who is also set to tie the knot later this year). And in March 2015 and again in June 2015 (more than a year after their breakup), he was spotted in the audience of plays Bonas was performing in.

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As for Davy, in June 2016 — just a few weeks before Harry met Meghan — she said that she and Harry still kept in touch.

“I think we will always be good friends,” she told The Sunday Times style section.

There’s royal precedent for inviting your exes to your big day: Prince William welcomed five of his reported past girlfriends to his 2011 wedding to Kate Middleton: Jecca Craig, Rose Farquhar, Olivia Hunt, Arabella Musgrave and Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe.

And of course, at his wedding to Princess Diana, Prince Charles invited his now-wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (then Camilla Parker-Bowles), as well as another ex-girlfriend, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, formerly Lady Sarah Spencer — who, of course, mainly garnered an invitation because she was the bride’s sister.