Prince Harry's Ex-Girlfriend Cressida Bonas Covers Miss Vogue, Says She's "Paralyzingly" Shy

Cressida Bonas has long been a fixture in London's social circuit, but it was only when she dated Prince Harry that she was thrust into the international spotlight.

You might think that the 26-year-old dancer/actress enjoyed the exposure that came with romancing the world's most eligible bachelor, she insists this is not the case. In fact, Cressy tells Miss Vogue's April issue that despite what we might think, she's actually extremely shy.

"I don't really understand it; in real life I'm often so shy-paralyzingly so," she says. "But when I'm performing, it's totally different. I feel free." (The full interview with Cressida and the rest of Sean Thomas' shoot with the star can be found in the April Issue of Miss Vogue, which comes with the April issue of British Vogue on sale Thursday.)

Later this year, Harry's former flame will make her big screen debut in Tulip Fever alongside Judi Dench and Cara Delevingne. Per London's Evening Standard, producer Harvey Weinstein said Cressy was "fantastic" in the film, but the actress herself very modestly downplays the significance of her role, saying, "It's a small part."

The rising star, who shied away from media attention when she dated Harry from 2012 to 2014, doesn't think that being an actress means she should expect her non-work activities to get turned in to tabloid fodder. "It's completely different," said Cressy, who recently starred in a play called There's a Monster in the Lake. "It is my trade and what I have studied. It's not my personal life."

She reiterated her passion for the craft, telling the Standard, "I just love being in the arts...I have always loved creating and entertaining. It started with music, singing. I grew up in a household filled with music--not pop but old-school stuff, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong."

The non-pop stance might hold Cressy back from ever becoming one of Taylor Swift's famous BFFs, but she's not exactly looking for more exposure. "That's all in gossip magazines," she said. "I don't read them."

Can't exactly blame her for that one! Back in 2013, when Cressy was in the midst of her romance with Harry, her brother Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe was admittedly worried about the high-profile romance taking its toll. "Cressida is not a tough cookie at all. She's a very sensitive, sweet girl," he said, per the Mirror.

"It does worry me," he admitted. "But sometimes you've just got to go along with life."