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Eat your heart out, Chelsy: But how will Prince Harry's new squeeze, Caroline Flack, go down with Granny?


The Gladiators host is a lads' mag pin-up with a taste for lethal cocktails and calls the Prince 'Jam' (because he's red and sweet)...

Picture the scene. It's Sunday morning and behind the cream walls of Clarence House there's a bit of light-hearted nosy-parkering going on.

Who, they are asking in the corridors and kitchens, did Harry bring home this time?

It's hardly going to be Chelsy Davy - Harry might still be in touch with his ex, but they're not that close.
Strike a pose: Caroline Flack caught Prince Harry's eye
Strike a pose: Caroline Flack caught Prince Harry's eye

The name Astrid Harbord is bandied around: a couple of months ago, Harry arrived home at 3am with the blonde in tow, but the word is that there's absolutely nothing going on there - he was just looking after a friend who was slightly unsteady on her feet at the end of a long night.

That's certainly not the situation with the young woman now waking up in an unfamiliar bed in the Prince's apartment, asking what's for breakfast and wondering exactly how a royal fry-up might be served.

Caroline Flack was introduced to Harry by mutual friends at a poker tournament in London in April and the chemistry was immediate.

Their giggly chat was followed up over the next few days with a series of flirty texts in which Caroline teased the Prince and he joked about being useless at cards.

The friendship continued apace. 'They have a lot of mutual friends, including Natalie Pinkham, and are out and about on the same social circuit when Harry is in London,' says a friend.

Natalie is another dark-haired TV presenter, who looks uncannily like Caroline, and was once photographed with Prince Harry jokily grabbing her breast.

Another friend adds: 'They have certainly been texting each other a lot of late. Harry thinks Caroline is cute and the feeling is mutual.'

Last Saturday, after a trip to the Shepherd's Bush Empire in West London to see singer-songwriter Billy Franks, Harry headed to the nearby Troubadour nightspot on the Fulham Road to meet up with Miss Flack.

At 4am when the Prince's people carrier, driven by one of his Scotland Yard bodyguards, finally zipped through the gates of Clarence House, Harry was not alone on the back seat - gorgeous Miss Flack was sitting beside him.

On paper, 'Flack', as she's known to her friends, isn't the most obvious of matches for a Prince - a comprehensive educated TV presenter.

Very different from Chelsy who comes from a wealthy family in her own right and loves her 'Afro-trash' lifestyle in Cape Town.

But what is Harry's relationship with Chelsy at the moment?

While it would be wrong to portray them as star-crossed lovers - Chelsy has been seen on the arm of a new man, property developer Dan Philipson - they are still fond of each other and have secretly met on several occasions since their highly public split earlier this year.

On one occasion, Harry wore a ridiculous-black wig to disguise himself when they went to a South London rave.

Jam man: At 29 Caroline is five years older than Harry

They couple were also due to see each other last night at a drinks party to raise funds for Harry's charity, Sentebale, in London's Pall Mall organised by his best friend, Tom 'Skippy' Inskip.

The problem, though, for Harry is that Chelsy hates the fuss that comes with dating the third in line to the throne.

And while it is far too early to say whether Caroline Flack will turn out to be the new Chelsy, she certainly seems to be the strongest contender for the vacancy since the split.

But the differences are striking. For a start, at 29 she's five years older than Harry, who won't be 25 until September.

Then there's her career. At least, unlike many of the girls who surround William and Harry, she has one and isn't afraid to work. But it doesn't quite fit the Windsor preference for low profile discretion.

'I work in telly!' as she puts it on the profile on her myspace page.

The brunette is perhaps best known for replacing Kirsty Gallacher as the host on Sky One's Gladiators, though she's also been a big hit on the BBC children's show TMi and played Michael Jackson's long-suffering girlfriend Bubbles in Bo' Selecta!

And that's not forgetting the photoshoots she's done with two men's magazines, one of which, alongside pictures of her prancing around in T-shirt and pants, called her 'TV's new saucepot' and noted that she is 'bubblier than a fresh pint of Foster's top'.

'I don't usually get pictured in my knickers, but I eased into it and by the end of the day I was running around being silly,' she said in the accompanying interview.

She went on to chat about her drinking habits. 'I'm sick if I have shots, so they're out the window.

'I like spasbombs though - Morgan's Spice [a brand of rum] dropped into Red Bull. Me and my friends like downing them.

'For someone so small, I can drink quite a lot.' So it's not difficult to spot what Harry sees in her then.

'Flack's really hot,' says a friend, with just a slight air of envy. 'And he's a Prince. So it's not exactly that much of a surprise that something's happening. There's quite a spark between them.'

What is a surprise is that the couple haven't really bothered about keeping their liaison quiet.

That's not to say they've been entirely open. Caroline refers to Harry by the codeword 'jam' - 'because he's got jam-coloured hair and he's really sweet,' she tells friends - and even posted a message on her Facebook site saying: 'Caroline Flack: Love jam...x'

And, in keeping with her exuberant character, the whole thing has an air of casual excitement.

Spotted: Caroline Flack was spotted leaving in the same car as Prince Harry after a night out


Spotted: Caroline was spotted leaving in the same car as the Prince after a night out

Caroline and her twin sister Jody were born on November 9, 1979, at Chase Farm Hospital in North London to Ian, then a pastry cook, and Christine Flack.

Her first home backed onto Tottenham Hotspur football ground - which explains why she's an ardent Spurs fan - but the family soon moved to Norfolk.

While the upper-middle-class girls with double-barrelled surnames with whom Harry is usually linked were at boarding school and hanging around county estates and polo grounds, Caroline Flack was growing up near Thetford, in Norfolk, where she attended the local comprehensive, Wayland High School, getting involved in plays and pantomimes.

'She was always a bright and lively girl, very popular and capable,' says one of her former teachers, Mike Tynan.

'Her passion at school was dance and she stood out, even at an early age. She came back last July and gave a talk at prize-giving day.

'She spent a lot of time speaking to students and signing autographs. She was always engaging and that hasn't changed. The school's proud of her.'

Caroline went on to study drama and dance at stage school in Cambridge, moved to London at 21 and began to pick up acting work in commercials.

Gladiators ready: Caroline Flack hosts the TV show

Before the TV work kicked in, she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty, at one point working in a meatpacking factory.

'I loved it, though in the end I had to give it up,' she says. 'People wouldn't come near me because I reeked of pork.'

Then in 2002 she got her first big break when she began presenting the International Pepsi Chart Show.

Like his brother, Harry has surrounded himself with friends made up of the sons and daughters of gentry, Army officers and public-school types.

In contrast to William, however, the high-spirited Prince isn't afraid to let his hair down in public and was recently seen leaving yet another London nightspot sporting pink nail polish after allowing a female friend to paint his nails as a joke.

Harry is attracted to Caroline's sense of fun and naughty sense of humour. This is, after all, the girl who says she relishes doing children's TV because: 'You can come up with any silly idea and no one will care.

'If you say, "I want to dress as a banana" they make it happen. I dress up as a badger on a regular basis.'

She giggles that her most embarrassing moment came as she took a shower backstage at the V Festival when Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters walked in unexpectedly.

Old flame: Harry with Chelsy Davy at an England rugby match when they were still together

'We just had a little chat. He asked how the shower was, I said it was fine. . .'

She's also cheekily street smart. Interviewing John Leslie the day after the Abi Titmuss sex tape came out, she asked him: 'I hear you used to be a goalkeeper. Are you very good with your hands?'

Clarence House would have been quite a contrast to the small flat in Crouch End, North London, she shares with a female friend. And she isn't exactly a hunting and fishing girl.

On her internet networking site she describes herself as 'lightweight, scruffy, very messy' and lists her interests as: 'Going out for drinks and eating jerk chicken burgers in Banners.

Watching films in bed. . . Reading the papers. Watching the news. Eating pancakes in Pick More Daises. My little flat. Buying old rock and roll love songs on vinyl. Staying in.'

And Harry, with his Pink's shirts and slip-on shoes, is quite a departure from the men she usually dates.

He may be spending every scrap of time available (most weekends) partying in London, but he's also based with the Army Air Corps at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire training to become an attack helicopter pilot.

Caroline's last serious boyfriend was a musician who goes by the name of 'Dave Danger'.

After they split up, she was seen leaving the NME music awards' backstage party with Luke Pritchard of the Kooks.

She's also talked about being 'turned to putty' by Anthony Kiedis, the tattooed vocalist of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who has battled heroin addiction.

It's hard to imagine anyone more different to an aristocratic Sandhurst boy.

But maybe that's what Harry finds so beguiling about Caroline who is a fun-loving, unpretentious girl more than capable of keeping up with his party lifestyle.

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