Has Harry found a less embarrassing girlfriend?

Prince Harry is rumoured to be stepping out with Florence Brudenell-Bruce, a 25-year-old blonde model who previously dated Formula One ace Jenson Button.

According to one of those unnamed sources of which the Daily Mail is so fond, the Prince and Florence have enjoyed "secret trysts" over the past few months. The source said: "It's very early days but Harry and Florence are an item... She is a lot of fun, blonde and very good-looking. Harry really likes her."

Florence appears on billboards in her undies - and it's hard to imagine the queen approving of that (though Prince Phillip is another matter) – but she could still be considerably less embarrassing than her predecessor, Chelsy Davy.

The problem with Chelsy wasn't so much her chavvy image – though being "a descendant of the seventh Earl of Cardigan who led the Charge of the Light Brigade" probably strengthens Florence's hand – but her father's connections to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime.

South African-born Charles Davy is a multimillionaire thanks to HHK Safaris, a firm of which he was director and a major shareholder until 2005, after Chelsy and Harry had started dating.

HHK operates more than 15 different camps in Zimbabwe – and it was Charles Davy's business connections to Robert Mugabe's senior cabinet minister Webster Shamu that saw some campaigners call for him to be added to the blacklist of those in Mugabe's regime forbidden from flying into the EU.

Chelsy also had a habit of being photographed bleary-eyed, spilling out of London nightclubs in the wee small hours but the Mail's breathless profile of Florence suggests she would make a considerably less uncomfortable addition to the royal family.

Apparently Florence is more often found "in art galleries than nightclubs". What's more, she's "naturally slim, never diets and adores baking" – ideal princess material. ·