Prince Harry’s ‘glosse posse’ pal Viscount Erleigh, 39, follows in the Duke’s footsteps as he finds love with US star Mary Holland Nader, 27, who stars in a reality show to rival the Kardashians

Prince Harry‘s romance with Meghan Markle appears to have inspired a similar transatlantic love story for one of his oldest friends.

Julian Rufus Isaacs, Viscount Erleigh, 39, heir to the Marquess of Reading and long considered one of Britain’s most eligible aristocrats, has captured the heart of US reality TV star Mary Holland Nader, 27 – sister of Sports Illustrated swimsuit pin-up Brooks Nader.

The longtime friend of the Duke of Sussex – who was once part of his and Prince William‘s elite band of Gloucestershire pals, known as the ‘glosse posse’ – is so besotted with the Louisiana-born brunette that he has introduced her to his family and they are openly talking about marriage.

But while Meghan was instantly enthralled by her British beau, Mary Holland – who stars in her family’s reality series Love Thy Nader – insists she took a little more convincing.

‘We were friends for two years. He was courting me, I guess you could say, as a friend,’ she revealed.

‘I didn’t want anything to do with him as my 24-year-old self. It’s like a 12-year age gap. And so basically, for two years he was making it known that he liked me.’

Speaking on the Hot Smart Rich podcast, she added: ‘My sisters were like, you know Jules is obsessed with you? They introduced us. We met because he was on the scene, DJing on the weekends, but also worked in finance.’

Julian, an alumnus of £60,500-a-year Cheltenham College, left the UK for New York eight years ago to work as Senior Vice President at US investment firm Jefferies.

Julian Rufus Isaacs, Viscount Erleigh, 39, heir to the Marquess of Reading and long considered one of Britain’s most eligible aristocrats, has captured the heart of US reality TV star Mary Holland Nader, 27

She shared that that after they first met, he then invited her for ‘networking drinks’ after work (Pictured last month)

But Mary Holland, who quit her job as an investment manager on Wall Street earlier this year to focus on her TV and influencer career, quickly added that he is not a typical ‘finance bro’.

‘Let’s make that distinction: he is in European equity stuff in LA,’ she explained. ‘So he’s very much like LA surfer, has a motorcycle, like his own self doesn’t act like a finance bro at all. And that’s why I was attracted to him as a friend… there’s another double-lifer.’

She shared that that after they first met, he then invited her for ‘networking drinks’ after work.

‘Then he courted me for two years and then invited me to Wimbledon as a friend,’ Mary Holland continued.

‘It was like: two-year friendship, you’re going to be in Europe, come to Wimbledon. It was a few of his friends and me.’

But despite the time they were spending together, she explained that they ‘weren’t super good friends by any means’.

‘But he made it clear to always be in my texts a little,’ Mary Holland said. ‘Like, over Christmas, he would send me pictures from the Cotswolds – really cute in hindsight. And I was too nice to not reply.

‘I really didn’t like him. I was like, cute nieces! Then I went to Wimbledon with him and I was like, oh my god… He had the setup at Wimbledon and was being such a good host, had me my own hotel room.

Julian – whose sister Lady Natash Rufus Isaacs, 42, is the co-founder of royal favourite fashion label Beulah – has appeared briefly on Mary Holland’s Disney Plus reality show (pictured)

‘I rang my sisters and was like, do I have to make out with him if I go to Wimbledon? They were like, “Yeah, and you should. You don’t get that ticket easy”.

‘I was like, alright, fine, I will. So we went to Wimbledon and basically fell in love there, which was last summer.’

The Daily Mail can also reveal the viscount – son of Simon Rufus Isaacs, the 4th Marquess of Reading, 83, and his wife Victoria Melinda Dewar – invited Mary to Wimbledon again this summer, along with her parents, finance advisor Breaux and his wife Holland, so their families could meet.

The introduction was said to have gone very well, with Mary Holland’s mother telling friends back home how much she loved meeting her potential son-in-law’s family.

Julian has long been a fixture on London’s party circuit, hosting tables at Mayfair private members’ club Annabel’s and organising charity expeditions.

He is close to Princess Eugenie and was once described as ‘one of the most well-connected viscounts in the land’.

He previously dated Vogue model-turned-nutritionist Sarah Ann Macklin, and had a key role in Prince Harry’s love life, too: he reportedly set up the royal with Chelsy Davy, who then became his on-off girlfriend for seven years until 2011.

Mary Holland was previously against the idea of marriage because she and her sisters grew up in a Bible Belt household, where they were told they needed to settle down and have babies in their early 20s – something she was vehemently against.

He previously dated Vogue model-turned-nutritionist Sarah Ann Macklin, and had a key role in Prince Harry’s love life, too: he reportedly set up the royal with Chelsy Davy, his on-off girlfriend for seven years until 2011 (Pictured: Chelsy and Julian with Emma Shenkman in 2016)

Pictured: Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy at a rugby game between South Africa and England in 2008

Julian pictured in 2009

‘I was kind of anti-marriage for a while,’ she explained. ‘I was like, eff the patriarchy.’

She’s no longer against it but not because of who she’s dating.

‘He is not anti-marriage,’ Mary Holland explained. ‘If he didn’t want to get married, I wouldn’t ever ask.’

She added that she hadn’t planned to change her name if she did get married one day, but given she’s now dating a viscount, ‘I would have to, if I’m gonna be a lady!’

Although she lives in New York and he’s based in LA, Mary Holland insists their set-up works.

‘I love the long distance,’ she said. ‘When I’m in New York, I grind and get s*** done. And when I come out [to LA], my time is super intentional with him… If you really love someone long distance, it shouldn’t be that hard.’

She added: ‘People always ask, does one of you have to move? I’m like, why does one have to? We’ve been dating for one year. He doesn’t pressure me into marriage or kids.’

Julian – whose sister Lady Natash Rufus Isaacs, 42, is the co-founder of royal favourite fashion label Beulah – has appeared briefly on Mary Holland’s Disney Plus reality show, which alongside Brooks, 28, features her sisters Sarah Jane, 24 and Grace Ann, 25.

‘I honestly felt bad for him,’ she admitted. ‘He was on it because if he came to visit me in New York, cameras were rolling and he couldn’t get out of it because it was truly reality.

‘He really didn’t want to be on it that much, but he was like, “I support you, I’m not taking myself too seriously to not be on it”.’

She continued: ‘He was like, “Can you not talk about my title?” Of course, that was the whole thing! We were like, yeah, sorry, that’s a good one – we have to bring that up.

‘He’s private about it usually. Sorry, babe, it’s all over now! But it doesn’t mean, like, anything crazy. Just that he’s a lord. And I’d be a lady – if I took his name.’

Her move into TV came after working at Deutsche Bank for five years. ‘I was like, I guess I have to quit this whole life I planned out for myself,’ Mary Holland reflected. ‘It was like an identity crisis. But looking back, thank god I did. It’s proven financially much more beneficial for me.’

Money, she said, was a driving force growing up – ‘because we had none… We had such a scarcity mindset. We grew up with literally nothing, and my dad worked for a nonprofit for the first half of my life and then realised he needed to make more money.

‘So he became a financial advisor. I saw that that got us out of poverty and into lower-middle class, and then he worked his way up and has built his book since.

‘Literally, that’s why I studied finance. I was like, that is guaranteed to give me stability.’

She and her sisters’ reality TV venture has earned them comparisons to the Kardashians, which she’s not sure how she feels about. ‘I think we’re lukewarm on that,’ she said.

‘We respect everything they’ve built… but we’re so different. If anything, we’re compared more to Sex and the City.’