At long last Prince William has decided to make an honest woman of his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton.
For here’s the long-awaited announcement that came out of Clarence House – the official residence of Charles, The Prince of Wales, and his two sons, William and Harry – today:
The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.
The wedding will take place in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.
Prince William and Miss Middleton became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya….
You’d think, though, that it was the announcement of the second coming of Jesus Christ the way the media are covering the announcement of this royal engagement. Never mind that William and Kate’s very public eight-year relationship rendered it wholly anticlimactic.
All the same, the media will no doubt do their best to manufacture as much interest in this royal wedding as was genuinely shown in the wedding of William’s parents in 1981.
Which is why I am compelled to wonder if he and Kate will fare any better living happily ever after than Charles and Diana (Anne and Mark or Andrew and Fergie for that matter). After all, given the record of divorces within this royal family, it does not bode well for them….
Nevertheless, there’s still nothing like a fairytale wedding (aptly named seeing how rarely they last) to stoke public interest in England’s increasingly anachronistic monarchy. And it must be said that, despite persistent calls for an end to this feudal institution, at least 70% of Britons still support it devotedly.
In any case, I wish this couple all the best – especially Kate. For, as Lady Di found out in so many tragic ways, marrying a prince and future king does not guarantee living a charmed life.
Indeed, William proposing to her with his mother’s engagement ring might be another bad omen in this respect. Not to mention that she already seems afflicted with the anorexia nervosa that the anxieties of joining “the firm” caused Diana to develop….
*This commentary was originally published yesterday, Tuesday, at 2:39 pm
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