Royal style and gossips: gowns and crowns but please no frowns!

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Just in the nick of time! Clothes and light-hearted gossip only please...

I was with some young people recently & the boys were still saying half your age plus 7.

Every time I go to St Paul’s Cathedral I’m horrified by the wedding of Diana & the PofW.

Obviously it's a ridiculous theory, but I thought half your age plus 7 only applies if the woman is older?

32 divided by half is 16 + 7 = 24 so 19 is stil too young.

I think the age gap wouldn't have been a problem if Diana had been 27 and Charles 39. But at 19 and 31 it was a whole different story.

This is it in a nutshell really. She was too young. End of. Thinking of myself at 19 I was really no more than a child. Of course I didn’t think that though.

I think a 19 year old marrying into the RF would raise eyebrows a great deal now because we perceive marriage as something you do a little later in life

Agree. Imagine if Harry had married a woman aged between say 19 and 24. There would’ve been outrage!

I don’t know. Harry married an older, divorced woman, that’s hasn’t exactly gone unnoticed by the media!

Yes, 'the older woman' thing. Ridiculous that it should raise so much as an eyebrow hair in this day and age! Of course, if it were Harry that was the older one, not a single fuck would be given by anyone, I'm sure.

And the divorcee thing of course - as Hadley wisely said, shades of Schmalis Schmimpson for some parts of the press...

Yeh exactly. He was doomed whichever way he went IMO.

Weren’t people saying that Cressida Bonas was too young for him?

Except maybe a white, British girl from the same social class and exactly the same age. Preferably ‘without a past’

Isn’t Meghan only a few years older, at most? Hardly noteworthy really.

The gap between them is actually a year less than that between me and DH.

3 years older so hardly anything. I'm 12 years older than my partner and he was 21 when we got together. Eek, I'm Prince Charles!!

I think 19 was still very young to be married in the early ‘80s, early to mid twenties was the norm. It’s hard to know why everyone went along with this scenario so amicably. Another documentary I watched suggested that if Lord Mountbatten had been alive he would’ve realized it was a mistake and Diana was too young and advised Charles accordingly. Charles seemed to be panicking somewhat and wanted the question answered and the problem solved, he felt under so much personal pressure to get married. Charles for so long struggled to assert himself and even know his own mind, he seems to have squelched his instincts that were warning him this wasn’t a good idea.

Diana’s family seemed thrilled by the prestige and honour of Diana marrying into the RF. Her father was beside himself with pride, reading out statements about how his family would always loyally serve the crown etc.etc. Of course Diana’s grandmother Lady Fermoy was in cahoots with the Queen Mother and they were both delighted with the match.

Then the public pressure of us all loving the idea of it all (I was 13) it was like Diana was from Central Casting, she was young and charming and Sloany. I think everyone: family, public, press was swept away with it all because we all liked the IDEA of the marriage, while the two protagonists were actually both insecure about the decision but hoped it would all work out.I think our reaction convinced them, Diana was also unsure but then fell in love with the idea of her marriage as much as us.

It seems it was very much of a historical moment.

Mountbatten wanted Charles to marry his granddaughter Amanda knatchbull who was even younger than Diana.
Mountbatten only ever had his own dynastic ambitions at heart.

Wow Queen you are

Queen!

[clutches at imitation pearls]

Mountbatten wasn't exactly one to take marital advice from when you consider his own marriage!

queen don't worry there were lots of other factors at play. It wasn't any old marriage - it was to the future king, she was thrust into the public eye, they hardly knew each other and there was a degree of pretence on both sides (the RF pretended Charles wasn't hung up on someone else, the Spencer's pretended she was perfect match ignoring the damage done in her childhood and "selling" her as a country girl when the truth was she didn't even ride.
Age gaps can and do work as can starting a relationship young. It was all the other stuff that doomed them from the start.

I suspect Kate did get some training. But I also think that break probably involved a lot of negotiation, and she came out of it infinitely more powerful. I genuinely believe it's a love matcg between them, but for all that William is the prince etc, and has that slight sense of arrogance that wafts around him, I have long secretly believed she's the real power in their relationship. I remember watching the Heads Together campaign documentary and it was obvious that she was leading things.

William is lucky to have her. She's the kind of woman the phrase, "the power behind the throne" was invented for. A politician, business leader or more powerful royal (back in the day) would go far with her in their corner.

Lol @GrumbleBumble I'm not worried - we've been together for years now and have a child, so I think he's a keeper!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it. Really they should have foreseen a disastrous outcome though. I have to sign off for the night unfortunately. A few hours ago the power lines outside our place were struck by lightning, twice. We were outside looking at the summer storm rolling in and saw it. Very scary! Lucky I don’t have too many perishable Christmas goodies in the fridge yet

My BIL & SIL have 10 years between them - she was a similar age. Arranged marriage so not much choice for either of them really. But they seem to make it work - they’ve been married for almost 30 years.

William is lucky to have her. She's the kind of woman the phrase, "the power behind the throne" was invented for.

Could not agree more.

How long were W & K split up for? I thought it was only two months?

Using what battery power I have left to MN my understanding is it was a brief split. Was it even a genuine split or do we think it was as suggested on an earlier thread.. to weed out those willing to sell ‘tell all exclusives’ to the press? Also didn’t they live together most of the time? I thought they lived together at university. Originally as flat mates and it blossomed from there.