Prince William and Kate Middleton

[ElisabethAlice]

Congratulations to H.H.Prince William and Kate Middleton on the date of the announcement of their engagement.

I hope the future King and Queen will have all the best in their lives!

ah, the lucky ring...

LScavo - Er no, private education cannot be credited for this. That will be her royal blood. Don't believe for a second she is some posh commoner.

Besides, can the Queen really afford it? didn't she ask the State Poverty Fund for ££ to pay her heating bill?

God..Poolet, thanks for the laughs.

SA

Shame to be too cynical about this - they've been together about ten years so would be nice to give a young couple the benefit of the doubt.

SurreyAmazon Don't think she has royal blood at all. It was looked into by geaneologists some time ago and apparently she is a 12th cousin of William - by all accounts there are hundreds of thousands of people more closely related to him than she is. Most of the royal courtiers (didn't realise they still existed) were unhappy that he was in a relationship with someone outside the special in-bred circle.

Isn't it traditional to pass on an engagement ring through the family (or is that a wedding ring? Not really my strong point tbh - DW didn't get a ring until we'd been engaged for 3 months)?

I'm no royalist, but reckon life becomes pretty gloomy if we choose to be cynical about everything, so I'm saying big congratulations (and plenty of good luck) to them. They're not going to struggle financially I'd imagine, but I wouldn't want every aspect of my relationship pored over by media/public etc.

I am bored. The tradition of big royal weddings is a new things- started by the queens children. What a big success those marriages have been!

If they want to get married- fine- small , private and paid for by them.

Oh I LOVE fairy tales.

I think William learned from his father's mistake, and he chose someone his own age, with similar interests and who looks good in a see through dress.

I think she looked terrified in yesterday's interviews, and I admired the way he gently came to her rescue, and bailed her out of the questions she clearly was too frightened to answer truthfully.

She clearly adores him. She has two different smiles - the 'looking at the camara dazzle' smile, and the 'looking at my man' smile, which involves her eyes more than her mouth.

Now they need to sod off out of the spotlight and enjoy each other. Oh, and knock out some babies.

Why so much hatred towards them? I think it's quite sad that already so many are making nasty comments...they're a young couple in love who have just got engaged! By no means do I buy into the whole 'fairytale' thing (it's obviously a 'managed' relationship, as all royal relationships have always been), but it does seem she's more 'Camilla' than 'Diana' - good on the lad for marrying the woman he wanted to, rather than meekly accepting some random noble woman for the sake of 'protocol'.

Ok, she doesn't come across well in the meeja, but honestly does everyone just unquestioningly believe everything they read in regards to her not working etc?

As for the wedding and public money, I agree that it shouldn't be excessive, but come on, it will not actually affect ANY of the public's finances (it's not like you'll be sent the bill for the floral arrangements!) and I for one am excited to see what is a very rare occasion these days, given that this is the future king and how long our royals live now. Maybe that's just me though...I'm a big softie and LOVE weddings.

Wish them well I say, they'll certainly need a lot of luck to get through the inevitable media obsession over the next few years.

Feel a bit sory for her sister though. Whoever, wherever and however she marries it's going to be very much second rate.

Ah but she will get to spend some christmases with her parents and can invite who she wants to her wedding and have whatever sort of wedding she likes

Very true Netty. I think Kate should stand up to Her Majesty and refuse to spend Christmas with her every year. It's about time someone did.