Royal Wedding Rumors Whirl in Britain
Daily Beast: Mysterious "blocked out" dates on schedule could mean engagement.
April 7, 2010 — -- The royal rumor mill is running full blast today after The Daily Beast reported a couple of mysterious "blacked out" dates on the calendar in June -- perhaps the perfect time for an engagement announcement for Prince William and long-time squeeze Kate Middleton.
Citing a "high-placed source in royal circles," The Daily Beast's Tina Brown says there are possible dates in June, or perhaps next June for a likely date for the prince's engagement announcement.
The royal family is denying the rumor, telling ABC News that there are no engagement plans at this time and even if there were the family would not make plans this far in advance.
However, if the rumor is true, Brown said a wedding could follow around Christmas time.
"One of the things that I know is true is whatever happens with this royal engagement they will do everything they can to distance themselves from any aroma of Di and Charles," Brown, a "GMA" contributor, said. "Di announced their engagement in February for a famously July wedding. It will be very attractive to have a June announcement and a Christmas wedding."
Brown also said there are people who believe the announcement could happen next year instead.
"There is another party which thinks they will postpone it until next June when Prince Phillip has his 90th birthday and a whole influx of family relations comes in," Brown said.
Click here to read The Daily Beast report.
William was asked about a possible engagement when he visited a center for the blind this February. As he met the prince, Corporal Simon Brown joked, "Well, I'm trying to get an invite to your wedding."
"Oh you'll have to wait a while yet," replied a laughing William, seeming to hint it wouldn't be coming soon.
But the prince's recent actions have more telling. The 27-year-old has been seen less often in nightclubs and more often at official events, sometimes with 28-year-old Kate at his side. Most recently the couple was spotted together in January, when she could be seen noticeably stroking his back at his graduation ceremony of No 115 Multi-Engine Advanced Rotary Wing Course.
Regardless of when the engagement announcement will occur, one thing Brown said she knows the royal family will try to do is distance themselves from the images of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding, which most likely would mean finding a different location for the wedding.
"Those images of Diana at St. Paul's unfurling her train on the steps of St. Paul's is something in everybody's mind. So it would not be St. Paul's. It could be Windsor but that has a few aromas of Prince Charles and Camilla's slightly disastrous wedding when all of a sudden they have to move the venue out of the royal chapel into the local town hall because the queen can't attend the wedding of a divorcee," Brown said.
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