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Tag: engagement

  • Royal engagement in Sweden

    Today Prince Carl Philip announced that he would marry his long time girlfriend, Sofia Hellqvist in a press conference. The Marshall of the Realm sent out the communique that the King has given his consent to the marriage, and the approval of the cabinet of state has also been given.

    A generation of Bernadotte princes who had to renounce their right to the throne in order to marry perfectly respectable women who never took off their clothes down to a skimpy bikini in magazines, posed with snakes… or participated in a reality show where the purpose seems to share a bedroom with someone of the opposite sex and stay the longest in the hotel (an admirable purpose for a show?), must be rolling in their graves.

    And especially Count Sigvard Bernadotte who went to the European Court of Human Rights to get his title back, but died before his case came up.

    I’m sure Sofia is a nice, regular person. But personally I haven’t been getting good vibes from her constant posing for the camera on all the royal events she has been invited to so far. It makes me feel that she is out for the fame of it all, and not that remote from the days of her posing in Slitz magazine. That, combined with the rewriting of the history of Project Playground she allegedly founded with a friend, as in the early days of the charity, it was said that the friend was the sole founder… Yeah…

    The wedding will take place in Summer 2015. It will be interesting to follow the Swedish media until then. So far, they have been overwhelmingly gushing about Sofia. I’m really just waiting for the real stories to come out from them – even a bit of journalistic neutrality maybe?

  • William and Kate

    And so, less than five months after the big Crown Princess wedding in Sweden, the time has come for William and Kate (or Catherine as Clarence house called her in the announcement).

    Unlike Daniel and Victoria, there won’t be a year and half of engagement time. The couple will marry next year in the spring or summer. Incidentally, would it have been so hard to set a date before sending out the announcement? One hopes that the health of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh holds up until then, anyway.

    As William isn’t yet the first in line, Kate’s position won’t be the same as Diana. There is already someone in that spot. Furthermore, unlike Diana, she has grown up in a time where there aren’t all that many secrets left regarding the Family, as well as being quite a bit older than Diana was. The twosome will start out living in Wales, due to William’s training, so a bit more space than just hanging about in London.

    I’ve already read comments that it was smart of them to wait until now, to avoid making the mistakes of his parents. Who certainly were good examples of how not to act in a royal marriage, no?

    It can be debated again and again how/where/how much she should have been working prior to marriage, but with the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh being well past retirement age, and Charles and Camilla approaching retirement age… There should surely be enough work to hand around.

    With the Olympics and the Diamond jubilee coming in 2012, this seems like the ideal time to have a royal wedding. The Queen will surely have to foot a large portion of the cost, given the current cuts in everything, but it should also be an event bringing in the cash to Britain.

    An engagement is a happy occasion. Even when one says yes to living on diaplay for the rest of her life.

    Best of luck to them both.