Royal toddlers added to list of Pippa’s guests
Will they or won’t they? The burning question was answered Monday when Kensington Palace announced that royal toddlers, Prince George and Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, will be in aunt Pippa Middleton’s May wedding.
“Miss Pippa Middleton and Mr. James Matthews are pleased to confirm their wedding will take place at St Mark’s Church, Englefield, on the morning of 20th May,” the palace statement said. “Prince George [who is three] will be a page boy, and Princess Charlotte [two on May 2] will be a bridesmaid.”
Also attending will be the children’s parents, Prince William and Duchess Kate of Cambridge, and uncle Prince Harry.
The British royal media pack has been speculating on what role the royal children would play in the wedding since Middleton, 33, and Matthews, 40, announced their engagement in July.
Kensington Palace has avoided commenting on other details of the nuptials because Pippa Middleton is not a royal. But since her royal relations are going to be there, including two future kings, the palace has to organize for media coverage while trying to ensure that the wedding party and guests retain a reasonable expectation of privacy.
“There is no comment or details available on Pippa’s wedding,” Middleton’s newly hired publicist, Jo Milloy, said in an email Monday.
“It is a private family wedding.”
Pippa is trying to pull off a conjuring trick rarely attempted successfully: organize a non-royal private wedding in the glare of royal-level media attention. So far, she holds the upper hand in the struggle to keep the veil, so to speak, over her plans while the British tabloids sneak peeks wherever they can, all off-the-record, of course.
Ever since she shot to fame as the bridesmaid at older sister Kate’s 2011 royal wedding to Prince William, Pippa has tried to maintain a private life without a full-time spokesperson and while being trailed by paparazzi and pestered by journalists.
Now she has hired Milloy, a prominent British publicity maven best known as the PR strategist who helped polish the Victoria-and-David Beckham brand.
Besides the date and the church, which is located near the Middleton home in Bucklebury 80 kilometres from London, little else is officially known about the wedding plans, except that the day will include a sit-down dinner under a tent on the grounds of the Middleton estate.
Various names have been floated about the identity of her wedding dress designer but Milloy was not forthcoming on whether that will ever be officially announced.
Matthews runs a London hedge fund, Eden Rock Capital Management, is a graduate of Eton College (like Prince William and Prince Harry), and is a longtime friend and boyfriend to Pippa. His younger brother, Spencer Matthews, who is expected to be his best man, is a well-known reality TV star in London.