William’s ‘ex-fiancee’ finds love at the zoo
WHEN Prince William stayed at her family’s wildlife reserve in Kenya during his gap year, he became so close to Jecca Craig that they reportedly carried out a ‘pretend engagement’.
The willowy beauty has, however, found lasting love with a man who is even more concerned than the Duke of Cambridge about t he pl i ght of endangered animals.
Jecca, 33, is to marry Professor Jonathan Baillie (pictured right), director of conservation at the Zoological Society of London. The Canadian worked with William on a campaign to save the scaly anteater, which was in danger of being ‘eaten to death’ in its native China.
‘Jecca is so happy,’ says one of her pals. ‘She is besotted with Jonathan.’
Jecca, whose father Ian runs a 55,000-acre wildlife reserve in the f oothills of Mount Kenya, was previously engaged to financier Hugh Crossley, but the pair called off their wedding in 2009.
She was the only woman before Kate Middleton to have provoked an official bulletin about William’s love life when the Palace denied their romance in 2003. However, Jecca sat next to the Prince at his ‘ Out Of Africa’ themed 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle and he attended her brother’s wedding in Kenya rather than that of his own cousin, Peter Phillips.