The American superfans have landed
As the big day looms, Guy Kelly meets the royal superfans who have travelled thousands of miles to see the couple up close
Seven years ago, as she sat watching the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge from her home in Decatur, Texas, Christine Deaver made a solemn vow. If Prince Harry ever gets married, she told herself, she would mourn his leaving the singles’ market by dressing entirely in funereal black. Unless, of course he was marrying her – in that case she would wear white, obviously.
“I’ve been a Harry fan for pretty much the whole time he’s been alive,” Deaver says, somewhat confusingly, given that she is six years younger than the Prince. “I guess I figured I would be super sad [if he got married], in that it-should-havebeen-me way, but now it’s here I actually think Meghan is the perfect fit for him. I’m sad for myself… but he’s really found his match.”
Deaver isn’t really sad at all. On the contrary, she and her mother Marie Evans, 59, are so enthusiastic about the royal wedding that they’ve made the 4,888-mile journey from Texas to Windsor in order to have a prime spot on the Long Walk at Windsor Castle tomorrow morning.
Deaver describes herself as a “global royalty watcher and superfan” on her Twitter account (@Royaltiaras), and has thought of little else for months.
“I was so ready, right from the moment of the engagement. I joked with Mum that we should go, and I was amazed she agreed. Then, on the day they announced the wedding date, in four hours we had our plane tickets, our hotel booked, our train tickets to Windsor, everything. It felt a little ridiculous, but it’s only just hitting me that it’s the real thing.”
Deaver, who works in marketing for her local library, is one of a large global community of royal superfans and amateur experts who have formed firm online friendships over the years, bonding over their shared passion.
Travelling 5,000 miles for a wedding they aren’t invited to may sound odd to some, but is it any weirder than flying to Ukraine for an Arsenal match, or following Cliff Richard’s world tour? Probably not. And tomorrow, many of Deaver’s fellow royal addicts will come face-toface for the first time.
“It’s definitely an obsession for me,” she says. “I made my first ‘royal friends’ around the time of the Duke of Cambridge’s wedding, and one of them turned out to live only an hour away – but we won’t actually meet in real life until this weekend. It’s so exciting.”
Deaver’s excitement, if that’s a strong enough word, is partly genetic. Her mother was a huge fan of Diana, the Princess of Wales, raising her daughter with a keener interest in the British Royal family than the average Texan; by the time of the Duke’s royal wedding in 2011, the union of the new, young royals had Deaver hooked. And then Meghan Markle came along.
“As Americans, we’re often aspiring to other countries that have royals, and Meghan is such an inspiration. Her story shows that things can go wrong in your life and your relationships, but awesome stuff can still happen to you,” Deaver says. “She’s kind of like our modern-day Grace Kelly.”
Like all the superfans, who have been picking over details and speculation about the ceremony over the past six months, there was one destination at the top of their list upon touching down in the UK. After landing in London yesterday morning, they swung by Buckingham Palace to have their photograph taken at the gates, and had minor heart palpitations when a royal Jaguar with outriders flew past. Following that will be a trip to the Tower of London this morning, a few hours of sleep tonight – excitement permitting – before getting the very first train to Windsor from Paddington at 5.08am tomorrow.
“I’m kind of nervous. We might have to get there at midnight and wait. I heard they might be shutting the town, so we need to get in and get to the Long Walk. But it’s going to be busy. Oh gosh I hope it’s OK…”
Another Texan, Susan Hewitt, played it even safer – by booking an Airbnb in Datchet within minutes of the date announcement. The 40-year-old, who works as a consultant for web and app developers, runs the “Prince Harry Watch” Twitter account from her home in Austin. The account has a modest 159 followers.
“I’ve always been a big fan of England and history, and I did a semester of college in Oxford in the Nineties, graduating just after Diana’s death. I’ve followed Prince William and Prince Harry pretty much since then,” she says.
“I’ve been heavily involved in that community [of online superfans] for a few years, and most people I know in real life don’t know it. If they knew my house was full of royal merchandise and things, they might think I’m a bit odd.”
Hewitt is here with her husband, George, who she says “tolerates this part of my life”, but they intend to meet with some of Twitter’s other royal enthusiasts – Deaver included – on the Long Walk first thing tomorrow morning. She will likely camp out there tonight, just to be sure.
“I think anywhere along there is beautiful, with the backdrop for pictures. The roads are so small and windy, it’s really movie perfect. We went to check it out this week and there are food trucks and screens, so we’re set,” she says.
Over the past six months, every detail of the wedding has been pored over by royal superfans online. Within that community, there are various extremes. Deaver and Hewitt’s well-informed Twitter community is one thing – many official royal journalists follow them, in fact – but the members of specialist forums are another.
On there, you can currently find a hearty discussion about how long the public carriage ride down the Long Walk might take, based on an equation to do with the specific carriage, the length of the path, the speed of previous processions and the security requirements. About eight or nine minutes, maybe. They haven’t decided.
“It can be a little scary on those chat rooms, and I think people forget [the Royal family are] real people,” Deaver says. “On Twitter there are a lot of people who are nice and tell us to calm down if we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”
She is unlikely to be calm in the morning, but that can be forgiven. Still, the big question remains.
If not all black – and not white – what will Deaver wear?
“I picked up a blue dress just before I left, and I’ll wear that with a small fake tiara,” she says, beaming. “It’s classy.”