My poor sister suffered something similar way back in the 80s. Groom’s mother was appalled that my sister was having an Asian bridesmaid (her best friend) and refused to come to the wedding. This all happened 4 days before the wedding when the groom decided he better tell his Mother before she arrived. . She then proceeded to call everyone on her side of the family and tell them the wedding was called off, with no explanation. Suddenly there was no Rehearsal Dinner and my sister and my Mom had to punt and arrange one themselves in the back yard because my sister did not want her friend, under any circumstances, to know about the abhorrent behavior.
Wedding day the entire Groom’s side of the church was almost empty…my Mom scrambled and put some aunts and uncles over on the other side. That Mother never saw her grandchildren for at least 15 years, when she suddenly ‘forgot’ about the issue.
If he does, an extraordinary sign of royal acceptance. Supposedly, there’s an announcement from Kensington Palace. I don’t have stars in my eyes about a commoner and a prince, but think she must be quite a woman. I think, if its true, it’s noteworthy her mother met William and Kate along with their children, not a stuffy, formal 15 minutes.
I think it is nice that Charles will walk her most of the way down the quire, but she will then walk alone up to the alter. It won’t give the appearance that he is “giving” her away.
I don’t understand why such a fuss was made about her father’s “indiscretion”. Maybe I cast things in the best light, but I didn’t see this as the dad trying to make money off of his daughter’s association with the Royal Family. Maybe very American of me, but celebs sell exclusive rights to have pictures taken of them in certain settings all the time. Eg: Exclusive releases of baby pictures, wedding pictures, etc. This gives the celeb some control over what the pictures will look like, and helps decrease paparrazzi swarming all over in order to get that first shot.
All the failure to invite the family, and the groom’s dad walking her down the aisle, kind of looks like “we’ll accept her (the superstar), but we need to hold our noses around her (ordinary) family”.
Let’s assume that cultural differences come into play.
The celeb can rationalize it all s/he wants when s/he gives the $1MM+ received to charity. (I’m looking at you oh-so-too-many-celebrites-to-list).
But to answer the question from the European perspective, I think the royal family tends to not be happy when those not born into the family exploit their (at times tenuous) connection to the family for money. c.f. Sarah Ferguson allegedly selling access to Prince Andrew. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/23/uk.sarah.ferguson.video/index.html
@skieurope I totally get that what he did was against their culture and they weren’t happy about it. All I’m saying is that it was treated with something akin to horror and deep embarrassment rather than just glossed over as a mistake born from differing customs and a short apology suficing.
Any opinions on which station will provide the best royal wedding commentary? Right now I am torn between Hoda and Savannah Guthrie, or the Fox ladies…
I am a channel flipper so who knows where I might end up.
This week I’ve been watching the history of everything Royal on BBC America, so I’ll probably stick with that or PBS (Meredith Viera, I think). Flipping will probably come into it too, just to get a variety for the commercials.
I also don’t think what her father did, selling the photos, is horrible. Tough if the Royals don’t like it. He’s a guy living in Mexico and can use the money.
Personal preference. The accuracy of the information will probably be best on BBC America. Watching a US station cover a British royal wedding is, IMO, tantamount to watching US election night coverage on BBC One.
