Prince William is engaged. It was announced today that Prince William and his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, are engaged. Prince William proposed to Middleton during a holiday in Kenya last month after asking her father for his daughter’s hand. They will marry Spring or Summer 2011, in London. The couple, both 28, have been dating on-and-off for more than eight years, since meeting as students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland; with Middleton being cattily nicknamed ‘Waity Katy’, by the British tabloids, for hanging around with no ring on her finger. They will appear in public for photographs later today, when the Princess-in-waiting is expected to show off her engagement ring, and the first ever interview with the newly-engaged pair will be broadcast tonight.
Prince Charles’ Clarence House office said the heir to the British throne is ‘delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.’ William, who is second in line to the throne, once told an interviewer he wouldn’t marry until he was ‘at least 28 or maybe 30.’ He turned 28 in June and recently completed training as a Royal Air Force search and rescue pilot. Middleton, of whom the royal family approves, is the daughter of self-made millionaires with whom she works; her father worked for an airline and her mother was a flight attendant before they started a mail-order business specialising in children’s parties, run from their farm in southern England.The venue was not announced. After the wedding, the couple will ‘live in north Wales, where Prince William will continue to serve with the Royal Air Force.’ This will be the biggest royal event since the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana in 1981.
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