LONDON — In more than five decades as Britain’s sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II has never given an interview. Not so her eldest grandson, who not only spoke to a reporter but sold the story of his upcoming nuptials to a celebrity magazine for a sum reportedly as high as $1 million.
The 20-page spread in Hello magazine features Peter Phillips, 11th in line to the throne, and his fiancee, Autumn Kelly.
“The older generation largely took the line that the media was to be dealt with at arm’s length,” said Patrick Jephson, former private secretary to Princess Diana.
“The younger generation of royals has grown up with the media, regards it as an asset to be tapped when it wants and a nuisance to be shooed away when it doesn’t,” he added. “Of course, that’s an impossible task.”
