LONDON — Prince William and Kate Middleton, once the world’s most talked-about college sweethearts, announced their engagement Tuesday.
The second in line to the British throne and his longtime girlfriend, both 28, intend to wed sometime next spring or summer. The venue will be big and the guest list monstrous, all to be announced.
With no royal or aristocratic pedigree, Middleton will become the first commoner in centuries to marry a presumptive heir to the throne. Her plebeian background has been mercilessly picked over and ridiculed by Britain’s snobbish tabloids.
Yet it was a grateful nation that received the news, happy for any distraction from depressing headlines about government cutbacks and painful retrenchment. Months of excited gossip over a possible royal wedding will now be replaced by months of excited gossip over wedding preparations, plus ceaseless scrutiny of Middleton’s fashion choices and general overuse of the description “fairy tale.”
The wedding is likely to be the most anticipated royal event in Britain since William’s parents, Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, married in 1981. That occasion too was a mood-lifter for a country mired in recession, though royal watchers said William’s nuptials will probably be less lavish, in a nod to the troubled state of Britain’s public finances.
The official announcement came from Prince Charles, who pronounced himself thrilled that his elder son had “sought the permission of Miss Middleton’s father” to marry his daughter. Other members of the royal family, including Queen Elizabeth II, also issued statements expressing their delight.
British Prime Minister David Cameron interrupted a Cabinet meeting to tell his colleagues the news, which he said sparked “a great cheer” around the table, though whether it was out of joy for the couple or for the opportunity to divert public attention away from the government’s sweeping austerity program was unclear.
The prince and his fiancee met as classmates at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Both studied art history; as upperclassmen, the two shared a house with some friends.
On Tuesday, William fended off questions as to why he had waited so long to get engaged. “I . . . didn’t realize it was a race. Otherwise I’d have been a lot quicker,” he joked, adding: “The timing is right.”
“It just seemed a natural step for both of us,” said Middleton, who works part time as a buyer for a chain of fashion stores.
On her finger flashed the same sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring that belonged to Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. William said it was a way for his mother to be present.
Middleton’s parents are entrepreneurs who run a successful mail-order party-supplies business from their home in the affluent county of Berkshire.
