Prince William

[tammyy2j]

Prince William has become engaged to his partner Kate Middleton.

Clarence House has confirmed that the couple will marry next year. They will live in North Wales following a ceremony expected to be in the spring or summer.

According to BBC News, the couple became engaged last month during a private holiday in Kenya.

William, who is is second in the line of succession to the throne behind his father Prince Charles, met Middleton when they were studying at the University of St Andrews in Fife in 2001. Their relationship is believed to have begun in December 2003.

The pair were reported to have split up in 2007, but were later seen at public engagements together.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he is "delighted" at news of the Royal engagement and that he wishes the couple "all the best".

On Twitter, Labour leader Ed Miliband added: "Delighted for Prince William and Kate Middleton on their engagement. The whole country will be wishing them every happiness."

[alan45]

Showbiz magazine Heat tells BBC Radio 5 live they're not that bothered about the engagement because they believe young people these days are more interested in Katie Waissel from the X Factor than Kate Middleton.

[Chloe O'brien]

I'm not fussed about the Royal Wedding to be honest. It's a complete waste of tax payers money. £30 Million for Charles/Diana's weddings so goodness knows how much this fiasco will cost. And if they divorce will the have to pay the money back.

[Siobhan]

I am not fussed about it either.. is it just another big wedding.. I wonder if they will appear on 4 weddings on Living to see if they can win the honeymoon... Her theme is a princess wedding costing 100 million

[alan45]

Im not a big fan of Royal Weddings either and feel that in the tight financial times we are in that the Royal Family should pay towards the cost. That said however the amount of money generated by tourism and television rights will more than offset the cost.

Apart from that good luck to the two of them. They are a nice couple and I hope they are happier than Williams father was with his mother.

[tammyy2j]

Kate Middleton will drop her nickname, and soon become Princess Catherine.

Well, not nearly as nice as the ring Prince William gave Kate upon his marriage proposal while vacationing last month in Africa. The ring once belonged to William’s mother, the late Princess Diana, and it’s an 18-carat, oval blue sapphire engulfed in diamonds.

“It’s my mother’s engagement ring. So I thought it was quite nice because obviously she’s not going to be around to share any of the fun and excitement of it all – this was my way of keeping her sort of close to it all,” William said.

Kate was sporting the ring with a matching blue dress when she and William sat down for their first on-camera interview since the proposal, and the two seemed to out-sparkle the diamonds.

William looked relaxed and charismatic as any prince should be, and Kate was sitting with the shoulders-back posture of a soon-to-be princess.

“We’re like ducks. So calm on the surface, but little feet going crazy underwater,” William said.

The two 28-year-olds had been dating since they met eight years ago at St. Andrews University, where they lived together with a couple friends. In 2007, the two famously broke up, but within months, were back together again.

“We went through a few stumbling blocks like any other relationship, but we picked ourselves up and carried on,” William said, later adding, “I’m obviously extremely funny and she loves that.” The two chuckled at this.

Kate will be the first commoner since the 1600s to marry a future British monarch. She came from a middle-class family – her father a pilot and her mother a flight attendant. Kate’s parents later started an online party supply company that’s now worth millions. Kate graduated from St. Andrews with a bachelor’s degree in art history, and has a keen interest in fashion, having done some modeling.

Even though the couple had been planning on getting married for at least a year, Kate said she wasn’t expecting William to ask the big question while in Kenya.

“It was a total shock when it came,” Kate said.

“I was really pleased when she said yes,” William said.

William is second in line to his father, Charles, for the British throne. If Kate and William do eventually decide to have children (William said he wants to take it one step at a time), the first child would move ahead of his younger brother Prince Harry to become third in line to the throne.

When asked if it was intimidating for Kate to be following in the footsteps of the “massively iconic” Princess Diana, William said, “There’s no pressure … No one is going to try to fill my mother’s shoes, what she did was fantastic. It’s about making your own future and your own destiny and Kate will do a very good job of that.”

The two are expecting to have their wedding sometime next year, and it promises to be as big as the sapphire wrapped around Kate’s finger.