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Queen's grandson weds Canadian bride. Autumn Kelly of Pointe-Claire, Que., marries Peter Phillips
It had all the ingredients of a proper British royal wedding: romance, tradition, rain and a gossip magazine feud.
Peter Phillips became yesterday the first of Queen Elizabeth's grandchildren to wed, marrying his Canadian bride, Autumn Kelly, in drizzly weather at a chapel at Windsor Castle near London.
Britain's Peter Phillips and his Canadian bride, Autumn Kelly, leave St George's Chapel after their marriage in the chapel at Windsor Castle yesterday. Phillips is the first of Queen Elizabeth's grandchildren to marry.
Phillips, 30, is the queen's eldest grandchild and son of Elizabeth's only daughter, Princess Anne. He is eleventh in line to the throne.
Unlike his first cousins, princes William and Harry -- or his sister, equestrian champion and Beijing Olympics hopeful Zara Phillips -- he has tended to stay out of the limelight.
Nevertheless, he accepted an offer from gossip magazine Hello! to allow its photographers exclusive access to the wedding for a reported $1 million. Hello! calls it "the fairy-tale romance which has bridged continents and social divides."
But the rest of Britain's celebrity-obsessed media was locked out, and predictably furious.
"What a start to married life for Princess Anne's son Peter Phillips -- cashing in on the accident of his birth and literally selling his grandmother to Hello! magazine," the Daily Mail thundered.
Some coverage in the London media suggested that Kelly and the 70 wedding invitees from Ontario, New Brunswick and the bride's hometown of Pointe-Claire, Que., would be of a lesser social "calibre" than the groom's 230 guests that included a who's-who of British aristocracy.
As is perhaps inevitable at weddings, speculation focused on who would be next. Prince Harry was expected to formally present his girlfriend of four years, Chelsy Davy, to the queen for the first time.
Prince William's off-again-on-again girlfriend Kate Middleton was also present, but William himself was unable to attend because he was at a friend's wedding in Kenya.
Phillips and Kelly met in 2003 at the Montreal Grand Prix, when he worked for the Formula One racing team BMW Williams and she worked at the BMW hospitality suite.
He was determined to woo her on his own terms and did not initially tell her of his royal lineage. She has said she found out she was dating a royal when she saw him on a TV program.
Kelly was raised Roman Catholic, but became a Protestant before the wedding. Under 300-year-old British laws, a royal who marries a Catholic loses his claim to the throne.
Reuters and Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, May 18, 2008
© The Vancouver Province 2008
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