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Guest ranster627

CURRENT INFORMATION

The Wedding of Prince Charles and Mrs. Parker-Bowles will received live television coverage on CNN beginning at 6 am EST Saturday.

Mrs. Parker-Bowles will then be known as the Duchess of Cornwall.

Update:

Coverage will be from 6am EST to noon on CNN and the wedding will also run several times on CBC Newsworld ...

Actually, it is being billed as the wedding, but it is the Blessing!

With such prolonged coverage, I am anticipating every Royal Correspondent on the planet to crawl out and offer some juicy tidbits ... I will post what I learn! :wink:

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Guest ranster627

Well, I have survived most of this coverage with just 2 hours to go ...

Interesting tidbits?

There was a streaker, so yesterday, caught by police as the royal procession left the civil ceremony and headed to the blessing. It made for great fun with the announcers, and a horses head was strategically positioned between the cameras and the streaker! They quickly threw a pair of pants on the offender, and then police posed for pictures with him before hauling him off, cuffed, to a waiting paddy wagon ... seems streaking is back in vogue in England?

Speaking of vogue! Want to be just like the Royals? Just check out your backyard! Gather your twigs and moss and other bits of nature and you too could have a hat suitable for a Royal Blessing! I kid you not, the majority of the hats worn today were made up of various pieces of bark, twig, and the like. Seems like hats aren't always worn on top of the head either, many were positioned to climb almost halfway down one side of the face! (maybe it saves on makeup? or maybe it is cheaper to just get half your hair done?)

CNN coverage was headed up by Anderson Cooper, and his wry humour and boyish charm fit right in with the stable of Royal Correspondents! It has been a charming and witty respite from all the solemness of the last few weeks! Sarcasm as can only be delivered by the Brits was a plenty, and I for one appreciated it!

The Princes looked oh so fine, and crowds were not disappointed by what they saw!

The Duchess of Cornwall (formerly just plain Camilla) was suitably decked out in a creamy (off-white really) suit with skirt and an oversized hat for the civil ceremony, and then changed into a light grey/blue dress for the ceremony with no hat (but a tiara of grass shoots)! Actually, I thought she was quite lovely at the Blessing!

As promised, the Blessing began with an acknowledgement of past transgressions (both had affairs), insisted on by many clergy. It was tastefully handled, but still uncomfortable IMHO ... and a little archaic for such a modern event! Modern you ask? Yes it is that as many long held taboos were broken today!

TV and film royalty were abundant at the Blessing (British of course). Noticably absent even though she was invited, was Joan Rivers. No reason was given for her lack of attendance. Joan was known for years of ridiculing the Royals, but has recently become close to this couple and has defended their right to marry on numerous occasions most recently on Larry King Live. Seems the Prince is a huge fan of her humour!

And the inevitable question arose this morning: How are the boys handling this? It was rightly pointed out that they are now young men with their own lives and romances, and that they rarely see the Duchess. However, the long wait towards this wedding was in deference for the boys feelings. Some of the Royal Correspondents made a point of making a distinction between William and Harry's attitudes, saying Harry was less pleased, but that it was likely because he was younger when his mother died so tragically.

Speaking of the late Diana (who I adored) ... as tacky as it was, her name was raised loads today. There were the fashion and looks comparisons, and the retelling of all the scandals, largely by a Charles supporter. The overall consensus though was that this was the wedding that should have happened 40 odd years ago ... an enduring love of two soul mates they say --- Charles and Camilla (C & C --- sounds like a drink!) ...

Ranster -- Royal Correspondent and Observer --- OUT! :wink:

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Guest Anonymous

Camilla will never take the title of Queen :

(CBC. CA)

Camilla will now be known as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall.

If Charles becomes the King, she would legally be his queen, but they have announced she would instead use the title of Princess Consort.

I'm flipping back to approving. 35 years seems like long enough to let these two find happiness.

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Guest ranster627

Just updating your post Spooky, hope you don't mind ...

If Charles becomes King, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort ...

UPDATE on Blessing:

The ceremony is over! Charles has never looked so happy in my estimation ... there was a polite applause by the crowd, but a real roar went up when the Queen and the young Princes appeared ... not a comment, just an observation.

They are all off to the party now!

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Charles, Camilla Wed in Modest Ceremony

By CATHERINE McALOON, Associated Press Writer

WINDSOR, England - Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles were married Saturday in a modest civil ceremony at the 17th century Guildhall, and the second marriage for each was blessed by the Church of England as the royals knelt before Archbishop of Canterbury in a majestic ceremony beneath the soaring arches of the Gothic St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

The wedding capped a decades-long love affair that endured the prince's first marriage to Princess Diana and constant tabloid scrutiny.

Charles and Camilla confessed "manifold sins and wickedness"

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Soap Wedding Ratings Beat Royal Nuptials

By Micjael McDonough

LONDON - Prince Charles' wedding to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had as many plot twists as a soap opera, but TV ratings show it didn't compare with the real thing. A marriage between two veteran characters on TV show "Coronation Street" proved a far bigger hit with British viewers than Saturday's royal event, broadcasters said Monday.

An audience of some 12.1 million tuned in Friday night to watch Ken Barlow and Deirdre Rachid tie the knot, the ITV1 channel said. At its peak, the number of viewers hit 12.9 million. The average audience for the royal wedding was some 7.3 million, ITV1 said, citing combined figures for that channel and the British Broadcasting Corp. Although the civil marriage inside the Guildhall in Windsor wasn't broadcast, TV cameras did cover the blessing ceremony at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board Ltd. said the BBC's coverage peaked at 7.8 million and ITV1 at 2.3 million. ITV1 peaked after the main BBC channel ended its coverage.

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Guest ranster627

Correction to my report:

Turns out Joan Rivers did attend the wedding. She was interviewed on Larry King Live tonight. She had a great time and said it was the happiest wedding (blessing) she had ever attended.

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You've Seen the Wedding; Now See the Romance

Only days after the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles on Saturday, the British network ITV said today (Monday) that it plans to produce a film, about the couple's early romance.

In a statement, Damien Timmer, head of drama, said: "As a nation we know very little about the early days of Charles and Camilla's love affair. Almost instantly they developed a loving and compelling relationship and it soon became apparent to Charles that he had met his soul mate," he said. "This is a sensitive portrayal of their love and friendship prior to his meeting and marrying Diana." The title comes from a notorious quote made by the prince when he announced his marriage to Diana. When asked whether he was in love with her, he replied, "Of course," then added, "Whatever love means."

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Guest XandraSkye
Xandra.... did it have grape leaves and vines etched around the top fluted edge  :?: 

hmmm...... I think I saw a lady in the 3rd pew wearing it  :roll:

Phew ~ At first I thought you were gonna say you sent them the same one. Since I can be so forgetful I didn't think to send the Gift Receipt with it. How embarrassing it would of been if we sent the same thing. :oops:

Dodged that bullet! :wink:

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Charles and Camilla on First Official Engagement

LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Charles and his new wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall broke off from their honeymoon on Thursday for their first married engagement together -- opening a Scottish school playground.

On a blustery spring day in Ballater, Charles sported a kilt to accompany Camilla, given a big cheer as she cut the tape and launched into a round of official handshakes.

After a 35-year romance that spanned two failed marriages, the heir to the throne married the love of his life last Saturday in a low-key civil ceremony at Windsor town hall that his mother, Queen Elizabeth, declined to attend.

The monarch then welcomed Camilla into the royal family by attending a service of blessing in the Windsor Castle chapel before hosting a reception for the couple.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Prince Harry Begins Military Career

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Britain's Prince Harry of Wales says goodbye to his father Prince Charles

with Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Commandant Major General

Andrew Ritchie,right, as he arrives to start a 44 week officers training

course at Sandhurst, England Sunday May 8, 2005.

LONDON (AP) - The rebellious Prince Harry is not bucking one family tradition

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Should we feel sorry for Prince Harry?

By CHRISTOPHER WILSON, Daily Mail

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Pessimistic: Many expect Sandhurst to be a difficult time for the Prince

Prince Harry has had one hell of a week. First, there was his headline-making on the town with his minder which ended in a minor traffic accident at 4am and another PR blunder.

Then there was his high-profile arrival at Sandhurst after which, once the social niceties and photo-opportunities were over, he was plunged into an awesomely tough military regime that he is clearly ill-prepared for after a gap year that has lasted for almost two.

At the same time, he's seen his fragile reputation further tarnished - and his academic shortcomings exposed - as the details of his allegedly forged A-level art submission were aired in public at an employment tribunal involving one of his former teachers.

Could it get any worse? Well, probably. The Prince, who will be 21 in September, and his new brothers-in-arms will be subjected to all manner of tests to their physique and courage in the coming months, tempers will be short once the day is done and the spit-and-polishing begins - and no prizes for guessing who will be first in the firing-line.

For Harry got into Sandhurst on minimum qualifications - two A-levels - and if, as it is now being claimed, he is not entitled to one of them, he is equally not entitled to his place at Britain's top military academy.

This fundamental point won't have escaped the officer cadets of Harry's company - Alamein - many of whom will have struggled to get to Sandhurst and know there will be no shortcuts and no preferment in their personal careers.

They will have to struggle for a place in their regiment of choice as they watch the small amount of money they earn as cadets - their only income, in many cases - being swallowed up in the costly apparatus of becoming an officer.

The right car and the right clothes cost more than many can really afford. Plus, there will already be a sneaking presentiment as to who of their intake is going to win the coveted Sword of Honour at their passing-out parade.

So Officer Cadet Wales - younger, richer, and with a smart cavalry regiment already polishing its mess silver in readiness for his arrival - will, let us presume, not be universally popular.

And no doubt in the contact sports and exercises he has already endured and in those to come, he will have encountered the same deliberately heavy 'collisions' and the same sarcastic remarks he endured from some quarters while at school.

Fresh look at Harry

Perhaps, therefore, it's an appropriate moment to take a fresh look at the young man, fourth in line to the throne, who has been so demonised as nothing more than an upper-class lout over the past two or three years. Why does he behave the way he does?

To answer that question, one must go back more than ten years to when Diana, Princess of Wales, was still alive. In seeking to assert her preferences in all corners of her failing marriage, she chose Eton, the school of her father and brother, for Prince William over her husband's alma mater Gordonstoun. And because Prince William went there, so too should Harry.

But when the Princess approached William's housemaster, Dr Andrew Gailey, to talk about her youngest son he gently warned that there could be problems ahead.

Harry, he said, had learning difficulties which could prove devastating for him in a school where excellence is a byword, and where preferential treatment for bluebloods has long since disappeared. Charles and Diana went ahead anyway and Dr Gailey's fears were fulfilled.

Where William proved a success, Harry had difficulty in keeping up from the start. Had Diana lived, she might well have been forced to the tough but ultimately sensible decision - one reached by many parents - to take her younger son out of Eton and place him somewhere where the culture was less competitive.

But Diana died and Prince Charles - a loving but not a hands-on parent - had his attention focused elsewhere. Soon Harry was coming bottom or near-bottom in his classes, and was struggling badly.

'He should not have gone to Eton'

Is it any surprise, then, that sympathetic tutors, seeing his dilemma and foreseeing the humiliation of his A-level results (or lack of them) being publicly aired at the end of his school career, may have given the Prince a helping hand?

The evidence presented at the tribunal hearing this week of former art mistress Sarah Forsyth - she is claiming unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination following her sacking two years ago - points, not to a conniving Harry eager to cheat his way to A-level success, but to a young boy desperately out of his depth and grateful for any help he could get. "He should not have gone to Eton, it's as simple as that," said one former courtier I spoke to this week. "From a security point of view it was convenient since his brother was already there. "And then there's the prestige, too. But the Prince of Wales should have been prepared to review the situation, and not just assume that because William sailed through so, too, would Harry."

Perhaps Charles's distance from the boys was a factor in his failure to take Harry's plight more seriously. Indeed, I was told in 1997 by one of Charles's entourage that in the 365 days leading up to Diana's death the Prince had custody of his two boys for just 22 days.

Charles never did discover the art of successful parenting

This is now refuted by people associated with Diana, who claim the share was more evenly spread, but even they agree that when Charles did have the boys they would often be parked with their nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke or with close friends of the Prince, such as Emilie van Cutsem.

Charles never did discover the art of successful parenting but given his own upbringing that hardly comes as a surprise. "He needed to become father and mother to his boys after Diana died," I was told. "He never quite managed that."

So here we have a picture of a small, vulnerable boy who loses his mother in a horrifying accident at the critical age of puberty and is thrust into a school whose standards are simply too high for him to achieve anything which would engender a very necessary sense of self-worth.

At the same time, he must live with the media's never-ending obsession with Diana and a stream of often distasteful and highly embarrassing revelations about her life from friends, former Palace employees and lovers.

Then there is the bitter feeling between the Spencers and Windsors that poisoned relations with his mother's family.

Harry's anger

With this background it is, easier to understand where, and why, things have gone wrong for Harry - for psychologists argue that a lack of self-worth often manifests itself in anger and erratic behaviour.

Certainly, he had plenty to be angry about - growing up without a mother and with a hands-off father, left to his own devices for days on end at Highgrove while forever being reminded by his peers just how privileged his life is.

To that mixture add some further ingredients: the fact that perhaps he chose his friends unwisely. And that perhaps, through his mother, he inherited that Spencer waywardness which runs through the family like the lettering through a stick of Blackpool rock.

Put it all altogether and we arrive at a mixed-up young man who, it would be fair to say, stands only an even chance of pulling off an Army career - one bears in mind the chill warning of Sandhurst's commandant, Major General Andrew Ritchie, who cautioned: "I view misbehaving very dimly. "I have removed certain cadets when their behaviour is not the standard of an officer, and I would do so again. He is the same as everyone else."

If Harry does manage to survive the first "five weeks of hell", as Sandhurst so proudly describes it, will it, in the end, be the making of him?

Navy a better choice - former courtier

The former courtier I spoke to did not hold out too much hope. "He is going to a cavalry regiment, and cavalry regiments are not exactly the future," I was told. "The officers perpetuate the class system, and their attitudes and views generally are Colonel Blimpish to put it mildly. "They may be good soldiers, but they are snobbish and aloof, and bound up in themselves -they seem to take a special pleasure in it. "It would have served the Royal Family's purpose much better if he had chosen the Royal Navy, which is pretty classless these days and where there is a true sense of mutual support through all ranks."

But, the courtier added, Harry had idolised Captain James Hewitt during the soldier's affair with Princess Diana, and it was at that early age that he decided that a cavalry officer was a good thing to be.

Hewitt - a good soldier, if a flawed personality - encouraged the young Prince in his ambitions.

We must wait and see whether it was, in the end, a good career choice or whether Harry might have been better employed working, say, for the Duchy of Cornwall while acquiring a bigger portfolio of charity work.

He has already demonstrated a certain promise through his work - albeit orchestrated by Clarence House with the very particular aim of rehabilitating the Prince in the eyes of the public - with Aids orphans in Africa.

Harry has not yet blown it

There is, his friends would argue, a great deal that is good about Prince Harry. And what seems bad in the Prince - drinking, taking soft drugs, that senseless Nazi prank - are taken for the norm in many middle-class households these days, even if parents have loftier ambitions for their children.

Harry has not yet blown it. But perhaps Prince Charles should bear in mind the example of his greatuncle Prince George, Duke of Kent.

George, every bit as glamorous in the 1920s as Harry is today, was virtually ignored by his father George V.

Although he started out on a service career, drink and drugs were soon his undoing: he had been idle for too long in his youth and had the time to seek out the distractions which would keep him from the boredom he dreaded.

Harry, too, without constant supervision - and intervention - by Prince Charles could easily become bored with the prospect of the royal life ahead of him.

Now that his father is married to the woman he's loved for more than 30 years, surely it is time for him to pay closer attention to a man-child still desperately in need of guidance?

The awesome Major General Ritchie warned parents last Sunday of the struggles ahead for their children. "Expect the odd anguished phone call," he told them.

He might, however, have saved his breath in Prince Charles's case: this week Papa had been on retreat, in an isolated Romanian monastery, blissfully far beyond the reach of telecommunication.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Prince William Gets Master's in Geography

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LONDON - Prince William learned Saturday that he had achieved a master of arts degree in geography. The 22-year-old son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana logged onto the Internet to discover that he had received a 2:1 grade for his four-year course at St. Andrews University, Scotland.

A 2:1 denotes an upper second-class degree, a very respectable achievement.

The prince, who is second in line to the British throne, did better than his father, who received a 2:2, or lower second class degree for his honors degree in history at Trinity College, Cambridge.

"William got an upper second class honors (degree). He's delighted. Everyone is absolutely delighted. His father's very proud," said a spokesman for Charles's Clarence House office.

William said last year that he was hoping to get a 2:1 but a lot depended on his 10,000-word dissertation on coral reefs.

The prince, who turns 23 later this month, had a somewhat rocky start to his academic life in the isolated Scottish town in Fife.

In his first term, he struggled to adjust but eventually settled down after switching his course from history of art to geography.

St. Andrews became a haven for the prince, with the media largely adhering to his father's request that he be left alone during his studies. Locals grew used to having a royal around town.

William, who will graduate at the end of June, plans to sign up for military training at Sandhurst, the prestigious military academy south of London where his younger brother, Harry, began his studies last month.

Britain Celebrates Queen's 79th Birthday

By EMILY WINTER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Britain put on one of its grandest annual shows of royal pageantry Saturday to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's official 79th birthday.

In a spectacular display of precision marching and horsemanship choreographed to the music of a military band, about 1,220 soldiers in ceremonial red dress and huge black bearskin caps saluted the monarch in the ceremony near Buckingham Palace.

The queen turned 79 on April 21, but public celebrations of the British monarch's birthday are always held on a Saturday in June, when there is a better chance of good weather.

Thousands of people filled sidewalks around the palace on a cloudy day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the queen.

"I've got goose bumps. It's wonderful. I've got to see the queen," said Beryl Sixsmith, 64, who came to London from her hometown of Manchester in northern England.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, who celebrated his 84th birthday Friday, rode in an open carriage from Buckingham Palace along the wide, tree-lined Mall from the palace to the parade ground.

Prince William, 22, elder son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, rode in a separate carriage with his stepmother, the Duchess of Cornwall. The duchess, the former Camilla Parker Bowles, married Prince Charles on April 9.

After the hour-long ceremony, the queen and her family gathered on the palace balcony to watch Royal Air Force jets fly overhead in her honor.

Earlier Saturday, the queen released her annual list of birthday honors to a diverse list of 894 Britons, including veteran rockers Brian May and Jimmy Page.

The chief rabbi, a leading television actor and a woman who advises rail passengers also were honored.

May, the guitarist for Queen, was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, for service to the music industry. He played a prominent role three years ago in celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the queen's coronation, playing "God Save the Queen" from the roof of Buckingham Palace.

Page, a founding member of Led Zeppelin, was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, for helping disadvantaged children in Brazil.

Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench, who has played everybody from Queen Victoria to James Bond's boss, M, was made a Companion of Honor

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Breach at Harry's School Investigated

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LONDON - Britain's defense minister ordered an investigation Thursday into security at the military school where Prince Harry is training, after a newspaper said one of its journalists, with a fake bomb and camera, gained access and videotaped the prince.

The Sun tabloid said one of its reporters posed as a student to get permission to use the library at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey, where Prince Charles' younger son is an officer cadet.

The journalist spent some eight hours wandering the grounds and took video footage of Prince Harry, stills from which were published in the newspaper. He also built what The Sun called a fake bomb, with wires, plasticine, a battery and clock in his car while at the academy, the newspaper said.

A Ministry of Defense spokesman confirmed that The Sun's report was accurate. Defense Secretary John Reid said he had ordered "an immediate investigation into this serious security breach."

"I have instructed Sandhurst to change their procedures to prevent a recurrence," Reid said in a statement. Reid didn't specify what the changes would be.

Prince Harry, 20, began his training at Sandhurst last month.

The Sun's stunt follows several recent lapses in royal security. In September, a protester disguised as Batman climbed onto a ledge on the front of Buckingham Palace and remained there for several hours.

A comedian dressed as Osama bin Laden gatecrashed Prince William's 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle in 2003. Later that year, a reporter from the Daily Mirror got a job as a servant at Buckingham Palace and took pictures of the royals' living quarters.

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Prince William Graduates From University

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - Prince William graduated from St. Andrews University on Thursday in a colorful, tradition-steeped ceremony watched by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and father, Prince Charles.

Wearing a hood with cherry-red lining to indicate he is a Master of the Arts, the 23-year-old prince knelt before university chancellor Sir Kenneth Dover, who tapped him on the head with a cap. According to St. Andrews tradition, the cap is sewn from a fragment of breeches worn by Scottish religious reformer John Knox, who preached in the medieval university town in the 16th century.

William, 23, was one of 260 students to graduate in the 4 1/2-hour morning ceremony. Girlfriend Kate Middleton graduated in the same ceremony.

William earned a 2:1 geography masters degree in four years of study. A 2:1 denotes an upper second class degree, a very respectable achievement

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Guest ranster627

Thanks for that post, Ranster your royal correspondent checking in with some observations (okay, a rant)!

I have been watching this on CNN all day, and I am so upset I could scream ...

The media claims their deal to back off the boys, ends with William today ... so I ask you, will they hound him to death now?

Last night they were already tearing apart his long-term relationship and how "improper" it is that he is living with someone ... and that she is the "filler" until he meets his "true love" ...

I think the fact that William has had a normal relationship bodes well for him, and whether it works out or not, I hope, is not affected by media intrusion. I want him to marry who he wants and not be forced into a sham like his dad.

Whenever they used Diana on a cover of a magazine, before and after her demise, I used to go to the rack and turn them all around ... sure they were righted shortly thereafter, but I had my say in my little way.

I used to love the "rag mags", but I stopped buying them "cold turkey" when Diana asked for her privacy and it wasn't really respected.

I wish the best for the heir (who looks very kingly already) William and hope people accord him more privacy!

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Rugby and trees fill Prince William's NZ visit

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WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Prince William -- elder son of the late Princess Diana and second-in-line to the British throne -- showed off his rugby kicking and tree planting skills in New Zealand's capital Wellington on Friday.

The 23-year-old, wearing a bright red and blue tracksuit of the touring British and Irish Lions rugby team, kicked a ball around with English player Charlie Hodgson, with one of the Lions coaching staff passing on some tips on technique.

Prince William, a rugby fan, is in New Zealand for 11 days to follow the last half of the Lions' tour and undertake his first official visit on behalf of the Queen.

His visit comes a week after the Prince graduated from Scotland's St Andrew's University with an upper-second class arts degree. "William was a very down to earth bloke, whose skill and accuracy improved as the session progressed," Hodgson said afterwards.

Prince William, a keen player at university, will join tens of thousands of other Lions supporters who have descended on Wellington at the second test on Saturday night.

Later on Friday he swapped his track suit for a gray business suit for a tree-planting ceremony at Government House, the official residence of the Governor General, the Queen's representative in New Zealand.

He planted a golden totara, regarded as one of the most majestic of native trees and a symbol of status by New Zealand's indigenous Maori people.

Elsewhere in the grounds were trees planted by his father, Prince Charles, in 1981, and his grandmother Queen Elizabeth in 1954.

It is the prince's second visit to New Zealand. He last visited here in 1983 as a nine-month-old.

Prince William Trains With Rugby Squad

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Britain's Prince William showed his rugby skills Friday in a training session with leading members of the British Lions rugby team here.

On the second day of his first solo trip abroad representing the British sovereign, the second-in-line to the throne kicked, caught and passed the ball with seeming ease under bright clear mid-winters sun.

Dressed in a British Lions tracksuit, the prince took every ball kicked to him by Lions player Charlie Hodgson.

Under the tutelage of Lions kicking coach Dave Alred, Prince William punted the oval rugby ball back to the Lions player, earning quiet praise from bystanders and watching reporters.

The prince laughed aloud as one punt spiraled away off target, eluding Hodgson, but caught return kicks cleanly and without effort.

Then he moved on to use a kicking practice net under the eye of Alred, the man credited with giving the Lions one of the most accurate kicking games in international rugby.

William, 23, played rugby at St. Andrews University in Scotland and at his private school, Eton.

As part of his first solo public duties, William will represent his grandmother, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, wreath-laying ceremonies marking the end of WWII and honoring the contribution made by New Zealand troops during the global conflict.

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  • 10 months later...

Laura Parker Bowles Marries Former Model

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Harry Lopes and Laura Parker Bowles

LONDON - Prince Charles' stepdaughter Laura Parker Bowles, an art gallery manager, has married a former underwear model.

Laura Parker Bowles, the 27-year-old daughter of Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, married Harry Lopes, who modeled for Calvin Klein, at a private ceremony Saturday.

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Harry and William

Camilla attended the ceremony, along with Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry. It was held in Wiltshire, about 120 miles southwest of London.

Wearing a white dress by London designer Robinson Valentine, the bride, accompanied by her father, Andrew, arrived to cheers from the 500 well-wishers who had gathered.

Harry and William, who was accompanied by his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, were also cheered.

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Kate Middleton

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