A Royal Wedding? Shes been there

India Hicks,a bridesmaid at Princess Dianas wedding,will now report on William and Kates

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Just back from a weekend jaunt to London and en route to her home in the Bahamas,India Hicks,the model and former Top Design host was in New York to work on a jewellery line,promote a fragrance collection and film a segment for Barbara Walters royal wedding special.

Hicks,one of Dianas five bridesmaids and a goddaughter to Prince Charles has emerged,with no apologies,in the role of royal-wedding expert. At Dianas 1981 wedding,she was a 13-year-old tomboy,decked in petticoats and puffed sleeves. Now 43 and the mother of three sons and a daughter,she will play commentator for the much-anticipated April 29 nuptials of Dianas firstborn,Prince William and Kate Middleton. Its a role that her mother,Pamela Hicks,a daughter of Countess Mountbatten of Burma and the last Viceroy of India and herself a bridesmaid to Queen Elizabeth,has perhaps encouraged. My mother reminds me,You are a part of history, she said. Though royal commentary is more often left to commoners,its something of a feminist act to offer her input on an event she described as typically covered by authoritative men in gray suits.

There are people who are well-read and well-versed in royal weddings, she said. I wanted to get back to the fun of it. For many years,she distanced herself from the royal circles that surrounded her childhood,focusing on developing her profession. As a model she was known for her Ralph Lauren ads,and recently appeared in a campaign for Tods. She lived and worked in the US before teaming up with David Flint Wood,a onetime ad man and childhood friend. The couple and their children live in the Bahamas. She said it was not just her mother,but Wood who encouraged her to speak more about how well she knew Diana. She wrote an essay for Harpers Bazaar describing memories of being part of Charles and Dianas wedding. Hours before the ceremony,she wrote,Diana was dressed in jeans and a tiara and sang along to a Cornetto ice-cream commercial. She also remembered the princess encouraging young India to do your best when handling her 25-foot-long train. After that piece was published,her phone started to ring endlessly,with pleas from TV networks to help in their royal wedding coverage.

The week of the wedding,she will appear as a commentator for the British network ITV and do several reports on ABC. She laughed at the suggestion that the royal wedding could help her new jewellery brand,the India Hicks Collection.

The British fashion house Viyella has anointed her its spokeswoman,and The Daily Telegraph reported she will be wearing Viyella designs during her royal wedding commentary. But she resisted any suggestion that she is capitalising on the proceedings. She stressed that she talks only about positive royal wedding memories and would not answer questions about Middleton,whom she has only met once,at Prince Charless 60th birthday party. Your reader can draw every conclusion they would like to draw from it, she said. I think I would have learned pretty quickly if I should not be talking.CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY