He collects a regular paycheck from the Royal Air Force and commands an annual salary of about 40,000 pounds. She shops at Bicester Village,the designer outlet,and trawls the sales at Peter Jones,the London department store. They fell for each other at university,dated for years,and now live together in a rented cottage costing 750 pounds,a month. Their wedding will be watched by almost 1 billion people worldwide,although theyve told the 1,900 guests they prefer charity donations to gifts. After a brief honeymoon in Britain,theyll return to their quiet village life in Wales and,please,no servants. So,is this what it means to be 21st-century royalty? Much has been made of the modern,approachable,and inclusive attitudes of Prince William and his fiancee,Kate Middleton. Theyve invited the butcher,pub owner and postman from Kates hometown to the wedding,while snubbing the Obamas,the Sarkozys and even Sarah Ferguson. Although the 1,900 guests and global TV audience wont exactly make for an intimate wedding at Westminster Abbey,the list is down from the 3,500 people who attended the wedding at St. Pauls Cathedral of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. William and Kate are aware that peoples lives do not revolve around the Queens choice of hat for the big day or the royal honeymoon destination. Its no longer about awe and dignity. William and Kate are like usyet so not like us, says Peter York,a marketing specialist. York calls the couple modern,and identifiable,notwithstanding the round-the-clock security and castles scattered around the country. A lot of people could think,That happened to me. The common touch isnt any accident. One of the late Princess Dianas great aspirations was to give her sons as normal an upbringing as possible. Diana took her boys to McDonalds,and to Selfridges to see Santa. Also,Princes William and Harry are the first generation of heirs to the throne who have grown up with publicly affectionate parents. As a result,William and Kate could be seen as the first of Britains truly modern royals. William lives in the real world, says Dickie Arbiter,a former press secretary to the Queen. He had an outward-looking mother,he went to university and his job in the Royal Air Force involves rescuing people,saving lives. Bruce Oldfield,who dressed Princess Diana and is tipped to be designing Middletons wedding gown believes the Windsor clan has come a long way since the young Lady Diana Spencer swept down the aisle of St Pauls. I hope there is a much more modern family in waiting for Kate. The royals are much more relaxed,and are marrying outside their class, Oldfield says. In addition to opening their hearts and minds to a wider public,the British royals have been evolving in other ways,too. In an article for the London Evening Standard newspaper,media commentator Roy Greenslade wrote that Williamwho is no lover of the media,has had to perfect a balancing act. He must give enough of himself and Kate to the media to ensure that the public do not turn their back on royalty, he wrote. So far,he has just about pulled off the trick of balancing the public and the private. Since their engagement,William and Kate have kept a low profile. The only true paparazzi snaps of Middleton have been one of her shopping at the upscale supermarket Waitrose near the couples Anglesey,North Wales home and another of her leaving a lunch at the Berkeley Hotel with the Duchess of Cornwall. In his piece,Greenslade pointed out,there has been nothing like the media hysteria surrounding William and Kate as there was during the buildup to the wedding of his mother and father in 1981. Kate will be a vibrant,beautiful young princess and the world will expect its regular dose of news about the fairy tale they expect her to be living. Dickie Arbiter also sees the young prince as part of a bigger cycle. Dont expect changeforget about change, he says. The royal family has been evolving and adapting over the past 1,000 years.Amantha Conti and Nina Jones
