Prince Charles’s problem-plagued wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles would go ahead as planned despite nine formal objections to the union being lodged in Britain, a spokesman for the prince said on Saturday.
The two divorcees are due to marry in a civil ceremony on April 8 but plans have verged on the farcical since the venue was switched from Windsor Castle to the local town hall and Charles’s mother Queen Elizabeth deciding not to attend.
BBC News reported that nine separate objections, known as caveats, had been lodged with Charles and Camilla’s local registry office.
The BBC said the unspecified objections had been referred to the registrar-general and no marriage certificate could be issued until they were dealt with.
A spokesman for Prince Charles, who wrapped up a short visit to Australia on Saturday, said the registrar-general would determine whether the objections have any legal basis.
“I am sure it will be absolutely fine. Our position is that we are very confident that these issues can be worked through,” spokesman Patrick Harrison told reporters during a visit by the prince to a property in southern New South Wales.
“The objections need to be legal ones to have any validity.”
Constitutional experts in Britain have already questioned the legality of the couple’s wedding.
Judiciary head Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, has issued a statement declaring that a civil marriage for the future monarch was legally valid.
The Australian visit by Prince Charles, who left for New Zealand on Saturday, was largely overshadowed by the presence in the country of Danish royals Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian-born wife, Crown Princess Mary.
The raft of royals rekindled a debate in Australia about whether the former British colony and constitutional monarchy should keep its 216-year-old ties with Britain or become a republic with a homegrown president.
The issue has been simmering since a vote in 1999 narrowly rejected a republic because many Australians want a popularly elected president, not one appointed by parliament as proposed in the referendum.
