The last time Prince Charles walked down the aisle, 800 million television viewers watched him tie the knot with Princess Diana.
This time around, Britain’s future king is down to just a handful of witnesses when he marries longtime lover Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at the town hall in Windsor, west of London.
The media are to be excluded from the nuptials, with Charles ever wary of comparisons between the marriages in a country where most people oppose Camilla ever becoming queen.
A spokesman for the prince told Reuters, “It was never intended that the civil ceremony should be televised as it was always planned to be a relatively small, personal occasion.”
Just 30 people will witness Charles’ marriage on April 8 to Parker Bowles, the woman forever blamed for destroying his “fairytale” marriage to the late Diana.
Among those attending will be Charles’ sons Princes William and Harry as well as Camilla’s son and daughter.
Queen Elizabeth, who has been slow to accept her eldest son’s 35-year affair with the now divorced mother of two, has decided not to attend the civil ceremony in what has been widely interpreted as a snub to the couple.
In 1981, Charles married his radiant bride Diana in great splendor at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral.
The streets of the capital were packed with thousands of cheering well-wishers and the ceremony was televised worldwide.
Following Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in 1997, the worldwide television audience almost trebled for her funeral.
Another tricky choice
Charles still faces another tricky choice over his marriage to Camilla.
No decision has been made yet on whether the media will be allowed afterwards into the church blessing in St George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle.
The service is being conducted by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans.
Televising the blessing is a sensitive issue because both Charles and Camilla are divorced and, as future king, Charles will take on the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Church rules were changed in 2003 so that it would be possible “in exceptional circumstances” for divorcees to remarry in church. The decision is for the local parish priest to make in each case.
The marriage plans have already dissolved into a comedy of errors with the venue changed from Windsor Castle to the town hall because of a mix-up over marriage licenses. Constitutional experts also question the legality of a civil ceremony.
