Royal Wedding – Peter Phillips & Autumn Kelly to Wed
Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips, is to become the first of the Queen’s grandchildren to marry, it was announced by Buckingham Palace last night.
“The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips are pleased to announce the engagement of their son Peter Phillips to Autumn, daughter of Mr. Brian and Mrs. Kitty Kelly,” the palace said.
Phillips, 29, has become engaged to his girlfriend, 31-year-old Autumn Kelly, a former management consultant from Canada.
The couple met at the Canadian Grand Prix in her native Montreal in 2003, and Kelly soon moved to Britain to be closer to the royal.
Despite being quoted as saying he would marry a British woman, royal watchers predicted Phillips would tie the knot before his sister, Zara, and cousins, Princes William and Harry. (via The Observer)
Regular readers of this website may remember our first poll which asked – Which royal couple will get engaged first?… The result – “Peter Phillips & Autumn Kelly” with 31% of the vote. What a knowledegable lot you all are!
July 28th, 2007 22:00
Very pleased indeed that Mr Peter Phillips is marrying for love. May he and Autumn have many years of happiness together.
July 30th, 2007 15:49
What a fairy tale – to think that a Canadian Irish Catholic girl, whose father’s side of the family has lots of juicy skeletons in their closest (including a deceased alcoholic grandfatherwho commited tax fraud, an aunt who was part-owner of a strip club, and an uncle who had drug importing charges dropped by a U.S. judge who was getting ready to go into the senate, and another who spent earlier years as a street person in Vancouve-eating out of garbage cans at times)
I guess the royalfamily is beginning to find their way down.
Should be interesting to see them at the wedding!
July 31st, 2007 12:05
My family is very pleased to learn that Mr. Peter
Phillips has chosen a born Canadian to be his wife. They look so in love. For a change somebody in the Royal family will be entering the married life in love. We wish Peter and Autumn to be very happy and have a long life together.
August 2nd, 2007 16:46
We are so happy that Peter and Autumn have found each other and now they are letting the world know just how much they love each other. All the best!!!
August 5th, 2007 13:30
Taking into account this absurd discussion about Miss. Kelly’s Catholic membership, it is time that the British Parliament must derogate as soon as possible this preposterous so-called Settlement Act, which is in open violation with the European Convention on Human Rights and other international treaties in force in whole Europe, remembering that the first one and has been adopted by the British Parliament in 1998, so it is law of the land now in Britain, your Government should put and end to this aberration. I am persuaded that the UK must fulfil with its duties towards the European Convention of Human Rights, which forbids this kind of bigotry, it is quite ridiculous, if you take into account that for a thousand years, most of the Kings of England were Catholics till Henry VIII “The defender of the Faith” title given by Pope Leo X, thanks to his defence of Catholicism when Luther attacked the Church, He was the man who broke with Rome, just because the Pope did not accept his unlawful divorce of Queen Catherine, like many of his counsellors rejected as well, amongst them John Fisher and Thomas More who before being executed said: “I die a good subject to the King, but to God first!». More was not the first Catholic martyr, but thousands had followed him, persecutions will last for almost three centuries. The first Catholic King after Queen Elizabeth I was going to be King James II, his predecessor, Charles II took the holy communion from a Jesuit before he passed away, Their mother Queen Henrietta Marie wife of Charles I was another Catholic, and so were the majority of the oldest nobility of England (not the Cecil’s indeed), Scotland and Ireland and most commoners, which were forced to convert to Anglicanism if not they were considered traitors and paid with their lives those who did not obey. Just a question, how many Irish were murdered because their loyalty to the Catholic Church, hundreds of thousands from Elizabethan times to Queen Victoria. I would like to remind you that the Duchess of Kent, Princess Michael of Kent the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk first Peer of England, and many others are Catholics. How many brilliant intellectuals converted to Catholicism, plenty of them, and they still are going back to the old flock with just one shepherd, the Pope. England is a country, which has more Catholic worshipers than Anglicans. I am extremely upset with all this issue, thinking that all Christians must be reunited as was Pope John Paul It’s wishes in just one flock and one Church, as our Lord decided when He created our Church, appointing Saint Peter as the first Pope and head of Thy Church. HM the Queen can never be the head of any Church, because we have already a successor of Peter, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. In times of Queen Victoria, her son Alfred Duke of Edinburgh married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, she was an Orthodox and never became an Anglican, she continue to be devoted to the Orthodox Church till her death and nobody said a word about it. So why make such differences with Catholics? I would like to have an answer. But as we can see in these comments hate to the Catholic Church is quite common amongst some ordinary people, they don’t know why, but they were taught to hate any Catholic, Irish, Spaniard, French and even English. Do they know that we are in 2007? I am afraid not at all.
August 5th, 2007 20:57
“HM the Queen can never be the head of any Church, because we have already a successor of Peter, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.”
Aren’t religious fanatical comments like this the reason why the Act of Settlement stays in place? Pope Benedict XVI’s recent delcaration that the catholic church is the only true church, and the vatican’s attempt to bully politicians around the world, including in the United States, into voting the way the church demands is another toxic misstep by this “true church.”
Church and state don’t mix and there is a reason why. Who wants to live like people live in Brazil? I, as an American do not. Most so-called catholic countries have stripped the pope of any power over the state or they are in the process (or struggle) of doing so now.
Having said that, I do believe the Act of Settlement should be abolished because to apply it to catholics and not to Baptists, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, etc. is nothing but prejudice. But I think when catholic bishops and cardinals in England talk about “equality” in their demand for “equal” treatment, they lack basic credibility because they themselves don’t believe in freedom for the people any more than religious fundamentalists of other faiths do. They believe in, and have practiced the oppression of rights and freedoms of the people especially women.
August 6th, 2007 10:02
How do catholics oppress the rights and freedom of women? Are you talking about abortion? If you are then I must say this, in abortion, do you realize that there is a life in there? An innocent child, who has no chance in deciding their fate of life or death. It is up to the mother, the creator of this child, to protect their baby. If they decide they dont want a baby, they simply go to a clinic to have their baby murdered, instead of putting the baby up for adoption so couples who want children may have one. What has our world become? That makes us think that having sex before marriage, killing young humans, and the choice of words we use is ok? And also all of the religious slander
So “Countessa” I ask you how do Catholics opress women?
August 6th, 2007 15:46
I am talking generally about all religions and their history of oppression and war, in the name of God, as well as the specific denying of freedoms to women such as the right to vote, the right to own property and countless other atrocities in the third world and beyond in the name of religion. Why is everything about sex and abortion with you people? It’s another obsession by religious groups that free states have allowed the free people to make up their own minds about.
Every free society now practices an explicit division between church and state because of the centuries of abuse.
back on topic: Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England is, in fact, head of the Church of England. Perhaps you want a war (yet another religious war) to settle this question?
August 8th, 2007 19:36
Johanne Bouchard – what makes YOU any kind of an authority on her family? She looks like a lovely girl and they seem very happy together. Someone who wants to start saying things like that must be jealous or something.
August 8th, 2007 19:50
What a fairy tale – to think that a Canadian Irish Catholic girl, whose father’s side of the family has lots of juicy skeletons in their closest (including a deceased alcoholic grandfatherwho commited tax fraud, an aunt who was part-owner of a strip club, and an uncle who had drug importing charges dropped by a U.S. judge who was getting ready to go into the senate, and another who spent earlier years as a street person in Vancouve-eating out of garbage cans at times)
I guess the royalfamily is beginning to find their way down.
Should be interesting to see them at the wedding!
Oh my dear me! However could he overlook such things when choosing a bride! It’s as though he doesn’t even realize the impact that distant relatives have on a person’s decency and integrity!
Oh, but I’ve heard a great many scandalous things about Peter’s family, too – they’re all online if you care to look them up. I’m sure you’ll find them to be much juicer, not to mention much more well-documented.
August 8th, 2007 19:56
Well spoken, Baroness!!
August 8th, 2007 20:11
My apologies to Johanne Bouchard. I was directing my comments to Joyce Long.
September 10th, 2007 21:14
Yes I agree with Riverside, “Joyce Long” you are verrrrry verrry bitter apparently-can you take no joy in two people being happy? You are a brutish snob!
October 23rd, 2007 04:35
Just would like to say that Autumn Kelly may be Catholic socially but spiritually she is not.
If she was a practising Catholic, she would not be living with her boyfriend. This living in sin also applies to Protestants too.
Practising Catholics and Protestants who believe in the sanctity of marriage would not live with their boyfriend before marriage.
It is a sad day when the Head of the Church of England has two grandchildren living in sin.
October 23rd, 2007 04:37
Just would like to say that Autumn Kelly may be Catholic socially but spiritually she is not.
If she was a practising Catholic, she would not be living with her boyfriend. This living in sin also applies to Protestants too.
Practising Catholics and Protestants who believe in the sanctity of marriage would not live with their boyfriend before marriage.
It is a sad day when the Head of the Church of England has two grandchildren who are living together.
This is not moral fundamentalism but realism and true Christian thought.
October 27th, 2007 12:06
Who is going t pay for the wedding – the sub-class, the upper class or the bride’s parents?
And I agree with Clare Coffey – to make such a big deal out of the religious side of this story is hypocritical.
Also – in reference to another comment about distant relatives, I don’t see criticism, I see a phoenix rising out of the ashes – it gives us ordinary people reason to dream! If someone with her background (and they do have a tightly knit family – I am from Montreal) can bag a man with such a wealthy background, it give the rest of us who’d like the lifestyle something to dream about.
I’d like to get an invite to the wedding — bet there are other arisitocrats who would like a little fresh meat!
October 27th, 2007 12:06
Who is going t pay for the wedding – the sub-class, the upper class or the bride’s parents?
And I agree with Clare Coffey – to make such a big deal out of the religious side of this story is hypocritical.
Also – in reference to another comment about distant relatives, I don’t see criticism, I see a phoenix rising out of the ashes – it gives us ordinary people reason to dream! If someone with her background (and they do have a tightly knit family – I am from Montreal) can bag a man with such a wealthy background, it give the rest of us who’d like the lifestyle something to dream about.
I’d like to get an invite to the wedding — bet there are other arisitocrats who would like a little fresh meat!
January 7th, 2008 07:24
The wedding of Peter and Autumn is good news for the royal family.. Lets hope they lead the lifes they do now away from the press and the publicity that all the other royals have to put up with every day…
I wonder if we will get to see the couple on the big day… Will they close off Windsor and allow them to travel round the block in horse carriage like Sophie and Edward did…
January 8th, 2008 08:09
In line with her apparent isolation I wonder if Kate Middleton will be invited to Peter and Autumn’s wedding.
Prince William is of course Best Man or Supporter to Peter and the establisment may find it prudent to ensure Kate doesnt get an invite.
That would be a great pity because she did go to Peter’s birday party and is known to be friendly with Autumn