Did you know that Prince William and his long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton are getting married? Why of course you did, because it’s pretty impossible to escape that headline at the moment. The media has recently exploded in excitement over the pending royal wedding. Middleton is on an obscene number of magazine covers, and new details of her relationship have been popping up in the news on a daily basis. As soon as any detail of the wedding is revealed, it’s in every news feed. There have been scandals (or what some are trying really hard to make into a scandal), many, many articles on her engagement ring, articles on how to copy her style, and countless pieces comparing her …
… to Princess Diana. Seems the media is interested in just about everything concerning Kate Middleton, except for the actual person who is Kate Middleton.
Today’s current revelation? Kate Middleton first saw her future husband when she was ten years old, and the Prince came to play a hockey match at her school. Which is contrary to the general thought that she first saw him when they met in college. Which, apparently makes that news. So why all the fuss over this pending wedding? Celebrities get married on a regular basis, and although they often get coverage, I don’t think many celebrity weddings would compare to this sort of media intensity. It somewhat surprises me that so many people have such an emotional investment in this wedding – unlike a movie star, who we often feel some sort of emotional connection to as a result of having seen their characters on screen, we really know every little about Middleton and Price William as people.
Perhaps the fascination is a result of the canonization of Princess Diana, and people are hoping Middleton becomes the next fashion icon and charitable role model of the new millennium. Maybe people dig the idea that she came from humble beginnings, as the daughter of a flight dispatcher and a flight attendant. Or maybe it’s just a lasting sense of nostalgia for a royal wedding, which arguably meant a lot more when the Monarchy held significant power than it does now. Whatever it is that has people enraptured, my fingers are crossed for this girl. It can’t be easy to be thrust into the global spotlight (because she has been famous in the UK for as long as she first cast a sideways glance at Prince William) due to your choice in mate. People are going to try to tear her down, follow her around, and possibly even cause her harm for as long as she remain a Royal, which is pretty contrary to the vision I’m sure most girls hold of what it would be like to be a Princess.
But like it or not, she’s in the spotlight now. And I’m hoping she utilizes it, and gives people something to genuinely pay attention to. They may only care about her now for the fancy wedding she’s about to throw, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t turn it into a meaningful opportunity to put what matters to her into the spotlight.