Editor’s note: This story was originally published on April 29, 2024.
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
When Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton announced they were breaking up in April 2007, Deseret News readers took note. As they did a few months later when the 25-year-olds resumed their relationship.
Americans’ infatuation with the royal family is in its third century of fandom, so speculating when the pair would announce their engagement became a spectator sport.
And Deseret News readers were more than prepared to watch from afar when the pair held their “opulent” wedding ceremony on April 29, 2011, at London’s Westminster Abbey.
“With not one but two kisses and tender whispered words, Prince William and Kate Middleton smiled and blushed Friday as they started their life as future king and queen. A day of seamless pageantry inspired hopes that this royal couple might live happily ever after,” read that morning’s Associated Press story featured on Deseret News platforms.
Almost reads like a Taylor Swift update.
Deseret News readers ate up timelines of the pair’s romance, what famous and not-so-famous Londoners said about the wedding, what went on throughout the day — apparently the goat cheese and rhubarb was excellent — and whether the bliss would last.
In Utah, Deseret News stories included suggestions on how to score wedding memorabilia from a distance, and also compared local weddings conducted that same day in Salt Lake City.
And just like they did 30 years before, when then-Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, and now, when fans wonder where the Princess of Wales was, Deseret News readers wanted to follow the action.
Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about royals weddings:
"Local couples stage their own ‘royal weddings’"
"Catching a glimpse of the royal wedding"
"Quench royal-wedding thirst in Salt Lake City"
