So when are you getting married? Chelsea pensioner, 85, makes Prince Harry blush as Harry replies ‘Not for a long time’

By REBECCA ENGLISH

Pointed question: The Prince shares a joke with a Chelsea Pensioner at London's Royal Hospital today where he was put on the spot with a question about his marriage plans


Blushing Prince Harry was put on the spot over his intentions towards on-off girlfriend Chelsy Davy today.

The 26-year-old royal was attending the annual Founder’s Day parade at London’s Royal Hospital – home to the world famous Chelsea Pensioners - when he was caught out by cheeky former soldier William Titchmarsh, 85.

As the prince greeted the retired soldier, Mr Titchmarsh made a reference to his elder brother’s recent wedding and asked: ‘So when are you getting married then?’

The third in line to the throne flushed a shade of pink and replied: ‘Not for a long time. Who put you up to do that to me?!’

‘Oh dear, they’ll shoot me in the morning,’ the pensioner replied.
‘Yes, put him on a charge Sergeant Major,’ his neighbour quipped.



Sorry sweetheart: The news will undoubtedly come as a blow to Harry's on/off girlfriend Chelsy Davy, pictured here with the Prince last year


Harry has been dating Zimbabwean born law student Chelsy Davy for more than five years although the pair have split up and reunited several times.

And while friends say they are still ‘an item’ and Chelsy attended Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in April as the prince’s date, she was recently spotted holidaying with friends in Spain and is said to have claimed she was single again


Stand up straight lads! Prince Harry inspects the veteran soldiers at London's Royal Hospital


Bachelor pad: Pensioner John Ley shows Harry around his room at the Margaret Thatcher Infirmary at the Royal Hospital Chelsea


The hospital’s Founder’s Day is always held on a day close to May 29th, the birthday of Prince Charles who founded the hospital, and is normally reviewed by a member of the Royal Family.

Harry is understood to have been keen to take the parade for some time.

The average age of the scarlet-clad pensioners on parade this year was 83 with the eldest, Joe Britton, who will celebrate his 100th birthday later this year


Salute: The Prince was at the centre of proceedings at the Founder's Day Parade


Dashing: Harry wore his Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals uniform with his blue Army Air Corps beret


Hats off: The Pensioners raise their hats during today's Parade


The pensioner has been at the institution for 17 years and remained seated while the prince took the salute of fellow residents.

Harry later met him and joked: 'You should have been in the front line,' and the old soldier replied: 'When you reach 99 it's about time you finish.'

Harry, who wore his Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals uniform with his blue Army Air Corps beret, became the first serving officer since the Duke of Kent in 1974 to review the Founder's Day Parade of Chelsea pensioners.


All ears: Harry gave a moving speech, describing his pride at serving as a Junior Captain in the Army Air Corps. Over 1,000 guests were seated in stands


In the grounds of the hospital more than 1,000 guests were seated in stands with the elderly residents lined up in formation in front of them.

The old soldiers, who had an average age of 82, marched past Harry who took their salute as he stood below the gilt statue of Charles II.

All those at the ceremony including Harry wore oak leaf sprigs in memory of the hospital's royal founder who escaped after the battle of Worcester in 1651 by hiding in an oak tree.


Red coats: Harry became the first serving officer since the Duke of Kent in 1974 to review the Founder's Day Parade of Chelsea pensioners


The Royal Hospital was founded in 1682 to care for old and inured soldiers and is currently home to some 300 male and female pensioners.

Veterans are eligible to become a Chelsea Pensioner over the age of 65.

Touring some of the hospital’s facilities, Harry popped in to see one of the residents, John Ley, and asked him: ‘Are you friendly with your neighbours? Do you have pillow fights in the corridors, then?’

He also gave a short but moving speech, describing his pride and nerves as a Junior Captain in the Army Air Corps at being in front of an audience with ‘so many years of extraordinary military service’.

‘It is an honour and a thrill to stand in these surroundings. The Royal Hospital – this world famous place – represents all that is great about our Country: beauty, traditional – and the wisdom that does with that – selflessness and duty,’ he said.

And he couldn’t resist getting in a dig at his RAF Search and Rescue pilot brother – it is something of a dare between the pair to make a joke at each other’s expense when making public speeches.

‘I find it terrifying that your drill is so much better than my brother's, but it doesn’t surprise me,’ he quipped.

source: dailymail

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From faux chav to green goddess... a shake of a tail feather and Pippa goes global (and becomes the world's most eligible woman)

By Jan Moir


Glamorous: The Duchess of Cambridge's only sister has become an overnight sensation following her sister's wedding to Prince William


A life can change in a moment. And certainly something seismic happened to Pippa Middleton when she stepped out of the car at Westminster Abbey.

As far as the world is concerned, it was BC and AD. Before the Church, then After the Dress.

Yes, Kate’s glorious bridal gown rightly grabbed all the headlines. But smoking hot on her heels was lil’ sis, poured into a column of buttermilk satin, in a button-backed dress that was tighter than a coat of paint.


True, its unforgiving structure meant Pippa had to mince up and down the Abbey aisle like a geisha with corns, but it was worth it.

After all, her role as maid of honour was a secondary one. Hold the bouquet, keep smiling, don’t let the bride get spinach on her teeth.

Most importantly, she had to attend to a majestic bridal train that was almost nine feet long. A duty that required a lot of bending over.

So if you have to do this in front of a global audience of billions, you might as well bunny dip in an unforgettable frock that is going to maximise your best asset.

Mince, mince, mince, dip, dip, dip, she went; our glorious Pippa the Big Dipper. Not since the first Panzer tank turned and fled at the battle of El Alamein has a rear end made such an impression on the world.

The impact has been incredible. So much so it is no exaggeration to say everything has changed for Pippa.

Party girl: Pippa Middleton is almost unrecognisable from her University days. She loves fancy dress


In one shake of a tail feather, she has become a global celebrity, a household name and one of the most talked about people at the wedding of the century. More than that, she is now one of the most eligible women in the world.

F ROM this moment on, Pippa can have her pick of the aristocracy, the landed gentry, the new rich, assorted gassy celebrities, the Chelsea back four.

Anyone really, up to and including Prince Harry, if his wolfish expression was anything to go by.

One could understand if her current beau, Alex Loudon, 30, starts to look worried.

The lantern-jawed banker is the rich scion of a stately home, former cricket international and friend of Prince William’s since Eton. But will he be enough to keep Pippa?

For in the three days since the wedding, her stock has soared a million-fold. She’s in big, big demand.

American magazines will want to put her on their covers, fashion designers will want her to wear their creations and dukes will be queuing up to marry her.

Not to mention the swarms of rogues and rascals who will want to distil some of that royal potency for their own dastardly ends.

Fun: Pippa sports a Burberry cap and a fake barbed wire tattoo to pose as a chav. At another party she wrapped herself in toilet paper

Joker: Pippa is known for her fun-loving party attitude and is usually the centre of attention when out and about


As has been said before, Pippa is the Middleton who gets the best deal out of the royal romance; all of the attention, without the responsibility and restraint of protocol.

Yet no one could have imagined that the confetti of global approval would shower around her quite so explosively. And as her appeal hits hitherto unimaginable heights, the question is: just what will Pippa do with her new-found fame?

The new Duchess of Cambridge might be content to bumble back to the relative anonymity of being an RAF wife in Anglesey, but what about Pippa? Will she be able to restrain herself from turning down the clarion call to become a celebrity?

For a girl like Pippa, who has always had the flinty spark of ambition in her pretty eyes, the temptation to capitalise must be overwhelming.

Since William and Kate started dating, the discreet Middletons have barely put a foot wrong — give or take a few unwise ‘royal’ items on their party planning website — but if anyone’s going to break ranks and smash the royal glass ceiling (not to mention Cinderella’s glass slipper) you can bet it will be Pippa.

For now that her appetite has been whetted, what will she do to trump this stardust moment of global attention?

Pippa has always loved the limelight her sister’s relationship has brought, and there has always been the suspicion that hanging back in the shadows has been frustrating.

Now that she’s emerged as the more glamorous and sexy half of the world’s best-known sister act, it seems unlikely she will be prepared to melt back into those shadows.

Perhaps the prospect of a safe marriage to a rich banker like Alex and a career as a party planner will pale beside the treats now on offer to her in the great finger buffet of life.

Her personal history suggests she might be tempted. Philippa Charlotte Middleton is Carole and Michael Middleton’s second daughter and their middle child. She grew up in Berkshire and, like her sister and younger brother, attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire. Then she studied English Literature at Edinburgh University.

There, her social ambitions flourished. Pippa made it her business to hang out with the kind of men who mattered. To her, at any rate.

Rear of the year: Pippa Middleton's rear became one of the most talked about things on the internet

Her Royal Hotness: The 27-year-old has received a huge amount of attention since she was her sister's bridesmaid


Her Edinburgh flatmates were Lord Edward Innes-Ker, a son of the Duke of Roxburgh, and Earl Percy, heir to the Duke of Northumberland. Her boyfriends appear to have leapt from the pages of a Jilly Cooper novel; they include Jonathan ‘JJ’ Jardine Paterson, an heir to the Hong Kong Jardine Matheson property fortune, Scottish aristocrat Billy More Nesbitt and diamond heir Simon Youngman. Flash.

After graduation, Pippa managed to arrange a not-too-taxing career combining the two main interests in her life — partying and networking.

She worked at London events planner Table Talk and last year began writing the online magazine for her parents’ party business.

In 2008 she was named Number One Society Singleton by Tatler magazine, eclipsing her new brother-in-law’s cousin Princess Eugenie. She has been waiting for her moment — has it finally arrived? Some say Pippa is far too cool to cash in and that she would never endanger her sister’s reputation. But Kate is married and there’s not so much to lose.

A different set of rules apply now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have left the centre stage to start married life together.

For years, Pippa was straining at the leash. She would arrange personal interviews and photo shoots, only to pull out at the last moment. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

O NE THING is sure: whatever she decides to do or not do, she is on the threshold of a potent kind of celebrity, even if it is only by royal association.

In any other world, she might be just another party planner with a clipboard, swoosh of fabulous hair and some good ideas about table placements. In the orbit of the Duchess of Cambridge, she can become a star.

Joker: Even Prince Harry couldn't resist trying to charm the younger sibling of his new sister-in-law

I'll be back: Pippa Middleton leaves the Goring Hotel with her family after her sister's wedding but is sure to be in the spotlight again


It has been a remarkable ascent. Before the wedding was over, several Facebook sites were set up in honour of her sainted bottom. Everyone is raving about the 27-year-old brunette dubbed Her Royal Hotness, now and for ever more.

Despite her un-Windsorish fondness for toffee-coloured fake tan, Pippa almost stole the royal wedding show. However, let us not forget that what was mostly on show was a sweet mutual respect and sisterly solidarity between the Middleton girls.

Pippa looked thrilled and proud, executing her maid of honour duties with unshowy aplomb. Kate was generous and kind to allow her sister to shine in such a slinky, attention-grabbing, mini-bride outfit.

Indeed, a less munificent bride would have drowned Pippa in an avalanche of knicker pink taffeta ruffles, just to be on the safe side.

Let us hope the Duchess of Cambridge does not come to regret this act of sororial generosity.

For now that glamorous Pippa is out of her box, she might never want to climb back in again. She is ready for her close-up, Mr DeMille! Lights, camera, bunny dip and dip again.

However, I do wonder if Kate has unwittingly unleashed the beast at the heart of the Middleton family.

At the end of the day, Pippa is a striking girl with a delightful figure. Nothing more and nothing less. What is amazing, even in this day and age, is what a great dress and proximity to the Royal Family can do to burnish a young woman’s reputation and allure.

Whether or not Pippa Middleton uses this power wisely, we shall have to wait and see.

Forget Pippa, Chelsy's the only girl for Harry

To many, the chemistry between best man Prince Harry and maid of honour Pippa Middleton at the wedding was palpable.
A grinning Harry, 26, was seen telling her as they walked out of Westminster Abbey: ‘You do look very beautiful today – seriously.’

In reality, there is only one woman in his life – on-off girlfriend Chelsy Davy, 25.

But friends, who likened the couple to Romeo and Juliet’s ‘star-crossed lovers’, say their different lives make their relationship difficult. Zimbabwean-born Chelsy enjoys the freedom of Africa, while Harry is bound by his royal duties.

The pair first met in Cape Town in South Africa in 2004 during Harry’s gap year travels. But Chelsy has always fiercely valued her independence – and the fact she is completely un-phased about dating a prince has only made Harry want her more.

They both wear their hearts on their sleeves – which has led to some blazing rows and periods of angry separation.

In 2009 Chelsy quit her legal studies in the UK and returned to Africa, telling friends she ‘could never, ever see herself as a member of the Royal Family’. Harry was devastated. A friend said: ‘When one of her friends asked him when he would be visiting Cape Town again, Harry texted back, “I don’t know. I lost the best thing that ever happened to me and I’m paying for it”.’

But within months they were back together. Chelsy, whose father has made a multi-million-pound fortune selling hunting holidays to wealthy Americans, has moved back to the UK and starts work as a solicitor this autumn.

The week before the wedding the pair flew to Botswana for a brief but romantic holiday. On Thursday Harry visited her at her London flat, and the pair returned to the Belgravia address in the early hours of Saturday.

According to reports, they openly kissed at the Buckingham Palace reception on Friday. One source claimed that the prince nuzzled up to her and whispered: ‘You’re next.’

But another said: ‘Chelsy loves Harry but her heart is back with her family in Africa. She hates all the hoop-la that comes with dating a royal... she says, “All of that fuss, it’s just not for me”.’


source:dailymail

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