A hairdresser's daughter from Montreal will marry into England's royal family this weekend, becoming the sweetheart of royal watchers around the world.
Canadian Autumn Kelly and her fiancé, Peter Phillips, the 30-year-old son of Princess Anne, will tie the knot Saturday at St. George's Chapel in England. Phillips, the eldest and rumoured to be the favourite grandchild of the Queen, will be the first of her grandchildren to wed.
The couple, who until recently have stayed out of the limelight that often follows members of the royal family, will be married during a private ceremony attended by about 300 guests, including the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, who took their blessings at the same chapel.
"It's not really a very modest little church, and it's going to be an enormous turnout of members of the British royal family because Peter Phillips is so popular. They all really like him," Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty Magazine, told CBC on Friday.
Phillips, who works for the Royal Bank of Scotland and does not carry a royal title, has kept an unusually low profile as a member of the monarchy. There have been no books written about him, and he is generally left alone by Britain's notorious paparazzi.
“But I think his life’s going to change a little bit now," Seward said.
The soon-to-be newlyweds made a media splash this week following the release of a pre-wedding interview and 20-page photo spread in the British tabloid Hello! The magazine reportedly paid close to $1 million for the exclusive access.
During the interview, Kelly, a 30-year-old management consultant who met her hubby-to-be in 2003 at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, confessed she had no idea about her boyfriend's lineage until nearly two months into the relationship when she saw him in a television report about his cousin, Prince William.
The British media have described the Pointe-Claire, Que., native as a "working-class girl from a suburban backwater of Canada." Despite her humble roots, Kelly told Hello! she was proud of her Canadian heritage and intends to keep her passport.
Her friends back home describe her as intelligent and classy with a sharp sense of humour.
"She's just a normal girl. She's really funny, actually," said Katherine Fauteux, who lives across the quiet road from the house where Kelly lived for more than a decade. "She's got a wicked sense of humour -like really wild. I could tell you some stories, but I won't. He's lucky, honestly, to get a girl like her."
Seward also had glowing words for the latest member of the royal clan and her beau.
"I think Autumn Kelly's a gorgeous-looking girl, and he is, as I said, a very, very popular (man)," she said. "When Peter comes into a room, he lights it up. He's a fabulous boy, and I think she's very lucky."
While the two will probably continue to lead a low-profile life together, Seward said, it certainly won't be low maintenance. Phillips is said to be a beneficiary of various trust funds by the Queen Mother and other members of the royal family and is "probably quite a rich boy," she said.
With files from the Canadian Press