by Jeff Spicer - WPA Pool/Getty Images (Prince William, left); by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images (Jecca,right).
Kate Middleton did not make the trip.
This is the kind of story that will no doubt sustain the British tabloid industry for the next five years: Prince William attended the wedding of his ex-girlfriend over the weekend. And it was over Easter weekend. And it was in a different country. And Kate Middleton wasn’t there. This is the not-actually-scandalous story that still feels scandalous which the Daily Mail and friends love to sink their teeth into.
Jessica (who goes by “Jecca”) Craig married Jonathan Baillie, a conservationist, on Saturday at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, located in Kenya. William dated Craig during his “gap year” before he enrolled in university, and he is said to be on very friendly terms with Craig and her family: he attended the wedding of her brother in 2008, and actually proposed to Kate on the Craig family safari reserve in 2010. Jecca also reportedly accompanied William and Harry on a hunting trip to Spain in 2014. William is a patron of Tusk Trust, and, perPeople, the trip to Kenya was made primarily so that William could see “first-hand some of the longstanding conservation and anti-poaching initiatives.” William met Craig when he was 16, during one of his trips to Africa, and she is frequently referred to in the press as “William’s first girlfriend.”
Per the Telegraph, William attended a “champagne reception” on Friday evening, attended by 150 people, and was seen “laughing and chatting with friends” (he reportedly “stuck to Coca Cola” and did not drink). Now, there is nothing, in of itself, strange or inappropriate about going to the wedding of an ex-girlfriend—many people remain close to their exes—and there is nothing particularly odd about attending a wedding solo—but we would not exactly be surprised if Pippa and Carole Middleton exchanged a flurry of texts over the weekend about it, or if Kate couldn’t help but ask, “So, how was your trip?,” upon William’s return, with a bit of a look.
VF
