LONDON, Feb 10 (AFP) - In announcing he will marry long-time partner Camilla Parker Bowles in April, Britain's Prince Charles had not only to take into account the public reaction, but also the far more personal feelings of his two sons, William and Harry.
While the pair have met Parker Bowles a number of times in recent years and reportedly enjoy cordial relations with the personable 57-year-old divorcee, the prospect of her becoming their step-mother is bound to bring ambiguous feelings.
A spokesman for Clarence House, the official residence of Charles and his two sons, said William and Harry were "delighted" at the news of the engagement, and that they wanted the couple to be happy.
Later Thursday, in a simple but heartfelt statement, the two princes said: "We are both very happy for our father and Camilla and we wish them all the luck in the future."
William and Harry's mother, Princess Diana, was very public in blaming Parker Bowles for the break-up of her marriage to heir to the throne Charles, which ended in divorce in 1996.
A year later, Diana was dead following a car crash in Paris.
One of the most enduring images amid the subsequent outpouring of British public grief was that of William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, walking solemnly and without public tears behind her funeral cortege.
The princes, now 22 and 20, have been forthright since in protecting the reputation of their mother, and could perhaps be forgiven for seeing Camilla as an interloper.
However, the announcement of Charles and Camilla's wedding on April 8 meant the young princes had certainly consented to the relationship, royal experts said Thursday.
"He (Charles) obviously had long talks with William and Harry. He would not have done it if they were not happy about it," said Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine.
"They want their dad to be happy, most children do. If their mother was still alive, it would be very different," she told Sky News television.
According to constitutional expert and royal insider Lord Norman St John Stevens, the young princes bore no grudges against their father's partner.
"Given the circumstances, Prince Harry and Prince William have a very happy relationship, and are also friendly with Camilla Parker Bowles' children," he told the ITV News Channel.
In contrast, some members of the public were less forgiving on Thursday, arguing that 56-year-old Charles should retire into domestic bliss and let William take the throne once Queen Elizabeth II eventually dies or steps down.
"I feel sorry for the boys as they have had to put up with so much," Vanessa Gordon, 51, an interior designer from Scotland, told AFP.
"If Charles is now to marry Camilla then I think he has to step aside to make way for William as the next heir to the throne, it is the right thing to do," she said.
"I did not like the way Charles treated Diana and I think he should let William take the throne," added 45-year-old Dee Davis, an unemployed woman from London.
02/10/2005 16:34 GMT - AFP