Around this time eight years ago, Prince William decided to leave his wife and children to go gallivanting in Kenya for four to five days, coinciding with the Easter holiday in 2016. It was a big deal – it was Princess Charlotte’s first Easter, and Kate reportedly took George and Charlotte to her parents’ house while William was off, pretending to be doing state business while he was really dropping everything to attend Jecca Craig’s wedding. Eight years ago, even the royalist media was attacking William for his choices and the shoddy optics of abandoning his wife and children during a Christian holiday so he could spend some time with an ex-girlfriend. There’s zero evidence that Kate was even invited, nor that Jecca or William wanted Kate there. William is the one who has always been close to the Craig family, while Kate has spent years simmering with jealousy and copy-keening Jecca’s style and energy. So, here’s something curious, in Richard Eden’s Mail column: Eden wondering if Kate will recover in time to fly to Kenya to attend Jecca Craig’s relative’s wedding.
Here’s something for the Princess of Wales to look forward to when she’s recovered: I hear that two of her old friends are due to get married in a place close to her heart.
Joss Craig, 29, whose father, William, runs the 55,000-acre Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, has got engaged to the sanctuary’s British horse-riding manager, Miranda Simpson. Lewa, in the foothills of Mount Kenya, is the romantic spot where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton in 2010. ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if Catherine could attend the wedding?’ says a friend.
When Joss’s cousin, Batian Craig, tied the knot in 2008, the future king attended the wedding, even though it was held on the same day as that of his cousin, Peter Phillips.
William spent some of his gap year in Kenya before university. He was rumoured to have had a ‘pretend engagement’ ceremony with Batian’s sister, Jecca, who was guest of honour at his 21st birthday party.
So… Batian and Jecca are siblings and Joss is their cousin. I’m just trying to get the family tree straight! I mean, considering that William dropped everything to attend both Batian and Jecca’s weddings (eight years apart), I would say that this report is some kind of precursor for William sneaking off to Kenya once again while Kate stays home. It’s actually been a minute since William visited Kenya, right? He went to Kenya in 2018, but that was probably the last time? It actually feels like he really did say goodbye to Jecca when she had her secret pregnancy and then a sudden Easter wedding.
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I seriously hope she doesn’t make her first appearance in all this time at a society social event. And he can’t make any “work” event but will jet off to Africa?
Which means they probably will…
I can see William going, but not Kate; these are William’s friends not hers. Also, I thought they got engaged in South Africa, but it was Kenya? Ah, well, doesn’t matter.
Who cares? Let lying princess’ lie.
Kate stopped attending the weddings of William’s crowed after she got the ring. Either W didn’t want her there or she stopped trying to fit in with the crowd that never accepted her.
Honestly, we have no idea where W is the majority of his time so who knows when he last went to Kenya or met Jecca.
Right? That’s the thing. For all we know, William goes to Kenya every summer. Or every winter. There’s enough time off with kids holidays that we would never know.
Exactly. I mean, look at the photos with this story; William is looking everywhere BUT at Kate. He turns his head somewhat in her direction, but will not meet her eye; she’s trying to meet his eye, but it’s just not going to happen. He doesn’t even like being in her presence. Again, I think he would go if either of them goes, but definitely not her.
Will and Jecca is probably like bennifer 2.0: the greatest love story never told. lol snort
Let him go and fck up everything as usual
I feel like the Craig family is what the middletons want to be to William – his chosen second family. he missed Peter’s wedding to attend a Craig wedding (also worth pointing out this was the first time that Kate met the Queen), and he missed charlotte’s first easter to attend Jecca’s wedding.
Seems william makes sure he attends every Craig wedding in Kenya, regardless of what is going on, and Kate is never invited. So I feel confident saying William will attend this one and Kate will stay home.
Apparently, it wasn’t just Kate that he settled with but also the Midds. If he could have married Jecca and become one of the Craigs he would have chosen that in a heartbeat. I’m still waiting for one single photo to surface from James Middleton’s wedding that Peg attended.
Carole copied Jeccas mothers hairstyle for a while.
Skipping his own cousin’s wedding to go to the wedding of the brother of a maybe girlfriend was always so weird. Especially when it was the first time Kate would have met the queen and he couldn’t be bothered to be present. It was a sign of things to come.
I’m just wondering why Eden, benefactor of free Middleton dog food, is putting this out in the blogosphere. He is making the links to all the other times William abandoned Kate for Jecca and her relatives very obvious.
Maybe he’s trying to force William to take Kate?
Hm, interesting, interesting. So he’ll take a long flight for a wedding–twice even–but he can’t be arsed (love that expression!) to fly to Australia to support the national women’s team he supposedly ‘supports’? So, travel for pleasure but not for work? Great example there, Billy Boy.
Whats his fascination with the Craig’s that he has left his wife and young kids at Easter,skipped his own cousins wedding and even made Jecca guest of honour even though Kate was his girlfriend. If she had any self respect that was the moment to tell William to take a hike.
I’m sure it was one of many moments to tell him to take a hike.
I agree with Kaiser that they are trying to roll out that poor Peg has to travel all by his loansome, because Keen is too ill to attend. While in reality she never would have attended. And I understand why. Who would want to sit around in a crowd that doesn’t give a shit about her while her husband drunkenly makes heart eyes and eggplants at Jecca.
William seems very much like his father, he keeps revisiting the scene of his crimes.
It’s likely there is nothing physically going on between him and Jecca, but there is something there emotionally that draws him back, which is still in effect cheating.
Also where are the Meghan should be sensitive with her launch crowd. Seems like it’s Kate’s hubby whom DGAF about her cancer and is jetting off to see his ex? BTW huge Boris Johnson vibes here and I am now increasingly convinced that Eaton does a huge number on these men resulting in them becoming emotionally stunted adults.
William has a whole secret life that is barely ever reported on. Who was that blonde he was spilling out of a nightclub with last year (more than once I think?)? Who was partying with him in Verbier all those years ago? There’s a whole gang of these aristos who have an omertà about William. Honestly, I wouldn’t even be surprised if he still has an occasional shag with a Jecca every few years.
Has anyone read Jilly Cooper’s wonderful books about the British Aristo horseriding scene? One of the most fun reads ever. The culture of constant shagging of everyone’s spouses that Cooper describes is what I imagine Will’s set is like lol.
I believe the women in Verbier were identified around the time, they were socialites if I recall. And it seems initially they thought it was footage of Harry, but eventually realized it was the dancing dad in Verbier.
@Nic919 I’m thinking about the pack of dudes he was there with. Clearly buddies who were happy to facilitate/hide William’s shenanigans.
Yes snaggletooth. I’m in UK and love Jilly’s books (even though she’s Cam’s pal)
I think those were William’s friends. He has a close (I guess close?) circle of friends and they’ve pretty much been the same friends since his Eton days. Maybe they’re only his friends bc he’s the future king, but they’ve been consistent.
Ah Jilly Cooper got me through the worst breakup of my 20’s. I spent three days in my friends bed waking up, crying, then reading until I fell asleep again. Couldn’t tell you which one but it was exactly what I needed at the time (along with an excellent friend).
If Jecca wasn’t Kate’s old friend, then why would her cousin be? And what does Miranda, the horse-riding manager have to do with Kate? She wasn’t even in Kenya when W&K were.
I think the press got all the mileage they could out of Rose Hanbury, so they’re resurrecting Jecca..
The Wails are being trolled – Pegs will be there with the side piece, this piece is letting us know that William will be there, regardless of Kate’s health.
Just divorce and save us all this BS!
Yeah, they’re full-on trolling a cancer patient. Not a Cathy fan by any means but this is deeply creepy.
Truly. She’s got cancer (I’m willing to accept that she does, wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t) & they’re publishing these ‘will she be well enough to travel for a wedding, a wedding connected to Willie Boy’s former girlfriend’ stories? That’s vile.
Eden is bored. Now that TikTok and the world has discovered Rose he wants everyone to start asking who is Jecca?
Oh wouldn’t it just be sooooo lovely if Kate got to attend! LMAO. Maureen knows full well those people sneer at Kate and she loathes them right back.
When is this wedding supposed to be? I see no mention of a date. Richard Eden has to be the most desperate reporter in British journalism.
Sparks are gonna fly
To me, this sure reads like a threat from the Fail to Will – tenuous, cloudy cover stories don’t hold interest for very long. Rose threatened to sue, but will Jecca? If she does, I’m sure there’s a long line of others the Fail will be happy to discuss instead.
I know this is not new information, but I can’t get over how he proposed to Kate on the Craig’s backyard. Like he wanted to give Jecca one last chance to save him and she passed.
Is that where he proposed?? I feel like he repeatedly showed her she wasn’t the one and she still didn’t catch those red flags. I doubt he went on one knee or out of his way to make it too romantic. Because that would show her he cares. I feel sorry for women like Kate,they can be with partners who clearly show them they dont love them.
Didn’t Charles do the same – he proposed to Diana in Camilla’s garden.
They’re insensitive men and don’t mind playing one woman off against another
Peg used his buddy’s engagement story as his story. He and Kate screwed up when talking about it in the engagement interview.
He did what? Oh Dee please spill,why have I not heard this before. So they lied in the interview?
I’d love to know the real story. My guess is that it was a conversation between W and Carole. Then when he left, her family celebrated the great news with Kate.
I think it was kate who made some sort of comment about telling her parents about the engagement when in Scotland.
“William spent some of his gap year in Kenya before university. He was rumoured to have had a ‘pretend engagement’ ceremony with Batian’s sister, Jecca, who was guest of honour at his 21st birthday party.”
What the hell is a ‘pretend engagement’ ceremony?
Ummmm yeah. Was wondering same,
Yes, I was wondering about the “pretend engagement ceremony” too. It seems a strange thing to do and even stranger for it to be mentioned in a newspaper article.
My guess: completely in love William proposed to Jecca in front of a crowd and she said yes to save himnthe embarrasement. Then of course she told him that she has no intention og marrying him.
What I don’t get is if Jecca is his Camilla and the do fool around sometimes with her family knowing, or she kept leading him on all these years, or it’s all Peg following her around like a sad puppy?
Bingo!
Eden bringing this up after having been a Middleton spokesperson for a bit really makes this whole article interesting.
First off Can’t has no friends these are Pegs friends. I believe they are trolling him with this come to Kenya. If he can attend that then he can do some work.
My question would be how is Miranda, the horse manager, William’s old friend? She didn’t join Lewa until 2016.
I’ll be curious to see if Jason Knauf ends up going with William. I wasn’t reading CB 8 years ago, so I clicked on the link to that article that Kaiser posted. The comments about William possibly being gay stood out to me. This would have been years before he was crowned the Prince of Pegging.
“Here’s something for the Princess of Wales to look forward to when she’s recovered: I hear that two of her old friends are due to get married in a place close to her heart.”
That is Southern Lady Being Gently Bitchy level of snark. Well done, sir. Well done.
**golf clap**
Yesss, it’s old lady shade and you gotta admire the delivery. It’s perfect.
For the folks who have been keeping up with all this for years: Did he and Jecca date? It seems like she’s The One That Got Away and the one he’s always….loved?(whatever that means)
He stayed with her for a few months on his gap year. He got down on one knee and proposed. She said no, she didn’t want that sort of life. He was in love with her for ever more. He kept delaying marrying Kate because he was in love with Jecca. Also he kept trying to find someone else who wanted the job. All the aristos and foreign royals he got his friends to enquire about weren’t interested.
Considering Kate was copying her style before Meghan, I am gonna guess whatever Will’s history with her made Kate very jealous.
Speaking of William’s ex’s, I read an article (In Touch? not sure) this weekend that claimed Camilla was the reason eligible aristos would have nothing to do with him. It claimed that if Diana was alive the gals would have been all over him, but the families all knew about Camilla and stayed away. This is a little different than what I’ve always read as they didn’t want the royal life, which I think might have been put out by Tina Brown.
@Lulu, I think, the issue was overall the agreement of the palace with the tabloids that they will give access and frequent leaks to the royal rota. Diana was one of the oldest families in UK and still the press trashed her name and the palace didn’t protect her. Why would a woman from an important family (rich with titles) take a risk like that? I don’t think it was about Camilla. Look at Kate’s sister. She married rich, have a big house, husband with kids. There is no made-up job for her to do. If Diana had a mother looking after her, protecting her, I don’t think she would get married into that circus either.
This tracks if everyone knows that camilla is the one running the media
Lulu, this is so interesting! I love this theory!
Lulu I could believe that theory. Diana had a magic that drew people in. Camilla looks like someone you could never trust.
And this isn’t the only society wedding for the British press to play “Where’s Kate?” with… There’s also the Duke of Westminster’s wedding in June. Tiara event, everybody! For sure William will be there…
Also in June, Trooping the Colors, D-Day anniversary. Will William attend anything other than a wedding, Duke of Westminster or Craig family?
Oh, wouldn’t that be something? Weddings but no ‘work’ events? Yikes!
Am I missing something? Why on earth would Kate arise from her sick bed to attend (checks notes) her husband’s ex’s relative’s wedding??? I don’t think I’d do that with all my faculties, let alone in her condition…