Prince William and Kate Middleton to marry next year

LONDON - Britain’s Prince William and his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton are to marry next year after becoming engaged during a holiday in Kenya in October, a royal statement said Tuesday.

The couple, who met at St Andrew’s university in Scotland over eight years ago, are both 28. The wedding is expected to take place in London in the spring or summer of 2011.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who informed the cabinet of the impending royal wedding, said he was “delighted” at the news. He congratulated the couple on their engagement, as did Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour Party.

The announcement ends months of intense speculation about when Prince William, who is a search and rescue pilot in the Royal Air Force, would propose to Middleton, who has been nicknamed the “princess in waiting”.

William, second-in-line to the throne, completed his helicopter pilot training in September at an RAF base in North Wales. He and Middleton would live near the base after their wedding, it was announced.

Royal observers described the decision to tie the knot as “inevitable” after the long relationship, in which the couple looked increasingly relaxed and happy together.

After the couple’s return from Kenya, Middleton’s parents, Carole and Michael, were seen at a shooting weekend at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Middleton, who like Prince William has a degree in History of Art, is seen as someone from a “perfectly normal” middle-class background.

Her father was a flight dispatcher with British Airways, where her mother worked as a stewardess. The Middletons set up a business for the supply of party accessories.

“Kate will supply the touch of normality William did not have as a child,” said one commentator.

The wedding is to be in London, although the venue has not been named.

William’s father, Prince Charles, married the late Princess Diana at St Paul’s Cathedral in July, 1981. The funeral service for the princess, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, took place in Westminster Abbey.