The Next Royal Adjacent Wedding Is Coming Up—Soon
It might be a minute before we get another royal wedding—the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (aka Edward and Sophie)’s children, the youngest of Her late Majesty’s eight grandchildren, are still teenagers. So, in light of that, let’s turn to a wedding close at hand that is royally adjacent, shall we? Lady Amelia Spencer—Princess Diana’s niece, Earl Charles Spencer’s daughter, and Kitty Spencer’s younger sister—is getting married soon, to longtime partner Greg Mallett. Though we don’t have an exact wedding date, Amelia recently posted a photo with Greg that said “Not long now…”
In the image, Amelia “lovingly held a hand to her husband-to-be’s face as they posed closed against the backdrop of a beautiful mountain range,” People reports.
The couple dated for 11 years prior to getting engaged in July 2020. At that time, Amelia wrote on Instagram of the proposal “Best day of my life. I can’t wait to spend forever with you @gregmallett. I couldn’t love you more”—her new diamond ring on display.
Greg proposed at the Clouds Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa, telling Hello “I had one big pink box, inside which I put in eight smaller boxes, decreasing in size. In each box was a photograph of a ‘first time.’ The final box contained a note instead of a picture that said, ‘But most importantly, I know that you will remember tonight as the night that I proposed.’ As Amelia was reading the note, I dropped to one knee with the ring.”
So, who is Amelia, other than one lucky lady in love? The daughter of Charles and his first wife, Victoria Aitkin, Charles took to social media himself to congratulate the couple on their engagement, tweeting “So happy for my daughter, Amelia, engaged to her boyfriend of 11 years, Greg. It’s wonderful to hear them both so excited about their future. Sending them both love, and every good wish for their life together. I love that Greg asked my blessing before proposing. Very sweet.”
Greg might have himself spilled the beans on his wedding day—or at least his wedding month—writing in November 2022 “I did a thing for you. 4 months until I marry the love of my life!” Four months from November, is, of course, this month.
Tatler reports that the couple met as students at the University of Cape Town, and the outlet writes that the pair might wed in South Africa, where Amelia and her three siblings—older sister Kitty, twin sister Eliza, and younger brother Louis—grew up. Marie Claire reported that Kitty—who married lavishly herself in Italy in July 2021, complete with five Dolce and Gabbana looks—opted not to wear her family’s Spencer heirloom tiara, the one Diana wore at her wedding to the then Prince Charles in July 1981. Maybe Amelia will don the tiara?
If her dad Charles has his way, Amelia will get married at his ancestral home Althorp House in Northamptonshire, England, according to Tatler. But, per the outlet, Amelia seems to lean more towards South Africa: “It’s our family home, it’s beautiful,” she said. “We would be very lucky to get married there, but Cape Town is where we grew up and there is a possibility that we might do it here, too.”
Amelia, left, and twin sister Eliza, right
(Image credit: Getty)
Amelia, born in July 1992, was just five years old when her aunt died in a Parisian car accident in August 1997. Of Diana, she told Hello that she feels a special connection to her, saying “I feel that I have quite a compassionate nature, and I hope that’s something I inherited from her. Diana was an incredible icon, and I know she touched a lot of people’s hearts and lives.”
Amelia’s parents divorced in 1997, and she and her siblings grew up in South Africa but traveled back to the U.K. for certain royal events, including the dedication of the Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in 2000, the Service of Thanksgiving on the tenth anniversary of Diana’s death in 2007, and the wedding of cousin Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011, People reports. Amelia wasn’t photographed at the wedding of cousin Prince Harry to Meghan Markle in 2018, though her mother and siblings were there.
And, speaking of weddings, according to her Storm Models bio page, Amelia has had “a very successful career as a wedding planner in South Africa, and has arranged 36 weddings to date.” In addition to modeling and working as a luxury brand ambassador, Amelia and twin sister Eliza moved to London in 2021 and, over the past year, have attended events like the Cannes Film Festival and sat front row at Milan Fashion Week. Just last month, Amelia and Eliza made their London Fashion Week catwalk debut when they walked the runway for Josh Birch Jones.
