Many of us have been there. The envelope drops through the letter box—or increasingly the email arrives in the inbox. A wedding is taking place and you are invited. You check your calendar and it’s bad news: you’re double booked.
This can be frustrating (or a huge relief) for many of us, but it is clearly a particular difficulty when the wedding in question is a Royal Wedding and you are the best man.
Harry and Meghan are set to tie the knot this weekend, but it cannot have escaped the notice of many that the event clashes with the final of the FA Cup at Wembley.
Along with supporters of Manchester United and Chelsea, Prince William might have previously been expected to be particularly interested in the match, given that he is President of the Football Association and regularly makes the effort, albeit not always, to turn up and present the winners with the trophy.
Though it is possible to speculate with some certainty, we will never truly know if Prince William is more interested in the football than the wedding. We can, however, ask the Great British public what they think.
Which do Brits care about more?
Last month we at Deltapoll spoke to a representative sample of just over a thousand British adults and asked them which of the two events taking place on 19thMarch they were more interested in, the Royal Wedding or the FA Cup Final?Overall it was the event at Windsor that won out over the event at Wembley—though not by a huge margin. Nearly half of British adults (46 per cent) said they were more interested in the Royal Wedding than the FA Cup Final, compared to just over one in three (38 per cent) who chose the football. A little under one in six (16 per cent) said they didn’t know which of the two interested them more.
Perhaps of greater interest than the overall national picture was how Britain divides on the issue along gender lines. For British women it’s the Royal Wedding that came out on top with nearly two thirds of respondents (65 per cent) choosing that. Fewer than one in five were more interested in the football.
In sharp contrast, just over a quarter of British men (26 per cent) were more interested in the wedding than the football. On the other hand, six out of ten think the opposite.
Who wants to marry Harry?
Younger respondents were also less likely to choose the wedding. Over half (55 per cent) of the over 65s were more interested in the wedding, while around half of 18 to 24s (48 per cent) and 25 to 34s (50 per cent) prefer the football.Along with football versus nuptials, we also asked if people would opt to follow in the footsteps of Kate and Meghan and choose to marry into the Royal Family if they had the chance.
The survey was conducted prior to the recent reports surrounding Meghan Markle’s father and the pressure on her family, but even before all of that happened, only a quarter of Brits said marrying into the Royals would be something they would choose to do.
Once again there were divisions along gender and age lines. While fewer than a third of either gender said they would choose to join the Queen’s “Firm,” the number was much higher for men (32 per cent) than it was for women (18 per cent). Nearly six out of ten Brits (59 per cent) would choose not to marry into the Royal Family including half of men and over two thirds (67 per cent) of women.
While not marrying into the Royals wins out in all age groups, the gap is much smaller among the young compared to older respondents. 25 to 34s, for example, are the most positive with 36 per cent who would versus 41 per cent who would not. 55 to 64s are at the other end of the scale with only 11 per cent who would versus 72 per cent who would not.
Those who would marry into the Royal Family should remember, however, that if they get the chance, they should avoid doing FA Cup Final day if at all possible.
Deltapoll surveyed 1,010 British adults online between 5th and 6th April 2018 exclusively for Prospect. The data have been weighted to be representative of the adult population as a whole.
