Prince Charles to marry again? Who cares
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-09 10:57

Royal romance seems for once to have actually bored Britons, according to a poll revealing that most people don't care whether Prince Charles should get married again or not.

Prince Charles with Camilla Parker Bowles. Church leaders have cleared the way for the heir to the country's throne, Prince Charles, to wed divorcee Camilla, following years of debate about the constitutional implications, a report said. [AFP]

Those who favor a wedding between the British heir to the throne and his longtime companion Camilla Parker Bowles have a slight advantage over naysayers, 32 to 29 percent, but an overwhelming 38 percent say they are indifferent.

The poll, published in The Times on Wednesday, follows the recent blessing by Britain's church leaders for Charles' remarriage -- a possibility that has stirred controversy and irked some conservative Anglicans.

Charles was previously married to Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 -- a year after the couple divorced and two years after Parker Bowles divorced her own husband.

The survey conducted by Populus for The Times found a considerable divide on the issue between men and women, and across age groups and socio-economic class.

Forty-five percent of men polled said they didn't care one way or another, compared to 31 percent of women, while those over 55 were twice as likely to disapprove of the re-marriage than those under 25.

The British daily, in a cross-reference of respondents' data, found that the most disapproving of the Prince of Wales' remarriage to his longtime consort were older working-class women. In contrast, it said, younger middle-class professional men were the most accepting.

Conservative Anglicans have long expressed opposition to Charles and Parker Bowles marrying in a church, given their well-documented adultery with each other before the breakdown of their respective marriages.

The issue of whether the royal heir can marry a divorcee has also long vexed constitutional experts, since the British monarch is the titular head of the Anglican church and thus officially expected to be beyond moral reproach.

The Populus poll was conducted among 1,004 adults by telephone last weekend.

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