Queen will not meet Middletons before wedding

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will not meet Kate Middleton's family before the day she marries Prince William, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The British broadsheet said that even though the sovereign will be the official host and the invitations will go out in her name, she has no plans to meet the Middletons before April 29.

William, second in line to the throne, is to marry his university sweetheart of eight years at London's Westminster Abbey.

"This is not a snub," the newspaper quoted a Buckingham Palace spokesman as saying.

"It is just that the queen has not yet felt the need to meet Miss Middleton's parents. At present there are no plans for her to do so in the run-up to the wedding but if she chooses to do so, it will be a private matter."

The Middletons run a party planning business in southern England.

They have met William's father Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, The Sunday Times reported.

Last November they were invited to join a shooting party with their daughter and William at Charles' private Birkhall estate at Balmoral in Scotland, though Charles and Camilla were not present.

Kate Middleton's own acceptance in royal circles was also gradual.

She and her parents watched William graduate as an army officer in December 2006 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, though they did not meet.

Middleton said in her post-engagement interview that she had met the monarch, briefly, at the wedding of William's cousin Peter Phillips in May 2008.

Middleton joined Queen Elizabeth at a pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace in December, though she spent Christmas with her family.

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