Bad news for anyone still dreaming of marrying into the royal family: one more royal-adjacent is off the market. Kate Middleton’s younger brother, James, announced on Instagram that he proposed to his girlfriend, French financial analyst Alizee Thevenet, and she answered with an emphatic “oui.”
In James’ engagement post, Thevenet shows off a stunning sapphire ring — one that doesn’t look too different, actually, from Kate’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring. Immediately after posting about the engagement, James added two more Instagram stories: the first shows underwater video footage from the couple’s romantic weekend getaway to London’s Lake District, and the second is a slideshow of memories from the past year.
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The world first took notice of James after the Royal Wedding in 2011, but he stayed out of the public eye until earlier this year, when he took his Instagram off private, introduced royal lurkers to his five dogs, and won our hearts. (Because seriously, there are so many dog photos.) Around the same time, he opened up about his struggles with “debilitating” depression in a personal essay for The Daily Mail.
“I feel compelled to talk about it openly because this is precisely what my brother-in-law Prince William, my sister Catherine, and Prince Harry are advocating through their mental health charity Heads Together,” he wrote at the time. “They believe we can only tackle the stigma associated with mental illness if we have the courage to change the national conversation, to expel its negative associations.”
James has been dating Thevenet for about a year, according to E! News, and the pair made their royal debut earlier this year at Lady Gabriella Windsor’s wedding in May.
As James and Thevenet plan their wedding, we just have one question: what will Kate and Pippa wear?