Where the Jecca Story Came From

pixie · June 15, 2003, 10:39:39 PM

Kasp posted an article from The Daily Telegraph on June 14th (YESTERDAY, that is, before 3 papers wrote "exclusives" on William and Jessica) which said the following:

BEGINNING OF QUOTE

Instead, William's love of an old-fashioned society in open spaces
seems to be leading him somewhere farther afield - back to Kenya. He
is already learning Swahili and is apparently considering returning,
post-graduation, to work at Lewa, the 55,000-acre ranch and
conservation area he spent time at during his gap year. In fact,
according to one Kenyan source, he has already made several quiet
return visits over the past two years. "White Kenyan society is still
very closed, rather like England 50 years ago, so when William is
visiting nothing ever leaks out," says the source. "That's part of
the attraction for him, as is the countryside, and he's even asked
his father if they could buy a place out here. But it is also an open
secret that he had a fairly serious fling with a young woman called
Jecca Craig while he was in Kenya. Jecca is the daughter of Lewa's
owner, Ian Craig, and is a really sweet, unaffected girl. Apparently,
she and William even had one of those teenage pretend 'engagements'.

"It's always amused us out here that no one in Britain has ever found
out about it."

If his relationship with Jecca Craig has remained unreported, then
the newsprint expended on various other of William's female
friendships in England have more than made up for it.

END OF QUOTE (sorry, I can't figure out how to work the quote thing unless I'm replying)

So, this is not a story the papers have been following for months, like Harry and the Rattlebone Inn. It's something which everyone came up with after reading that quote in the Telegraph. In other words, this whole story started from one (very possibly misinformed) source. And, if you look at all the new articles, most of them are conjecture based off of those few lines. A few of them even quote the same source the telegraph used. A source who, for the record, sounds like she doesn't really know the prince of the Craigs. It certainly doesn't sound like she got her information first or even second hand. My guess is she just heard a rumor that got mutated (think telephone "the prince is staying with the Craigs" leads to "the prince is staying with Jessica Craig" which leads to "the prince is sleeping with Jessica Craig"), accepted it as fact, and told a reporter because she wanted to sound "in" and knowledgeable.

And what do they bolster the article with? Quotes from Ian Craig (Jessica's father), said long before the story broke about how Willaim's a great worker and it was wonderful having him come to the ranch and yaddaa yadda yadda. None of the article mention that these quote are old or not exclusive, but look at some old articles (about the PA interview a few weeks ago, his gap year or just William's time in Kenya) and you'll find that these are stock quotes they've been using for a while. The only new quote they have is from Jecca's brother which says something along the lines of "not to my knowledge; i have nothign else to say on the matter," which indicates that the story isn't true.

And it isn't. The palace is denying it instead of just saying "We never comment on the prince's private life," or "As William has stated, he likes to keep his private life private." The Palace doesn't want to be caught in a lie because then their credibility would be shot, and it's far too great a a risk for them. Think about all the soundbytes we have from them on William. Do we know any of them to be definitively untrue? The palace must always tell the truth (or simply not comment) because if they are ever found to be doing otherwise no one will ever believe a word they say again. It's quite simply not a risk they can take.

So my conclusion: The Jecca-William love affair is a bad story that came from one unknowledgable source. It may seem big because 3 papers broke it at the same time, but the only reason that happened is because the papers all saw the quote in yesterday's paper. With the palaces denial and a lack of solid evidence from any of the papers, I'd be willing to bet good money that this story is a whole bunch of bull.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes · June 15, 2003, 10:42:05 PM

I hope Prince William is happy, if it is or is not true. :)

kasper · June 16, 2003, 12:21:52 AM

Pixie: There's an Icon at the top of each posts. It'll say "quote". If you click on that, it'll quote it for you. You'll be able to see it when you scroll down the page when you're reply to something.

pixie · June 16, 2003, 02:45:52 AM

QuotePixie: There's an Icon at the top of each posts. It'll say "quote". If you click on that, it'll quote it for you. You'll be able to see it when you scroll down the page when you're reply to something.

Yeah, I know how do do this (meaning, quote in a post which I am replying to), but i don't understand how to quote from a post in one topic and use that quote to start a new topic.

What I wanted to do was take a quote from an article you posted yesterday (June 14th, it may be two days ago when you read this) and integrate that quote into a post creating a new topic, not a reply within that topic. Is that even possible?

If you, or anyone else, knows how to, I would really appreciate if you could post it. While it's a pretty rare scenario to want a quote to start a new topic, it's something I'd like to learn.

kasper · June 16, 2003, 03:18:29 AM

hmmm....I don't know if I know how to do that. But I'll definitely check into it. I'm sure it's possible.....somehow. :huh:

FetchingHag · June 16, 2003, 03:21:46 AM

If you wrote this out by typeing all of it out I'm going to tell you a easy way to post what someone said you highlight what you want to post and press ctrl and the letter C then you go to whare you want to past it and press ctrl and letter V and it is posted I just want people to know this but on something it doesn't work :) :) Just trying to be helpful :D B) B) B)

pixie · June 16, 2003, 03:30:39 AM

LOL. I did copy and paste, but thanks for the tip, Fetch. If I hadn't it would have been quite helpful in the future. I just wish there was some way I could get the pretty quote box.

Don't worry about checking into it, Kasp. It's not worth the trouble. If it's such a random usage that it's never come up so far, it's probably a pretty useless skill to have.