Once upon a time, there lived a woman of non-Royal blood. She met her Prince in the early 70s but they did not live happily ever after. Her nemesis wasn't a wicked stepmother, a curse or wicked witches. No, her path towards true love was blocked by tradition, and a woman widely regarded as a modern saint.

Thirty years on, after many ups and downs, Happily Ever After beckons. Her Prince had proposed, our heroine accepted, and all should be well with the world. As this would be marriage No 2 for both parties, they could not opt for a church wedding. Instead, they would have to go through a civil marriage, followed by a religious blessing.

So far so good, until the meticulously laid plans were derailed by a fiasco over the venue.

Go to Golok, Charles, Camilla

The fairytale castle - in this case, Windsor Castle, which is still used as a Royal residence - was chosen. Subsequently, palace courtiers discovered that if a licence for marriage was granted to the castle, it would be valid for up to three years.

During this time, any member of the public could use the castle for his or her marriage. An alternative venue - the Town Hall - had to be chosen, only for the prospective in-laws (i.e. the Queen and her husband) to decide to give the wedding a miss and attend only the blessing.

Then came the legal challenges. Unfortunately for our heroine, though in these modern times the Royal Family were as equal before the law as their subjects, in some matters the Royal Family had to adhere to a different set of rules compared to the commoners.

Our heroine could only thank heaven she wasn't Catholic; otherwise the law would forbid her Prince from marrying her. Even so, for one hair-raising moment, she very much feared her wedding would be off when courtiers discovered that the Marriage Acts of 1836 and 1949 prevented the Royals from having civil marriages.

Fortunately, the 1998 Human Rights Act ensures that it would be a breach of our heroine's human rights if her marriage to her Prince was forbidden (though that would not be enough to stop anyone from attempting to disrupt the proceedings by declaring his objections to all and sundry on the day; certainly having to hold the wedding at the Town Hall was resulting in major headaches all round as members of the hoi polloi could not be forbidden from coming to gawk and partake), so the wedding got the green light.

Daulat Tuanku

All this, after decades of being branded as The Other Woman and The Home-Wrecker, as well as being snubbed in "polite" circles, is probably giving our heroine plenty to think about. Perhaps then, Camilla Parker-Bowles and her Prince should cast their eyes eastwards towards fair Malaysia where the Royal Families are treated exactly as they should be - Royal, and above all others.

If Prince Charles was Malay, he would have absolutely no problems with having more than one woman in his life. After all, his religion would allow him to have up to four wives, and if Wife No 1 complained, so what? It was his inalienable right, and she had no voice in the matter (and if she divorced him, he could always find means of getting the children back - as Jacqueline Gillespie, who married and subsequently divorced a Royal found out years ago).

The question of winning public acceptance would not arise either. The Royal Families were above scrutiny. Their subjects did not know them (compare this situation to that in Britain where everyone claimed to know everything about the Royals thanks to all the press coverage), and the press was happy to keep it that way.

In Malaysia, if a married Royal Male treated his wife terribly or unfairly, nobody would really know because Royal Lives were private, and remained so (there was much to be said for having a tame and malleable press).

Marrying for the second, third or fourth time was therefore easily done. True, some members of the public might crack distasteful jokes at the Royals' expense - anecdotal evidence pointed to some bawdy jokes circulating in Kuala Lumpur when the late Sultan Selangor married his young bride in 1990 - but at least the Malaysian Royals would not find pictures of themselves and their paramours splashed about in the daily newspapers!

Still, a couple of things about the way the Malaysian Royals live their lives gave pause to the idea that all would go swimmingly well if Prince Charles was Malay.

Thank God they're English

Whilst public acceptance was not an issue, parental consent - to a certain extent - still governed the choice of a life partner in Malaysia. In the early 90s, it was rumoured that a certain Prince Regent was prevented from marrying his intended - a woman who worked in the media - by his parents. Of course, Prince Charles could wait 30 years in Malaysia until parental consent was given, but he and Mrs Parker-Bowles would not be able to demonstrate their unity to the outside world by living together (as is the case now).

Given the zealousness with which the religious authorities pursue their work in Malaysia, it is more than likely that Mrs Parker-Bowles - or the Prince - would have fallen foul of local proximity laws; or as the locals call it, kena tangkap basah .

As for the wedding itself, forget any dreams of having a small, intimate affair. Malay weddings tend to be extravagant and big, and a Royal wedding would be of no exception. The Sultan of Brunei after all spared no expense when his Crown Prince got married last year; if the Malaysian Royals were as rich as him, they too would doubtless do the same when their children got married.

Besides, had Prince Charles been Malay, his Princess would most likely not have been someone like Mrs Parker-Bowles. She is, by all accounts, a forthright woman, and given to speaking her mind to her man. She is not a young woman, and can be a little frumpy at times. In short, she is probably not the sort of woman a Malaysian Royal Male would take as a second wife.

Therefore, from our heroine's point of view, it is just as well that her Prince is English. Otherwise she would probably never have found and won him, her fairytale would remain just that, and Happily Ever After would not even get a chance to materialise.

FARAH FAHMY lives and works as a consultant in the UK. She is intrigued by the cross-cultural exchanges between her homeland and new home.