Jerramy Fine (right) celebrated the publication of her memoir, Someday My Prince Will Come, with a reception for friends and family in the Soho House “library” Saturday night. Earlier in the week, I had met with Fine for lunch to discuss her lifelong ambition of meeting (and marrying) Peter Phillips, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth, as chronicled in the book—a goal she was able to partially accomplish. “It’s like when you find out your ex-boyfriend is getting married,” she said of the recent news of Peter Phillip’s engagement. “Except he’s my imaginary boyfriend.”
Fine realizes it’s easy to dismiss her dream, which she nursed since her earliest childhood when she realized she and Peter Phillips were the same age, as a stalker-ish obsession, but playfully insists that she’s on the low end of the royal stalker spectrum. After all, she merely made a series of life decisions, like studying and working abroad, that would increase her likelihood of coming into contact with Peter Phillips; she’s not, she notes playfully, one of those people who follows the queen from one public appearance to the next getting their picture taken over and over again. Since she never saw Peter Phillips beyond their one encounter at a party, the Windsors had no idea this book was coming, and she’s not sure he’ll even read it. Maybe his mother’s personal secretary will, I venture, the way he intercepted all Fine’s youthful letters to the “prince” (who actually has no title). “It’ll be funny if they put the pieces together,” she laughs. “I don’t know if they’re that organized, though.”
We also talked at length about her parents, who are at the brunt end of much affectionate complaining throughout the memoir (“I use the word ‘hippies’ so many times my mother said it makes me look like I have a limited vocabulary”). Surely Fine’s ability to hold onto an ambition for nearly thirty years and will it into fruition must have impressed her mother? Isn’t Fine’s story like a fairy tale illustration of the law of attraction, after all? “I loved The Secret,” she enthused. “Finally, somebody was verbalizing how I lived my life and what I believed in. It does have a bit of a cheesy, infomercial tinge to it, but the message is so powerful.”