IT was intended as a celebration of what would have been Princess Diana's 46th birthday, but all eyes were on the royal box at Wembley stadium for another reason last night: Kate Middleton was expected to join Prince William for their first public meeting since they split in March.
Amid reports they have since met at Clarence House and claims that William is interested in rekindling their relationship, she agreed to be his guest to watch Sir Elton John, Take That and 21 other acts at the Concert for Diana.
"She will be there," said a source close to William before the show. "She was involved when he was starting to plan the event, so it is no surprise that she should be there on the day."
Bookmakers offered evens that they would declare themselves a couple again.
The royal reunion seemed a bigger concern to Londoners than the double car bomb attempt in the heart of the capital and yesterday's attack on Glasgow's airport.
While security was tightened around the concert, a Gay Pride march and the Wimbledon tennis championships, clubs, bars and restaurants opened as usual into the early hours, 24 hours after the bombs were defused.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone insisted on attending the Gay Pride march, which passed without incident for up to 500,000 marchers and 250 police officers.
"People are completely safe to walk about the streets of London today and tomorrow," Mr Livingstone told BBC radio.
Officials at Wimbledon took extra care checking vehicles, while a higher police presence was deployed around the stands.
A sell-out crowd of 63,000 has paid pound stg. 45 ($106) each for tickets to the five-hour concert, which was tipped to climax with Sir Elton, who sang at Diana's funeral.
Expectation was heavy that he would reprise the adaptation of Candle in the Wind, the song he performed at the funeral following her fatal car crash in 1997 but has refused to sing since.
The princes were scheduled to make a tribute to their mother from the stage.
William and Harry have revealed they hope the concert would be "the best birthday present she ever had". They chose the acts to span their own and their mother's generations.
William said of his mother at Wembley stadium on Saturday: "She'd be pretty amazed that we've managed to do this. We came up with the idea but with all the help of the people here, all of the artists, and a lot of little people running around at the moment, we couldn't be where we are. It really is what we had in our heads."
Despite their own reported relationship difficulties, Chelsy Davy, Harry's girlfriend, was expected to join other close friends of the princes, including Guy Pelly, the nightclub entrepreneur, and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the princes' private secretary, in the royal box.
No other members of the royal family were expected to attend. Earl Spencer and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Diana's brother and eldest sister, were invited.
Mohamed al-Fayed, the father of Dodi, who died alongside Diana in the Paris car crash, did not receive a royal invitation but bought his own tickets "as a member of the public".
Mr Fayed was reported to be considering whether to attend with his children Karim, Jasmine, Omar and Camilla.
The princes invited Roger Hodgson, the singer in Supertramp, to perform. The boys used to catch Diana dancing to the band's records in her room.
