Why Won’t Prince William Wear a Wedding Band?

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At least now he won’t have an excuse for why he can’t do the dishes.

Palace officials have revealed that Prince William won’t wear a wedding ring after his upcoming marriage to Kate Middleton, which takes place in exactly a month’s time. Before we search for some elaborate reason or conspiracy theory, a palace aide put a stop to such shenanigans by stating, “It is simply down to personal preference.”

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of Kate Middleton)

The decision, however, isn’t really in keeping with most men in the monarchy: nearly all the male royals wear a wedding ring of some kind, with the exception of the Queen’s other half, the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince William’s father, the Prince of Wales, now sports a gold wedding ring under a signet ring on the pinky of his left hand, which was given to him by his second wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.

As for Kate, according to the Daily Mail, she’ll wear a band made out of a lump of Welsh gold (which is already owned by the Royal Family) that will be given to her as part of the April 29 Westminster Abbey ceremony (the use of Welsh gold in royal wedding bands is a long-standing tradition.)

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of Westminster Abbey)

“It was something the couple discussed but Prince William isn’t one for jewelry,” the Palace aide continued. “He doesn’t even wear a signet ring — and decided he didn’t want to.” NewsFeed would like to exclusively reveal that the real reason William won’t wear a ring is because he wouldn’t want it to detract from the various tattoos he’s planning to have done while on his honeymoon. But then we realized that it’s April 1, and our spurious suggestion is nothing more than a good old-fashioned hoax (though we’re sure he’d totally carry it off with aplomb.)