After 10 years of knowing each other, Kate Middleton and Prince William have now been husband and wife for the best part of a decade and have three children together. However, there seemingly perfect royal romance has had there own fair share of hiccups.
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An interview with a royal insider revealed how the couple went from friends to college sweethearts to working royals, even divulging details about their first kiss and how Kate used to play tricks on the prince to get his attention.
The Well-Known Start
Before eventually tying the knot, Kate and William went through several ups and downs during their relationship. They first met in 2001 while studying at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Reportedly, William was first attracted to Kate when he saw her on the catwalk at a fashion show held for charity.
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And while Kate had been friends with William at the time, their relationship is said to have merely been platonic. However, when the future duchess wore a daring, completely sheer dress that showed off her underwear on the catwalk, William was apparently awestruck. According to Vanity Fair, the prince was even compelled to say to a friend, “Kate’s hot!”
The Big Moment
In fact, an anonymous insider interviewed for Katie Nicholl’s 2010 book William and Harry suggested that the catwalk moment changed everything for William and Kate. As reported by Nicholl, that individual claimed, “It was clear to us that William was smitten with Kate.
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He actually told her she was a knockout that night, which caused her to blush. There was definitely chemistry between them, and Kate had really made an impression on William.” An impression that turned into a nearly decade long marriage!
Kate’s Little Game
The source added, “[Kate] played it very cool, and at one point when William seemed to lean in to kiss her, she pulled away. She didn’t want to give off the wrong impression or make it too easy for Will.”
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Kate and William subsequently began dating, but it wasn’t always easy to avoid press intrusion. In order to keep their relationship secret, then, the couple reportedly left the house they shared with classmates at separate times.
Keeping It A Secret
The pair were also careful about holding hands – especially when members of the public could see. But, eventually, the news got out. There was a lot of media attention surrounding Kate, so much so, in fact, that she had to file a complaint via her lawyers.
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The media scrutiny was so intense that as a result, she and William split up in 2007, although they got back together again soon afterwards. Fortunately, it seemed that nothing could keep them apart for too long.
Going Official!
And Kate and William duly announced their engagement in November 2010, with the prince having proposed in private the month before. The pair smiled in the official photographs to mark the occasion, too, even if the snaps were still quite formal and sedate.
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One image, however, seemed to throw off all the royal trappings and show Kate and William for what they were: a young couple in love. In 2014 Mario Testino – the man who took the official engagement photos – told The Daily Telegraph that he hadn’t been “totally satisfied” with the pictures at first. His mind was somewhat changed, though, Testino explained, “when I’d finished the shoot, [Kate and William] were about to leave, and they suddenly hugged in front of a radiator. It was a spontaneous emotion. You could see they were completely in love.”
The Ceremony
Finally, ten years after they had first met, William and Kate were married in Westminster Abbey. It was a momentous occasion – one watched by millions of people around the planet.
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And while appearing on the balcony to wave to the gathered crowd, William gave a quick smooch to his new wife. Then, after onlookers shouted “Kiss her again” to the prince, he gamely complied.
Breaking The Code
Typically, royals don’t get overly passionate even at a wedding – and certainly not in the church. Before William and Kate’s marriage, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, told Yahoo News, “There will be no kiss during the wedding ceremony. We don’t do that in the Church of England. That’s sort of a Hollywood thing, ‘You may now kiss the bride.’ It doesn’t happen here.”
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Nevertheless, in the run-up to the wedding, a number of newspapers reported that William and Kate had practised their balcony kiss in advance. In an entirely unromantic move, the lip-lock was even apparently scheduled into proceedings. The second kiss on the day, however, appeared to be much more of a spur-of-the-moment thing.
Family Life
And after the wedding, William and Kate settled into married life. They also started a family, with their first child Prince George coming along in 2013. But there was no kiss on the steps of the hospital when the two showed off their new arrival, even though they were most likely thrilled.
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Instead, they simply held George and smiled for the cameras. What’s more, royal watchers observed that as close as the couple seemed to be, they rarely showed it in public. Yet, as it turned out, there was a good reason for the royals’ restraint.
No PDA
William and Kate chose not to show affection in public for one simple reason: they were at work. Just as a married couple may decide not to hold hands around the office, Kate and William didn’t do so when the cameras were on, either.
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After all, even when celebrating the birth of a new baby, they were representing the entire monarchy. “The duke and duchess are almost always seen in photographs taken during official engagements, so they are at ‘work,’ and it would be unprofessional to hold hands,” HELLO!’s royal correspondent Emily Nash told the magazine in 2017.
Rules Broken
“We know [the duke and duchess] are very affectionate and that sometimes comes across during more lighthearted moments, at sporting events or similar, but you wouldn’t expect them to put that on show while in more formal situations,” Nash went on.
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However, in 2017 that royal rule was suddenly broken. Prince Harry and his new wife Meghan, you see, we’re happy to show PDA (Public Displays of Affection). Harry and Meghan have been photographed holding hands many times, in fact, and they even shared a pretty intense-looking kiss during a charity polo match in July 2018.
Inspired By His Brother
It was all quite unexpected, but the media loved it. “Meghan and Prince Harry holding hands at a royal engagement is a refreshingly modern approach to their new role both as a couple and as representatives of the royal family,” specialist in royal etiquette Myka Meier told People magazine in 2017.
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Meier added that generally public affection is “simply a matter of preference for each couple and is also likely dependent on the nature of the event.” Though older royals like Charles and Camilla have sometimes been seen holding hands, “a more serious engagement would warrant a more serious level of professionalism, which each royal is sure to follow.”
First Glimpse
Kate and William surprised fans in October 2018 with some PDA of their own. Kate had recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth to Prince Louis and was accompanying Prince William to London’s Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit.
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And during the event, William was spotted putting his hand on his wife’s back and later on her leg – a rare occurrence indeed for the royal couple. But that wasn’t all. A few days after the summit, Kate and William attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie, and again they seemed to be getting much closer than normal.
Language Interpreter
Judi James, a body language interpreter, also had something to say about Kate and William’s behaviour. “They managed to outdo Harry and Meghan here,” she told the newspaper the Daily Mirror.
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“Kate reached across to place a hand on the arm of her husband’s chair, and he put his own hand over it in a very romantic gesture.” And James analysed the body language on display at the summit too. “Kate seems to have increased in confidence here at their first public outing together since the birth, and William is unusually tactile, flashing some sweet “pinging” smiles at his wife to suggest he’s incredibly pleased to have her back at his side,” she said to another newspaper, the Daily Express.
Behind The Scene Drama
While it looks like Willaim wanted to show some PDA much like his brother, there seems to have been rumours of bad blood between the royals. In 2018, for instance, gossip magazines reported that Meghan and Kate had squabbled before the former actress’ wedding to Harry.
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According to anonymous sources, the origin of the conflict was Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress; the disagreement, it’s said, also left Kate in tears. And Kate and Meghan’s alleged feud continued to make headlines.
Reason Of The Rift
In November 2018, in fact, it was reported that Harry and Meghan were moving out of Kensington Palace – and thus away from William and Kate. An anonymous source further claimed to the Daily Mail that a rift between the royal women was the cause of said relocation.
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Furthermore, the supposed “close friend of the Cambridges” told the publication that the two duchesses don’t see eye to eye. “Kate and Meghan are very different people,” they claimed. “They don’t really get on.”
Conflicting Reports
That same month, though, another source suggested to The Sun that the problem didn’t, in fact, lie with the royal wives; instead, it was actually William and Harry who were fighting. Then in April 2019 Metro spoke to a body language specialist about one of William and Harry’s most recent public appearances.
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On that occasion, both princes had attended an engagement with environmentalist Sir David Attenborough – but although they had arrived in the same car, they’d immediately parted ways afterwards.
Little Details
With that in mind, Peter Clayton told Metro, “Normally when they arrive at an event, the brothers always walk together – even if it is behind their father. When they greet the organizers or supporters, they usually have a small laugh to ensure they approach the line smiling and looking jolly. But the behaviour is now very different.”
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Clayton continued, “If you didn’t see [William and Harry] step out of the car together, you would think they had arrived in separate cars – such is the distance between them. There isn’t any attempt to look at each other, and they appear to be intent on maintaining that distance.” Nevertheless, the body language guru added, “Whatever has happened, I hope they can put it behind them quickly because I have always really admitted how the two princes have always stuck together and been such good friends.”
Behind Closed Doors
Regardless of such reports, however, only a few really know how the royals interact with one another behind closed doors. After all, that’s generally not the sort of information that Kensington Palace tends to release to the public.
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As a result, then, many perceptions of the Windsor clan come from – that’s right – their public displays of affection and their general body language towards one another. While this might all seem sceptical, many experts have learned much and more about the royal family.
Christmas
Let’s take a look at this body language, then. For instance, when Kate and Meghan got together for Christmas 2018 with the rest of the royals, they appeared to be happy and smiling.
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But were they just hiding a dislike of each other for the cameras? Well, body language specialists thought not. “See how they’re laughing [and] how they’re all walking in sync?” expert Patti Wood told Marie Claire. “It’s really difficult to do that if you really, really don’t like somebody.”
Kate And Meghan
Even the ways in which royals use their accessories apparently hold some significance. Take Kate as she appears in this photograph, for example. Here, she isn’t seen holding hands with William; instead, she is positioning her clutch bag between herself and her husband.
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But according to experts, this is actually a good sign when it comes to Meghan, who is walking on Kate’s other side. You see, it means that there is nothing coming between the sisters-in-law – in both a metaphorical and a physical sense.
A Closer Look
“Kate has her purse in between her and Will,” Wood told Marie Claire. “I don’t typically like that, but I think because of the controversy in the media around her relationship with Meghan, she might just be making an effort to make sure that [the] relationship looks good and there’s no blocking or barrier between them.”
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Yet rumours of a feud between Kate and Meghan persisted into 2019. Perhaps, then, this continued speculation drew none other than Sarah Ferguson to comment on the situation in February of that year.
Fegire’s Comments
And in doing so, the Duchess of York – who was once set in competition against Princess Diana – drew attention to the often coarse nature of internet speculation. “It seems,” she wrote in an open letter for Hello magazine, “that online, anything goes”.
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“Women, in particular, are constantly pitted against and compared with [one another] in a way that reminds me of how people tried to portray Diana and me all the time as rivals, which is something neither of us ever really felt,” Ferguson went on. “People feel licensed to say things online that they would never dream of saying to someone’s face. And that encourages others to pile in.”
No Evidence
It’s worth noting, too, that if there really is tension between Meghan and Kate – or between Harry and William for that matter – there has nevertheless been no concrete evidence of this as yet. There’s also no legitimate indication that anyone wants to upstage the other members of the family.
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Plus, if public displays of affection are an issue, then Charles and Camilla ought to be taken into consideration. In a photoshoot for the December 2018 issue of Vanity Fair, for example, Camilla is seen pictured with a hand on her husband’s leg.
A New Way
What’s more, some royal commentators believe that Charles and Camilla may tweak the rules a little when Charles ascends to the throne. “Times have changed,” biographer Penny Junor told Good Housekeeping in 2018. “Charles is still so besotted with Camilla – even after all these years – that it would be hard for him not to show his natural affection.”
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Still, Harry and Meghan are certainly the royal couples who seem the most comfortable with displaying affection in public. And things were no different during their recent Australasian royal tour. Indeed, Harry often held the hand of his pregnant wife while the pair were out and about. And even while clapping politely at events, Meghan had her arm wrapped around Harry’s.
Getting Closer
Meanwhile, James suggested that William and Kate may also have grown closer due to the birth of Prince Louis. “Their smiles together have changed, and their affection and love signals are much more intense and open than ever before, suggesting the birth of their third child has somehow thrown them back into the honeymoon stage,” she told the Daily Express.
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But although Kate and William are less demonstrative with their feelings, they still clearly adore each other. And a lack of regular PDA doesn’t definitively speak to what goes on behind closed doors. Besides, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are almost never seen touching, and they’ve been together for over 70 years!
The Royal Way
Still, even if displays of affection between married royals are rare, is that also the case when it comes to parents and children? Well, it’s fair to say that, traditionally, the public wasn’t shown much in the way of outwardly doting mothers or fathers at Kensington Palace.
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When Charles was five years old, for instance, his parents left him behind when they went travelling for six months. And then when the trio reunited, Charles got nothing more than handshakes from his mom and dad.
Diana’s Way
However, Charles’ ex-wife, Diana, was seemingly somewhat different from other royals when it came to raising children. For one thing, when it was her turn to go on tour and be away for many months, she chose to bring baby William with her.
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And while the bold move may have surprised the British media, the public loved it; the decision arguably made Diana more relatable, too. What’s more, whenever Diana dealt with a child, she would typically kneel down so that she could look them in the eyes.
Following His Mother’s Step
And William and Kate seem to lavish affection on their children – whether they are making official public appearances or not. They hold hands with their kids, carry them around, play with them and even giggle with them at moments of decorum.
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At 2017 Trooping the Color ceremony, the clan were even seen laughing happily together on the palace balcony. Furthermore, when baby Louis was born, it was argued that William and Kate seemed to have become more relaxed as parents.
In-Depth Review
Susan Constantine, a human behavioural expert, added, “This is the type of behaviour that you want to see in a couple – especially after they just had a baby. Not only are they in sync, but William also has raised brows and his hand on top of Kate’s, which insinuates that he’s trying to protect her.”
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In 2017 William told CALMzine, “Catherine and I are clear that we want both George and Charlotte to grow up feeling able to talk about their emotions and feelings.” And while this admission came before Louis was born, we’re guessing that the same also applies to the couple’s youngest son.
Their Children
“Over the past year, [Kate and I] have visited a number of schools together where we have been amazed listening to children talk about some quite difficult subjects in a really clear and emotionally articulate way – something most adults would struggle with,”
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William continued to the magazine. Clearly, then, this is something that’s very important to the Duke of Cambridge. “Seeing [these children] has really given me hope that things are changing and that there is a generation coming up who find it normal to talk openly about their emotions. Emotional intelligence is key for us all to deal with the complexities of life and relationships,” William concluded.
Future
With each year and milestone, William and Kate seem to be going from strength to strength and that is saying a lot for one of the most scrutinized couples in the world. While extremely private, the duo has managed to show the world what a true royal couple can and should be.
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There love for their children, passion for mental health and the ability to find a balance between modernity and tradition is what makes William and Kate loved and cherished by millions.