For her princess moment, Kate opted to wear a bespoke gown designed by Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton, which rapidly became one of the most iconic (and most copied) wedding dresses of all time. Now, ten years since they tied the knot, the royal couple are happily settled with three children and what we can only assume are archives full of chic coat-dresses – it seems like the perfect time to a look back at their heart-warming royal romance. Prince William first lay eyes on the woman who would be his future wife during their first semester of college. They became friends and soon were enjoying lunch together and sharing class notes reported Vogue. It wasn’t until their second semester that William began to look at Kate as something more than a friend. The shy young woman became a sensation after she modeled a see-through dress at a university fashion show in 2002.
The actress, who is an activist and philanthropist at heart, had also been making private visits to hospitals and organisations to better understand the charity sector before the nuptials. A few days later, Harry and Meghan carried out their first official engagement together – a visit to Nottingham. The Prince was keen to show his fiancée as much of the UK as possible before the wedding, and day trips to Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and Birmingham followed that winter. Later that month, Harry and Meghan made their official debut as a couple at the royal’s Invictus Games, which were held in Toronto.
The biggest controversy Middleton ever drummed up was during the brief period where she and Wills split. She allegedly got drunk on white wine, wore Playboy bunny ears to a nightclub, and fell down while roller skating in a gaudy, sequined halter top. However, in Cardiff in 2020, Kate revealed she had felt isolated after the birth of George.
April 2001: The Dress That Started It All
“It was my way of making sure mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together,” William told press afterward. Feuding royal brothers Prince William and Prince Harry publicly reunited Saturday amid global mourning for their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. There’s also an interesting sibling tie with the royals’ East Coast visits. While Harry is receiving an award from a foundation affiliated with RFK, the prince’s older brother has chosen to align himself with the assassinated politician’s older brother. In 2010, William proposed to Kate during a vacation to Kenya, according to Marie Claire. The ring was made by crown jeweler Garrard, and features a 12-carat oval Ceylon sapphire set in white gold and surrounded by solitaire diamonds.
Most couples want to “test the milk before they buy the cow,” he said, according to The Telegraph. Her parents founded a party supply company that has made them millionaires, so she’s no stranger to privilege. Yet, detractors still claim that the opulence of the Windsor clan is above her station, and the press hasn’t always been kind toward Kate.
September 9, 2022: Prince William and Kate Middleton are officially Prince and Princess of Wales
He’d been due to spend New Year’s Eve with the Middletons, but pulled out at the last minute. “William had been having second thoughts and sat down with his father and his grandmother to have a frank discussion about his future with Kate,” Nicholl said. Prior to their split, The Spectator anointed Kate Middleton “the Next People’s Princess,” bestowing upon her the honor first given to William’s mother, Princess Diana, according to The Guardian. News also reports it was “intense media pressure of being in the spotlight” that led to the couple’s split, especially as the world assumed that a proposal was imminent.
Frankly, their response to this has been strikingly different from their gossip protocol. During the same interview, William stated that before they started officially dating, the two shared an apartment with friends during their second year at school. That’s where they began to really develop feelings for each other and started casually dating. The ‘other two royals’ are the future king and queen,” Daily Mail columnist Dan Wootton tweeted.
Even after college, Kate and Prince William took their time with dating, including a brief breakup before getting engaged in 2010. Kate’s father took a photograph of them together, wrapped in a tight embrace. But, of course, fairy tales aren’t real—not even for the future King of England. In reality, Kate and William had a long, long journey before becoming husband and wife. There was plenty of speculation in the lead-up, and on 3 December 2012, Kensington Palace announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were expecting their first baby.
April 12, 2021: Three days after the death of Prince Philip, William shared a tribute on behalf of himself and Kate.
Just a few months after their royal wedding, the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Cambridge set off for their first royal tour. In 2011 the couple travels through both the United States and Canada on an official royal tour of North America. At the time people marveled at her fashion diplomacy, choosing to wear only Canadian designers while visiting the commonwealth nation. Some of that stuff included the future king of England’s attempting to cook “fancy dinners” to impress his future wife. “He did cook for me quite a bit at university, and he would always come with a bit of angst and a bit of anger if something had gone wrong, and I would have to wander in and save something that was going,” she revealed in the same interview. The Duke and Duchess return to the balcony of Buckingham Palace, but this time it’s to support the Queen during her Diamond Jubilee.
After Charlotte’s birth, Prince William and Kate left London to settle in a remote country village.
The couple returned to work with a visit to Wales following Queen Elizabeth II’s death and funeral celebration earlier in the month. The trip marked the first time that the duo appeared in the country as the newly dubbed Prince and Princess of Wales. The royals made their first solo appearance as the Prince and Princess of Wales as they viewed floral tributes to the late queen outside Sandringham Estate. The royal couple attended the “Together At Christmas” community carol service at London’s Westminster Abbey. Kate wore a red dress and coat, holding hands with her husband as they entered the chapel.
Hanbury is part of Kate and Wills’ Norfolk friends group dubbed the “Turnip Toffs.” The Toffs are basically the UK real-life reboot of Dynasty based on their sheer amount of wealth and drama potential. Hanbury is a former model who made headlines for posing in a bikini next to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Her husband David Rocksavage, an Eton-educated former filmmaker 23 years her senior, inherited an estate worth an estimated £112 million. They’re mega-rich and have floated closely in royal circles for generations.
Once back at Buckingham Palace, bride and groom made an appearance on the balcony. When the crowd urged William to kiss his bride—just as Charles had done in 1981, in a rare break from royal-wedding tradition—William happily obliged. Each week in April, Vanity Fair will flash back to a different British royal wedding in the lead-up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s May 19 nuptials. The waiting throng erupted in whoops and cheers as the four royals, all in black, emerged from black limousines and walked toward the palace’s opened gates. The now-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had been together for four years, having met as students at university in Scotland, when they split in March 2007.
“When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her,” William recalled almost a decade later. “I knew there was possibly something that I wanted to explore there.” However, sparks did not fly yet and the MoreThanOne unsubscribe pair’s relationship remained strictly platonic for the first semester. But, as former royal butler Grant Harrold revealed to Slingo, (via Marie Claire), the royal pair had a relatively normal relationship in their early days.