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Posts: 200
May 26 08 5:12 AM
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Posts: 15251
May 26 08 6:53 AM
Laceyface wrote: I'm not a big fan because she seems like the British version of hollywood socialites and footballers WAGS (wives and girlfriends- think skankier, desperate Posh's) doing nothing but shopping all day and waiting to become a Princess, since giving up her part time job for "more me time".
Posts: 6638
May 26 08 8:11 AM
May 26 08 9:44 AM
maum wrote: To be fair to her, apparently her family and friends have always called her Catherine- Kate is a tabloid headline thing.
Really? I read she became "Kate" after she went away to boarding school and that's what she was known as at school and university. In any event, the tabloids could compromise and call her 'Girl-Without-a-Job-Famous-Only-For-Who-She-is-Dating".
May 26 08 10:39 AM
The press has been blamed for giving Catherine Elizabeth Middleton her nickname, when her relationship with the prince was confirmed in 2004. "No one ever referred to her as Kate - ever," says a former classmate. "It doesn't irritate her, even when the photographers shout her name out. She's not so precious as to correct them. "But her family and close friends have always called her Catherine and that's the way she prefers it." One source joked: "It's certainly more queenly." But one former contemporary has been less impressed with her old classmate, saying yesterday: "At school, Catherine was really jolly hockey sticks, fun and jump-in-the-dirt - a great girl," she said. "Now she seems much more concerned about her image - who she is with, who she is talking to and the like. That's what I have found a bit off."
The press has been blamed for giving Catherine Elizabeth Middleton her nickname, when her relationship with the prince was confirmed in 2004.
"No one ever referred to her as Kate - ever," says a former classmate. "It doesn't irritate her, even when the photographers shout her name out. She's not so precious as to correct them.
"But her family and close friends have always called her Catherine and that's the way she prefers it."
One source joked: "It's certainly more queenly."
But one former contemporary has been less impressed with her old classmate, saying yesterday: "At school, Catherine was really jolly hockey sticks, fun and jump-in-the-dirt - a great girl," she said.
"Now she seems much more concerned about her image - who she is with, who she is talking to and the like. That's what I have found a bit off."
Posts: 3365
May 26 08 11:01 AM
Kate Middleton: the chosen one Last Updated: 12:01am BST 25/05/2008 Royalty the bookies and the makers of wedding mugs agree: Prince William and Kate Middleton will get engaged this year. But what do we know of the mysterious Miss Middleton? And what of the supposed tensions between the Royal Family and her own? Andrew Alderson talks to the people who know them best It was during the run-up to his 21st birthday celebrations that Prince William - then a scruffy student and still uncomfortable in the public spotlight - confided to a close woman friend: 'Why would anyone want to go out with me?' With these exasperated words, he was not suggesting that women found him unattractive. Rather, he couldn't understand why any young woman of sound mind would tolerate the intrusions into her private life that would inevitably come with being his girlfriend. Kate Middleton: 'probably the most intriguing girl in Britain' There have undoubtedly been times when Kate Middleton has privately echoed his sentiments and wondered quite what she has let herself in for by dating the man destined to become the country's 42nd monarch since William the Conqueror claimed the English throne in 1066. She has had her past raked over in the hunt for a scandal, she has been pursued around the clock by a pack of up to 20 photographers and, perhaps worst of all, her family - the bedrock of her life - has been publicly ridiculed. To make matters worse, the basis of the slurs were untrue, but discretion - the dogma that the Royal Family lives by of 'never explain, never complain' -meant the Middletons felt unable to answer back. Yet Kate has, at 26, emerged relatively unscathed from it all and her relationship with Prince William has survived, even thrived, despite their brief separation last year. Today they are so much an 'item' that Kate went to RAF Cranwell, in Lincolnshire, last month to see her prince receive his 'wings', even though royal watchers had predicted that she would not be invited to such a public, family-oriented event. Prince William's show of support for his girlfriend led to one newspaper publishing a photograph of the smiling couple beside the headline: 'Here comes the bride?' It was the first time she had joined Prince William for a major official event since he graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in December 2006. Kate's position in the royal fold became even stronger last weekend when she attended the wedding of Peter Phillips and his bride, Autumn Kelly, even though Prince William was unable to be there because of a commitment in Kenya. advertisement Bookmakers are now refusing to take bets on whether the couple will get engaged. 'For us, it's a case of when not if,' said Rupert Adams, a spokesman for William Hill. The firm is taking bets only on such details as when they will announce their engagement, where they will marry, and what colour the Queen's hat will be for the event. Retailers are equally convinced that a royal wedding is looming. Woolworths has 100,000 products ready to roll out within 48 hours of an announcement, including commemorative plates saying, 'Celebrating the royal marriage of William & Kate.' The level of interest in Prince William's girlfriend is remarkable. But despite the couple's relationship being in its fifth year, Kate remains an enigma. As Dylan Jones, the editor of GQ magazine, puts it: 'She is probably the most intriguing girl in Britain right now, principally because we know so little about her.' Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on 9 January, 1982, in the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, the first child of Michael Middleton and his wife, Carole. On Kate's birth certificate, her father gave his occupation as 'airline officer' but Mr Middleton and his wife, an air stewardess, turned their backs on the industry to launch a business, Party Pieces, providing accessories for children's parties. Along the way, the Middletons brought up a young family: Kate has two younger siblings, Pippa and James. With the couple's success came private education for their children and a five-bedroom house in the Berkshire village of Bucklebury, set in farmland and with a six-acre field. Kate, who is still known as 'Catherine' to many of her old friends, attended St Andrew's preparatory school in Pangbourne, Berkshire, until she was 11 before switching to Downe House, near Newbury. Until she 'blossomed' in her mid-teens, she was remembered as a shy girl. When a 13-year-old Kate complained of being unhappy at Downe House, her parents moved her to Marlborough College, a co-ed school where fees for boarders are £26,000 a year. It was also at Marlborough, where Kate was happier, that she first became attracted to Prince William - long before the couple met. While other girls had posters of actors, pop stars and footballers on their dormitory walls, she had a large photograph of the Prince, who is five months her junior and who was then at Eton. At Marlborough, Kate was academic and sporty. She achieved high-grade passes in 11 GCSEs and three A-levels, and represented her school at netball, tennis, hockey and cross-country. Poster boy: while other girls had posters of actors, pop stars and footballers on their dormitory walls, Kate had a photograph of the Prince After she was confirmed as Prince William's girlfriend in April 2004, when she was photographed with him in the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, tabloid reporters were desperate to discover tales of drug-taking and debauchery during her time at school. Yet the nearest anyone got to a scandal was the revelation by Jessica Hay, a former schoolfriend from Marlborough, that the teenage Kate used to 'moon' (bare her bottom) out of her dormitory window. The schoolgirl sense of mischief simply enhanced her reputation further. Claims that a social-climbing Mrs Middleton pushed her daughter into applying for the University of St Andrews in the hope that she could snare a prince are dismissed as 'nonsense' by family friends. Yet it is unclear whether Kate put her name down for the university before or after it was revealed that Prince William was going there to study history of art. In the autumn of 2001, Kate found herself in the same hall of residence -St Salvator's (known as 'St Sally's) - as Prince William. She settled into the Fife town more easily than he did:after just one term, William pleaded with his father to allow him to leave and, although the Prince of Wales was sympathetic, his senior aides said such a move would be a disaster for William and for the monarchy in Scotland. Kate was an influence in the first half of 2002 in helping Prince William to appreciate university life, but they did not date during their first academic year. Instead, Kate had a relationship lasting several months with fellow student Rupert Finch, whom a friend of both students described as 'a charming, wonderful guy'. Yet, by the end of their first year, Kate was such a good friend of the Prince that she was one of three students chosen to share a town house with him during their second year. Only the couple know the exact moment when friendship turned to romance, but she has always had everything Prince William looks for in a girl: she is attractive, intelligent, fun and loyal. It was during her second year that Kate again showed she could be daring as well as discreet. For a student fashion show - at which Prince William paid £20 for a 'ringside' seat - she sashayed down the catwalk in a see-through slip over black underwear. In a media interview to mark his 21st birthday in June 2003 - and as his second year at university was ending - Prince William said: 'I don't have a steady girlfriend,' adding: 'Only the mad girls chase me!' If he and Kate were not a couple by then, they became one later that year. For the next two academic years, they lived - again with two fellow students - in a cottage a short distance from St Andrews. One female student told me: 'Kate was a lovely, down-to-earth girl. She never had any airs or graces about her. She was poised and good fun, and a lot of the guys fancied her. But she certainly wasn't a "ladette": she was always much more of a man's woman than a woman's woman.' Prince William and Kate were often seen in town together, especially at popular student bars such as Ma Bells, but were never hand in hand. 'Everyone knew they were going out, but it was all very low- key,' said the former fellow student who, like all of their friends, agreed to be interviewed without being identified. Thanks to an unofficial agreement between Clarence House and newspaper editors, 'William Wales', as he was known at university, and his girlfriend were left largely alone by the media to forge their romance. Penny Junor, a biographer of the Prince of ?Wales, has no doubt that their relationship benefited from their relatively normal student life: 'They saw each other under every possible circumstance - feeling lousy, feeling grumpy, flu-ridden. It's a good basis for a marriage. This could never happen again if William ever has another girlfriend.' While Prince William switched to geography, Kate stuck with history of art and the couple graduated in the summer of 2005, both with 2:1 degrees. It was always going to be harder for Kate after the couple left St Andrews. Unlike her boyfriend, she had no palace walls to retreat behind, no protection officer to see off unwanted attention and no clearly chosen route. Inevitably, given that he will one day be king, Prince William needed to spend some time in the military. Kate's path was less clearly mapped out and for the past three years, she has not pursued the fulfilling career that her intelligence, education and good contacts could have given her. In November 2006, she started a four-day working week as an accessories buyer for Jigsaw, the fashion chain owned by loyal family friends John and Belle Robinson. With Prince William at Sandhurst, the job gave Kate a focus for her daily life but it also gave the paparazzi a focus for their lenses. Photographers knew that each morning Kate was likely to leave her flat in Chelsea, walk to her VW Golf and drive to Jigsaw's headquarters in Kew. Soon an army of photographers was on hand around the clock, often pursuing her in cars and on motorbikes and scooters. Prince William was fiercely protective of his girlfriend and mastered the privacy laws; he and Kate have often called in Gerrard Tyrrell, a senior partner with Harbottle & Lewis, to threaten criminal and civil actions against repeat offenders. Last October, William told friends he was 'furious' that he and his girlfriend should be pursued by 'aggressive' photographers in the week that the inquest opened into the death of his mother. To this day, Kate faces intrusions which, say friends, vary from the 'mildly irritating to the totally unacceptable'. Such tensions may have partly contributed to the fact that the couple split up in April last year. Friends say that the relationship hit a difficult point when Prince William was based with his Army pals at Bovingdon camp, in Dorset. One young woman in Kate's social set told me: 'Boys are a bloody nightmare when they first join the Army. They become terribly selfish and they all talk about how they want to stay young and single. It was difficult for Catherine.' According to friends, Kate felt that Prince William was not making enough effort to visit her and it irked her when photographs of him in a nightclub with his arms around 18- and 19-year-old girls appeared in newspapers. Similarly, Prince William is said to have become irritated that Kate was becoming 'clingy'. So the couple ended their four-year relationship. Prince William authorised aides to confirm a story in The Sun on 14 April that the couple's relationship was over. Friends of the couple are divided over who finally ended the relationship. Some say it was ultimately Prince William's decision, after he succumbed from 'peer pressure' from fellow Army officers to enjoy a single man's life. 'William can be a bit of a "player",' said one girl who knows him well. After the split, he is reported to have jumped on a table at Boujis, one of his favourite London nightclubs, and yelled: 'I'm free!' But another friend insisted the final decision was Kate's after she became exasperated by the combination of his 'laddish' behaviour and her dislike of being in the public spotlight. Although Kate was undoubtedly upset, she was determined not to show it. On the evening that the split was confirmed, she went out on a girls' night to Kitts, the nightclub in Sloane Square. 'She wasn't morbid and depressed - instead she had a big party to celebrate her single status,' said a friend. 'Over the next couple of weeks, Kate played a blinder. She went out looking hot, getting photographed…' Within only days, say friends, Prince William was beginning to have second thoughts. Soon he was telephoning her, then they were seeing each other as 'friends'. Royal aides talk about a 'two-month separation' but, in reality, they were secretly back together much earlier. By the time of the charity concert for Diana, Princess of Wales on 1 July last year they had been an 'item' again for several weeks. But the concert presented a dilemma. If William placed Kate next to him, it would have been embarrassing: an admission that they were together amid speculation that the separation had been a bizarre 'publicity stunt'. Yet, not to invite Kate would have looked like a 'snub'. Instead, they reached a compromise: she was invited but she did not sit next to him. The respectful distance was, however, a charade: they had apparently spent the night before the concert together… and the night of the concert, too. Geordie Greig, the editor of Tatler, knows the couple and says of the reunion: 'It speaks loudly that they do love each other. My interpretation is that if you split from someone and get back, it's for one of two reasons. First it is because you are weak and you fall back into the relationship because it's easier to do than find someone else - or, secondly, you realise that the person you have parted from really is the love of your life and you don't want to lose them?…. Since William doesn't come across as a weak person, I am inclined to think they have got back together for the second reason - that he realised he had made a mistake.' Few doubt the couple's affection for each other and it is endearing that, so long into their relationship, Prince William should still want to show off to his girlfriend, so much so that he was prepared to risk public condemnation last month by landing an RAF Chinook helicopter outside her parents' home. Friends of the couple spoke to me partly to correct a series of irritating myths that have grown up around Kate and her family. Some reports after the couple's split suggested that Prince William's friends mocked Kate's family, particularly her mother, for being too middle-class. In a snide reference to her job they were meant to have whispered 'doors to manual' when referring to her. This class-war theme escalated further when the Queen was reported to have been unimpressed on meeting Mrs Middleton because she had used the word 'toilet' (rather than 'lavatory') and because she used phrases like 'pleased to meet you' and 'pardon'. In fact, the Queen and Mrs Middleton have never met, even though they both attended Prince William's graduations from St Andrews and Sandhurst. The Queen, has, however, met Kate and likes her, while Prince Charles is fond of her, too. It has also been reported that Kate has received 'media training' from Clarence House. Not so, say her friends: the only piece of friendly advice she was given came from Paddy Harverson, the Prince of Wales's communications secretary, who encouraged her to smile if she was photographed in the street. Others have written of a 'secret plan' by Clarence House to announce the couple's engagement. This, say royal aides, is a fabrication. The tabloids have claimed that Kate has moved into Clarence House, and even ordered a gym to be built. This, too, is dismissed as nonsense. Prince William usually only spends a handful of nights every month there, preferring to spend his weekends at Highgrove, his father's Gloucestershire home. As part of their 'modern' relationship, the couple do spend nights under the same roof but Prince William's top-floor apartment at Clarence House is shared with Prince Harry - not Kate. Of the many people I spoke to about Kate only one - a female contemporary - was critical, saying that she found Prince William's girlfriend 'dull' and suspected she was on 'a mission' to be future queen. 'At school, Catherine was really jolly hockey sticks, fun and jump in the dirt - a great girl,' she said. 'Now she seems much more concerned about her image - who she is with, who she is talking to and the like. That's what I have found a bit off.' Yet Kate remains spirited. When a friend said that she was fortunate to be going out with Prince William, she flashed back the response: 'He's lucky to be going out with me.' These days, Kate spends most of her time at her parents' home in Bucklebury. Prince William is a regular visitor and often joins the family for a drink at their local pub, where nobody makes a fuss of his HRH status. Significantly, some of those closest to Kate have joined the bookmakers in talking for the first time about 'when' not 'if' the couple get engaged. 'Kate is enjoying her anonymity, but that is not going to last for ever. When they eventually get engaged, that will go. She will lose everything that she has at the moment,' said one friend. Five years is a lengthy romance by royal standards and friends believe the separation has made it more - rather than less - likely that they will marry: it proves they do not like being apart and Prince William would look like a 'cad' if he ended their relationship again. Another friend said: 'I think there is undoubtedly an "understanding" at the moment. I think there will be an engagement announcement and that it is imminent - it will probably come later this year.' Prince William is on record as saying he does not want to marry before he is 'at least 28 or maybe 30'. Yet, if he does remain with Kate, it is unrealistic to expect her to put her life on 'hold' for another two to four years. Since she quit her job at Jigsaw last year her life has been in 'limbo'. She is reluctant to launch her own business because she would be criticised for cashing in on her royal connections. And few employers would relish the level of media scrutiny that comes with employing her. Instead, Kate is learning photography and last November organised an exhibition for Alistair Morrison, the celebrity portrait photographer. Life is rarely straightforward for Kate. Even when she tried to raise money for charity last summer by joining the Sisterhood, a group of women rowing a Chinese dragon boat across the Channel, she was forced to pull out when one of the team tipped off photographers about their training sessions. And for all the evidence that the Royal Family is moving with the times, courtiers admit that mere 'girlfriends' and 'boyfriends' still have little status within the Royal Family. None of the partners of the Queen's children or grandchildren will receive an invitation to spend Christmas at Sandringham until they are elevated to fiancé/fiancée status. Even though Prince William is said to be 'the apple of the Queen's eye', he will have to give Kate an engagement ring before they can stay under the same roof as his 82-year-old grandmother. Few doubt that should Prince William and Kate eventually become engaged and marry their relationship will have a far better chance of success than his father's troubled marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales. Patrick Jephson, who was equerry and private secretary to the Princess for eight years until 1996, suggested that Prince William and Kate might skip a generation when seeking inspiration for a successful relationship. He said: 'The lesson of Prince William's grandparents - the Queen and Prince Philip - is that if you can make the marriage work, everything else falls in to place.'
Royalty the bookies and the makers of wedding mugs agree: Prince William and Kate Middleton will get engaged this year. But what do we know of the mysterious Miss Middleton? And what of the supposed tensions between the Royal Family and her own? Andrew Alderson talks to the people who know them best
It was during the run-up to his 21st birthday celebrations that Prince William - then a scruffy student and still uncomfortable in the public spotlight - confided to a close woman friend: 'Why would anyone want to go out with me?' With these exasperated words, he was not suggesting that women found him unattractive. Rather, he couldn't understand why any young woman of sound mind would tolerate the intrusions into her private life that would inevitably come with being his girlfriend.
There have undoubtedly been times when Kate Middleton has privately echoed his sentiments and wondered quite what she has let herself in for by dating the man destined to become the country's 42nd monarch since William the Conqueror claimed the English throne in 1066.
She has had her past raked over in the hunt for a scandal, she has been pursued around the clock by a pack of up to 20 photographers and, perhaps worst of all, her family - the bedrock of her life - has been publicly ridiculed. To make matters worse, the basis of the slurs were untrue, but discretion - the dogma that the Royal Family lives by of 'never explain, never complain' -meant the Middletons felt unable to answer back.
Yet Kate has, at 26, emerged relatively unscathed from it all and her relationship with Prince William has survived, even thrived, despite their brief separation last year. Today they are so much an 'item' that Kate went to RAF Cranwell, in Lincolnshire, last month to see her prince receive his 'wings', even though royal watchers had predicted that she would not be invited to such a public, family-oriented event.
Prince William's show of support for his girlfriend led to one newspaper publishing a photograph of the smiling couple beside the headline: 'Here comes the bride?' It was the first time she had joined Prince William for a major official event since he graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in December 2006. Kate's position in the royal fold became even stronger last weekend when she attended the wedding of Peter Phillips and his bride, Autumn Kelly, even though Prince William was unable to be there because of a commitment in Kenya.
Bookmakers are now refusing to take bets on whether the couple will get engaged. 'For us, it's a case of when not if,' said Rupert Adams, a spokesman for William Hill. The firm is taking bets only on such details as when they will announce their engagement, where they will marry, and what colour the Queen's hat will be for the event.
Retailers are equally convinced that a royal wedding is looming. Woolworths has 100,000 products ready to roll out within 48 hours of an announcement, including commemorative plates saying, 'Celebrating the royal marriage of William & Kate.'
The level of interest in Prince William's girlfriend is remarkable. But despite the couple's relationship being in its fifth year, Kate remains an enigma. As Dylan Jones, the editor of GQ magazine, puts it: 'She is probably the most intriguing girl in Britain right now, principally because we know so little about her.'
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on 9 January, 1982, in the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, the first child of Michael Middleton and his wife, Carole. On Kate's birth certificate, her father gave his occupation as 'airline officer' but Mr Middleton and his wife, an air stewardess, turned their backs on the industry to launch a business, Party Pieces, providing accessories for children's parties.
Along the way, the Middletons brought up a young family: Kate has two younger siblings, Pippa and James. With the couple's success came private education for their children and a five-bedroom house in the Berkshire village of Bucklebury, set in farmland and with a six-acre field.
Kate, who is still known as 'Catherine' to many of her old friends, attended St Andrew's preparatory school in Pangbourne, Berkshire, until she was 11 before switching to Downe House, near Newbury. Until she 'blossomed' in her mid-teens, she was remembered as a shy girl. When a 13-year-old Kate complained of being unhappy at Downe House, her parents moved her to Marlborough College, a co-ed school where fees for boarders are £26,000 a year.
It was also at Marlborough, where Kate was happier, that she first became attracted to Prince William - long before the couple met. While other girls had posters of actors, pop stars and footballers on their dormitory walls, she had a large photograph of the Prince, who is five months her junior and who was then at Eton.
At Marlborough, Kate was academic and sporty. She achieved high-grade passes in 11 GCSEs and three A-levels, and represented her school at netball, tennis, hockey and cross-country.
After she was confirmed as Prince William's girlfriend in April 2004, when she was photographed with him in the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, tabloid reporters were desperate to discover tales of drug-taking and debauchery during her time at school.
Yet the nearest anyone got to a scandal was the revelation by Jessica Hay, a former schoolfriend from Marlborough, that the teenage Kate used to 'moon' (bare her bottom) out of her dormitory window. The schoolgirl sense of mischief simply enhanced her reputation further.
Claims that a social-climbing Mrs Middleton pushed her daughter into applying for the University of St Andrews in the hope that she could snare a prince are dismissed as 'nonsense' by family friends. Yet it is unclear whether Kate put her name down for the university before or after it was revealed that Prince William was going there to study history of art.
In the autumn of 2001, Kate found herself in the same hall of residence -St Salvator's (known as 'St Sally's) - as Prince William. She settled into the Fife town more easily than he did:after just one term, William pleaded with his father to allow him to leave and, although the Prince of Wales was sympathetic, his senior aides said such a move would be a disaster for William and for the monarchy in Scotland.
Kate was an influence in the first half of 2002 in helping Prince William to appreciate university life, but they did not date during their first academic year. Instead, Kate had a relationship lasting several months with fellow student Rupert Finch, whom a friend of both students described as 'a charming, wonderful guy'.
Yet, by the end of their first year, Kate was such a good friend of the Prince that she was one of three students chosen to share a town house with him during their second year. Only the couple know the exact moment when friendship turned to romance, but she has always had everything Prince William looks for in a girl: she is attractive, intelligent, fun and loyal.
It was during her second year that Kate again showed she could be daring as well as discreet. For a student fashion show - at which Prince William paid £20 for a 'ringside' seat - she sashayed down the catwalk in a see-through slip over black underwear.
In a media interview to mark his 21st birthday in June 2003 - and as his second year at university was ending - Prince William said: 'I don't have a steady girlfriend,' adding: 'Only the mad girls chase me!' If he and Kate were not a couple by then, they became one later that year. For the next two academic years, they lived - again with two fellow students - in a cottage a short distance from St Andrews. One female student told me: 'Kate was a lovely, down-to-earth girl. She never had any airs or graces about her. She was poised and good fun, and a lot of the guys fancied her. But she certainly wasn't a "ladette": she was always much more of a man's woman than a woman's woman.'
Prince William and Kate were often seen in town together, especially at popular student bars such as Ma Bells, but were never hand in hand. 'Everyone knew they were going out, but it was all very low- key,' said the former fellow student who, like all of their friends, agreed to be interviewed without being identified. Thanks to an unofficial agreement between Clarence House and newspaper editors, 'William Wales', as he was known at university, and his girlfriend were left largely alone by the media to forge their romance.
Penny Junor, a biographer of the Prince of ?Wales, has no doubt that their relationship benefited from their relatively normal student life: 'They saw each other under every possible circumstance - feeling lousy, feeling grumpy, flu-ridden. It's a good basis for a marriage. This could never happen again if William ever has another girlfriend.'
While Prince William switched to geography, Kate stuck with history of art and the couple graduated in the summer of 2005, both with 2:1 degrees.
It was always going to be harder for Kate after the couple left St Andrews. Unlike her boyfriend, she had no palace walls to retreat behind, no protection officer to see off unwanted attention and no clearly chosen route.
Inevitably, given that he will one day be king, Prince William needed to spend some time in the military. Kate's path was less clearly mapped out and for the past three years, she has not pursued the fulfilling career that her intelligence, education and good contacts could have given her.
In November 2006, she started a four-day working week as an accessories buyer for Jigsaw, the fashion chain owned by loyal family friends John and Belle Robinson. With Prince William at Sandhurst, the job gave Kate a focus for her daily life but it also gave the paparazzi a focus for their lenses. Photographers knew that each morning Kate was likely to leave her flat in Chelsea, walk to her VW Golf and drive to Jigsaw's headquarters in Kew.
Soon an army of photographers was on hand around the clock, often pursuing her in cars and on motorbikes and scooters. Prince William was fiercely protective of his girlfriend and mastered the privacy laws; he and Kate have often called in Gerrard Tyrrell, a senior partner with Harbottle & Lewis, to threaten criminal and civil actions against repeat offenders.
Last October, William told friends he was 'furious' that he and his girlfriend should be pursued by 'aggressive' photographers in the week that the inquest opened into the death of his mother. To this day, Kate faces intrusions which, say friends, vary from the 'mildly irritating to the totally unacceptable'.
Such tensions may have partly contributed to the fact that the couple split up in April last year. Friends say that the relationship hit a difficult point when Prince William was based with his Army pals at Bovingdon camp, in Dorset.
One young woman in Kate's social set told me: 'Boys are a bloody nightmare when they first join the Army. They become terribly selfish and they all talk about how they want to stay young and single. It was difficult for Catherine.'
According to friends, Kate felt that Prince William was not making enough effort to visit her and it irked her when photographs of him in a nightclub with his arms around 18- and 19-year-old girls appeared in newspapers. Similarly, Prince William is said to have become irritated that Kate was becoming 'clingy'. So the couple ended their four-year relationship. Prince William authorised aides to confirm a story in The Sun on 14 April that the couple's relationship was over.
Friends of the couple are divided over who finally ended the relationship. Some say it was ultimately Prince William's decision, after he succumbed from 'peer pressure' from fellow Army officers to enjoy a single man's life. 'William can be a bit of a "player",' said one girl who knows him well. After the split, he is reported to have jumped on a table at Boujis, one of his favourite London nightclubs, and yelled: 'I'm free!' But another friend insisted the final decision was Kate's after she became exasperated by the combination of his 'laddish' behaviour and her dislike of being in the public spotlight.
Although Kate was undoubtedly upset, she was determined not to show it. On the evening that the split was confirmed, she went out on a girls' night to Kitts, the nightclub in Sloane Square. 'She wasn't morbid and depressed - instead she had a big party to celebrate her single status,' said a friend. 'Over the next couple of weeks, Kate played a blinder. She went out looking hot, getting photographed…'
Within only days, say friends, Prince William was beginning to have second thoughts. Soon he was telephoning her, then they were seeing each other as 'friends'. Royal aides talk about a 'two-month separation' but, in reality, they were secretly back together much earlier. By the time of the charity concert for Diana, Princess of Wales on 1 July last year they had been an 'item' again for several weeks. But the concert presented a dilemma. If William placed Kate next to him, it would have been embarrassing: an admission that they were together amid speculation that the separation had been a bizarre 'publicity stunt'. Yet, not to invite Kate would have looked like a 'snub'.
Instead, they reached a compromise: she was invited but she did not sit next to him. The respectful distance was, however, a charade: they had apparently spent the night before the concert together… and the night of the concert, too.
Geordie Greig, the editor of Tatler, knows the couple and says of the reunion: 'It speaks loudly that they do love each other. My interpretation is that if you split from someone and get back, it's for one of two reasons. First it is because you are weak and you fall back into the relationship because it's easier to do than find someone else - or, secondly, you realise that the person you have parted from really is the love of your life and you don't want to lose them?…. Since William doesn't come across as a weak person, I am inclined to think they have got back together for the second reason - that he realised he had made a mistake.'
Few doubt the couple's affection for each other and it is endearing that, so long into their relationship, Prince William should still want to show off to his girlfriend, so much so that he was prepared to risk public condemnation last month by landing an RAF Chinook helicopter outside her parents' home.
Friends of the couple spoke to me partly to correct a series of irritating myths that have grown up around Kate and her family. Some reports after the couple's split suggested that Prince William's friends mocked Kate's family, particularly her mother, for being too middle-class. In a snide reference to her job they were meant to have whispered 'doors to manual' when referring to her.
This class-war theme escalated further when the Queen was reported to have been unimpressed on meeting Mrs Middleton because she had used the word 'toilet' (rather than 'lavatory') and because she used phrases like 'pleased to meet you' and 'pardon'. In fact, the Queen and Mrs Middleton have never met, even though they both attended Prince William's graduations from St Andrews and Sandhurst. The Queen, has, however, met Kate and likes her, while Prince Charles is fond of her, too.
It has also been reported that Kate has received 'media training' from Clarence House. Not so, say her friends: the only piece of friendly advice she was given came from Paddy Harverson, the Prince of Wales's communications secretary, who encouraged her to smile if she was photographed in the street.
Others have written of a 'secret plan' by Clarence House to announce the couple's engagement. This, say royal aides, is a fabrication.
The tabloids have claimed that Kate has moved into Clarence House, and even ordered a gym to be built. This, too, is dismissed as nonsense. Prince William usually only spends a handful of nights every month there, preferring to spend his weekends at Highgrove, his father's Gloucestershire home. As part of their 'modern' relationship, the couple do spend nights under the same roof but Prince William's top-floor apartment at Clarence House is shared with Prince Harry - not Kate.
Of the many people I spoke to about Kate only one - a female contemporary - was critical, saying that she found Prince William's girlfriend 'dull' and suspected she was on 'a mission' to be future queen. 'At school, Catherine was really jolly hockey sticks, fun and jump in the dirt - a great girl,' she said. 'Now she seems much more concerned about her image - who she is with, who she is talking to and the like. That's what I have found a bit off.'
Yet Kate remains spirited. When a friend said that she was fortunate to be going out with Prince William, she flashed back the response: 'He's lucky to be going out with me.'
These days, Kate spends most of her time at her parents' home in Bucklebury. Prince William is a regular visitor and often joins the family for a drink at their local pub, where nobody makes a fuss of his HRH status.
Significantly, some of those closest to Kate have joined the bookmakers in talking for the first time about 'when' not 'if' the couple get engaged. 'Kate is enjoying her anonymity, but that is not going to last for ever. When they eventually get engaged, that will go. She will lose everything that she has at the moment,' said one friend.
Five years is a lengthy romance by royal standards and friends believe the separation has made it more - rather than less - likely that they will marry: it proves they do not like being apart and Prince William would look like a 'cad' if he ended their relationship again. Another friend said: 'I think there is undoubtedly an "understanding" at the moment. I think there will be an engagement announcement and that it is imminent - it will probably come later this year.'
Prince William is on record as saying he does not want to marry before he is 'at least 28 or maybe 30'. Yet, if he does remain with Kate, it is unrealistic to expect her to put her life on 'hold' for another two to four years. Since she quit her job at Jigsaw last year her life has been in 'limbo'. She is reluctant to launch her own business because she would be criticised for cashing in on her royal connections. And few employers would relish the level of media scrutiny that comes with employing her.
Instead, Kate is learning photography and last November organised an exhibition for Alistair Morrison, the celebrity portrait photographer.
Life is rarely straightforward for Kate. Even when she tried to raise money for charity last summer by joining the Sisterhood, a group of women rowing a Chinese dragon boat across the Channel, she was forced to pull out when one of the team tipped off photographers about their training sessions.
And for all the evidence that the Royal Family is moving with the times, courtiers admit that mere 'girlfriends' and 'boyfriends' still have little status within the Royal Family. None of the partners of the Queen's children or grandchildren will receive an invitation to spend Christmas at Sandringham until they are elevated to fiancé/fiancée status. Even though Prince William is said to be 'the apple of the Queen's eye', he will have to give Kate an engagement ring before they can stay under the same roof as his 82-year-old grandmother.
Few doubt that should Prince William and Kate eventually become engaged and marry their relationship will have a far better chance of success than his father's troubled marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Patrick Jephson, who was equerry and private secretary to the Princess for eight years until 1996, suggested that Prince William and Kate might skip a generation when seeking inspiration for a successful relationship. He said: 'The lesson of Prince William's grandparents - the Queen and Prince Philip - is that if you can make the marriage work, everything else falls in to place.'
May 26 08 12:46 PM
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May 26 08 2:44 PM
May 26 08 3:34 PM
maum wrote: Life is rarely straightforward for Kate. Even when she tried to raise money for charity last summer by joining the Sisterhood, a group of women rowing a Chinese dragon boat across the Channel, she was forced to pull out when one of the team tipped off photographers about their training sessions. Funny how at those training sessions, Kate would be the only one to show up fully made up with her hair loose. Compare with the other girls! And she pulled out not because the photographers were tipped off, but because she rekindled her relationship with Prince William, and royal officials advised her not to take part. Not quite the same thing.
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May 26 08 4:10 PM
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May 26 08 4:46 PM
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May 26 08 5:02 PM
WTF wrote: I like her better than the one Harry is dating. Now SHE'S skanky.
Yeah, but I bet she's fun in the sack. Just sayin'
May 26 08 5:11 PM
coreyes wrote: WTF wrote: I like her better than the one Harry is dating. Now SHE'S skanky. Yeah, but I bet she's fun in the sack. Just sayin'
Posts: 1572
May 26 08 5:16 PM
May 26 08 5:28 PM
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May 26 08 9:43 PM
KidLawless77 wrote: Maybe I am alone in this, but I don't find Prince William attractive in the least. He was a cute child and handsome teenager but now he looks fugly-complete with receding hairline and all.
Posts: 1699
May 26 08 10:05 PM
vitchka wrote: KidLawless77 wrote: Maybe I am alone in this, but I don't find Prince William attractive in the least. He was a cute child and handsome teenager but now he looks fugly-complete with receding hairline and all. You're not alone. I never understood the whole attraction with William, and even less now when he's starting to look more like his father than his mother.
ITA. He's looking more like Charles every day. I always thought Harry was the cute one.
May 27 08 1:05 AM
May 27 08 2:48 AM
maum wrote: Yes, I never got the William love either. As for Chelsy (Harry's girlfriend) she's actually extremely intelligent and academically bright. She also comes across as way more independent than Kate. I think she gets bad press because of her looks.
Neither of them gets good press especially from UK's female journalists who seem to be suffering from adverse misogyny if that is possible.
May 27 08 2:54 AM
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