College sweethearts Prince William and Kate Middleton, now married for 13 years, faced significant challenges before solidifying their royal relationship.
In Robert Jobson’s new biography, Catherine, The Princess of Wales, the author revisits the early romance of Prince William and Kate Middleton following their graduation from the University of St. Andrews in 2005. Prince William, 42, regularly visited Kate at her family home every Friday during his military training at Sandhurst. Kate attended his military graduation in December 2006, indicating their relationship was serious and possibly headed for engagement.
Despite media speculation and the nickname “Waity Katie,” Jobson writes, “Catherine knew William wasn’t in any hurry to propose, and the truth is she was prepared to wait until he was ready. After all, they were in love — weren’t they?” as per an excerpt published by The Daily Mail on July 28.
However, Prince William canceled New Year’s plans in 2007, causing Kate to suspect something was amiss. Shortly after, he called Kate to break up, saying they both needed “a bit of space” to “find our own way” and that he could not promise a proposal.
“In an emotionally charged 30-minute conversation, they both acknowledged they were on ‘different pages,'” according to Jobson’s book. “It was a devastating blow to Catherine, who felt doubly let down at being dumped over the phone.”
While Prince William marked the split with a night out at Mahiki nightclub in London, Kate, who “resolved to hide her pain from the outside world” despite being “distraught,” took a break from the media with a trip to Dublin with her mother Carole Middleton, followed by a vacation in Ibiza with a friend. Upon her return to London, Kate and her sister Pippa were frequently seen leaving clubs, with photos appearing in the press for William to see while he spent most of his time in army barracks.
Prince William began having “second thoughts,” and the couple reunited at a “Freakin Naughty”-themed costume party hosted by jockey Sam Waley-Cohen.
“She’d arrived dressed as a nurse, and William had made a beeline for her,” Jobson writes. “They then spent the first part of the evening deep in conversation before hitting the dance floor, where they ended up kissing.” Their relationship resumed, and they eventually moved in together before getting engaged in 2010 and married the following year.
During their engagement interview, the future Prince and Princess of Wales briefly discussed their breakup. Prince William explained, “We both were very young, it was at university, we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff. It was very much trying to find our own way, and we were growing up, and so it was just sort of a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it worked out for the better.”
Kate added, “I think I, at the time, wasn’t very happy about it, but actually, it made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realized, or I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger, and I really valued that time for me as well although I didn’t think it at the time. Looking back on it.”
Elsewhere in Catherine, The Princess of Wales, Jobson describes Kate as a “calming influence” on the royal family. Through her role as an “instinctive peace-maker,” she has “smoothed the way for William and his father to have a better relationship than they had in the past,” according to another excerpt published by The Daily Mail.