There is just soo much to love about Prince William and Kate Middleton’s relationship.
The pair have been married for 10 years, but who could tell? They still act like they are absolutely smitten with each other. A love like theirs gives the world hope.
Here are 10+ facts about the royal couple’s relationship that fans didn’t know.
1. They met during their first year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
If you’re thinking that their love story is basically the plot of The Prince & Me , you’d be absolutely correct.
“When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her,” William said in their engagement interview .
2. Being friends first helped them build a strong foundation.
Since they went to the same school and lived in the residence hall together, a friendship quickly blossomed .
“I do generally believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage. And it just went from there.”
3. They broke up briefly in 2007.
The couple had a lot of factors against them at the time: William was completing his military pilot training while Kate was working in London.
“But that was just, we both were very young, it was at university, we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff,” William said .
While this was time apart was hard, they both believe that it made them stronger.
“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.”
4. William fell for Kate after he saw her walk in a fashion show.
Here’s how the story goes:
William paid money for a front-row seat at the annual Don’t Walk charity fashion show that Kate was modeling in. This took place back in 2002.
She modeled a see-through dress with her bra and underwear showing underneath.
When this happened, William was stunned. Apparently, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
We don’t blame him! I wonder if that’s the story they’ll tell their children.
5. Kate was super shy when she first met William.
We would be nervous about meeting the prince, too!
“I actually think I went bright red when I met you and sort of scuttled off, feeling very shy,” she said in their engagement interview . “But we did become very close friends from quite early.”
6. They lived together before they were married.
They rented a two-story top-floor apartment with their friends, Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale.
Since they were living so close, it was then that they started to develop feelings for each other and start dating casually.
7. In the early days of their relationship, William would cook dinner to impress Kate.
A man who can cook AND he’s a prince?? Kate is one lucky woman.
Only trouble was, these dinners never went smoothly. “What would happen was I would burn something,” he shared .
“Something would overspill, something would catch on fire,” he recalled during their engagement interview.
Sounds super romantic.
“And she would be sitting in the background trying to help, and basically taking control of the whole situation.”
8. William proposed while on holiday in Kenya.
“It was about three weeks ago on holiday in Kenya,” he said in their engagement interview .
“We had a little private time away together with some friends, and I just decided that it was the right time really.”
When it happened, Kate sort of knew it was coming.
“We had been talking about marriage for a while so it wasn’t a massively big surprise,” William said. “I took her up somewhere nice in Kenya and I proposed.”
Regardless, Kate found the whole thing incredibly romantic.
9. William proposed with his late mother, Princess Diana’s, ring.
The sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring has a special meaning to William.
In their engagement interview , he shared that the ring was his way of “keeping her sort of close to it all.”
10. Kate has made it a habit of honoring William’s late mother.
Kate understands how much Diana meant to her husband.
So, when Kate introduced her newborns to the world, she wore dresses that were similar to when Diana did the same thing many decades ago.
For instance, when the couple welcomed their first child, Kate wore a blue polka-dot dress that was similar to the one Diana wore when introducing Prince William for the first time in 1982.
She then paid tribute to the late Diana once again when she wore a similar red dress after Prince Louis’ birth.
11. William praises his wife any chance he gets.
Mary Berry revealed some of the sweet things William has said about Kate to the Mail on Sunday .
“He was keen to stress to me how none of his mental health charities would be what they were without Catherine, who puts so much time, effort and care into making sure everything works well.”
12. They’re both incredibly charitable with their time and energy.
Sure, it’s par for the course with being a royal.
But giving back is what this couple loves to do — and something that William learned from his mother.
“I think I’ve grown up in a household which has been very much a case of ‘well, we’re very lucky — you must give back,'” he told Mary Berry from *The Great British Bakeoff*.
When the coronavirus pandemic first started, it was revealed that William was secretly volunteering for a crisis text line.
