Prince William and Kate Middleton's marriage is the stuff fairytale romances are made of.
The dashing heir met the British beauty with a heart of gold, and they swept each other
off their feet.
Yet, even this duo has experienced challenges.
Here's what happens behind the palace walls.
Prince William was not in a hurry to be tied down.
Although the Duke is all over his bae now, there was a time in his life when he tried
Kate Middleton's patience.
At the time, the public expected William and Kate to marry according to an imaginary timeline
that had the lovers jumping through spinning hoops to tie the knot at record speed.
Yet, as we all know, things aren't always so simple.
Granted, they started dating each other at the end of 2003, and they got hitched in 2011,
but there were other factors at play.
Like, did the British public really expect a modern couple to get married in their early
20s?
But it wasn't as if William was in a hurry to walk down the aisle, either.
According to Vanity Fair, he was already getting cold feet early in their relationship.
The story goes that in the summer of 2004, the firstborn prince declared that he was
feeling, quote, "claustrophobic."
After agreeing to take a break from their relationship, William felt he needed a boys-only
sailing vacation in Greece.
His friend Guy Pelly arranged for an all-female crew, and away they sailed.
The outlet reported that Kate, quote, "was annoyed, if not surprised" to learn of Guy's
tactics because, at the time, Guy had been seen by some as a less than stellar influence
on William.
Prince William occasionally imbibed a little too much, especially in early adulthood.
Sometimes, his drinking and partying got him in a lot of trouble.
For example, snaps of a drunk William emerged online after a wild night of debauchery in
England.
On March 23, 2007, he was caught seemingly groping the breast of an 18-year-old Brazilian
woman, Ana Ferreira, according to Female First.
The British press had a field day with the naughty pic.
See, William had been knee-deep in his military tank warfare training when he decided to have
a night out in a neighboring town.
He was partying in a nightclub when, according to Ana in an interview with Today, "word went
round that William was there playing cheesy eighties music, so we went to take a look,".
She continued,
"He was dancing, looking a bit wooden — I don't think he would be any good at the samba!
But there were [a] lot of girls hanging around him."
William, who was a youthful 24 years old at the time, posed for some pictures with Ana
and her friend.
She said,
"I was a little bit drunk myself but felt something brush my breast.
I thought it couldn't be the future king – but now that I've seen the picture, it's no wonder
he has a smile on his face!"
Kate Middleton was furious that her boyfriend had been caught groping another woman at a
bar.
According to Today, she opened up to her mother and sister and complained that Prince William
had, quote, "changed."
William, for his part, also sought paternal advice, complaining that he was feeling, quote,
"claustrophobic."
Prince Charles thought it prudent that they part ways because leading her on would be,
quote, "completely unfair to Kate."
So, William snubbed an Easter celebration invite from the Middletons, opting instead
to meet Kate at her flat the following weekend.
Kate wanted some kind of commitment because the press was already hounding her.
He recalled his mother's relationship with the paparazzi and said,
"I don't want you suffering the way my mother did."
She didn't want to give up on their relationship and reminded him of what they had meant to
each other.
The next day, April 11, 2007, William called Kate at work.
The Duke of Cambridge did not even have the decency to break up with Kate face-to-face,
instead dumping her over the phone.
At the time, Kate was working as a fashion accessories buyer for Jigsaw, according to
Vogue.
Today reveals that she excused herself from her colleagues and went into a back conference
room.
William's sorry excuse was,
"It just isn't going to work.
It isn't fair to you."
Thankfully, they made up a few short months later.
Kate Middleton has always been a stickler for displaying the right image.
According to Vanity Fair, she even had to ream out Prince William when he was acting
like a child instead of the future monarch.
Unfortunately, Guy Pelly always seemed to bring out the mischievous side of the prince,
and Kate wasn't always down for that.
Apparently, William and Pelly were on holiday in Ibiza in 2006, when the pair discovered
the thrill of mopeds and were showing off in front of a rented house.
However, Kate was mortified and came out of the house to demand that they stop.
Reportedly she told them,
"Anyone could be watching!
Go out the back and stop behaving like this!"
They apparently complied.
The Vanity Fair author, Vicky Ward, wrote,
"William may not have liked it, but Middleton's judgment was almost certainly right."
Princess Diana left her 12-carat oval sapphire ring to her second son, Prince Harry.
However, Harry felt that the ring should go to the future queen, and gave Prince William
the exquisite piece of jewelry when he learned that he wanted to propose to Kate, according
to Marie Claire.
When the prince and his bride-to-be announced their engagement in 2010, he shared that the
ring had been on a journey of its own.
In his story of the proposal, which took place in Kenya, the prince said,
"I had been carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks before that
and I literally would not let it go, everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it.
[…] It's my mother's engagement ring [...] obviously she's not going to be around to share any
of the fun and excitement of it all."
"This was my way of keeping her sort of close to it all."
Anybody up for a party?
Apparently, Prince William wanted to let down his hair when the Duchess of Cambridge was
expecting their first child, Prince George.
Wills had left a pregnant Kate at home and had attended the nuptials of his close friend
Tom van Straubenzee , and Lady Melissa Percy, according to the Daily Mail.
The so-called "Royal Wedding of the North" would go down as the event where William lost
his tooth.
Apparently, the young duke was dancing alongside his friend Tom Inskip.
One thing led to another, and Inskip reportedly struck William in the face.
William is said to have lost most of his front tooth, thanks to their wild dance moves, and
he had to seek medical help immediately.
However, William still maintained a sense of humor about the situation.
A guest said,
"William was joking that if Kate went into labor that night, he'd have to smile for the
cameras with a missing tooth."
Well, if Kate knew about the accident, she may have gone into labor.
As another guest pointed out,
"William made sure the tooth was repaired because he was worried Kate was going to go
completely spare."
In 2017, Prince William found himself in hot water once again when he was snapped partying
up a storm with two women, according to Australia's The Daily Telegraph.
The Duke of Cambridge gave the Commonwealth Day services a miss and decided to hit the
Swiss ski slopes with the boys instead.
He also left his wife home alone with the kids.
The media had a field day when footage emerged of the British royal doing some dad dancing
at an establishment.
William reportedly got down and dirty with Aussie model Sophie Taylor and, quote, "gyrated"
with her, according to The Sun.
He grabbed the model's cowboy hat and placed it on his own balding head while obviously
enjoying her company.
Yet again, William allegedly got handsy with another's woman's waist while bending low
to talk to her.
A partygoer later told the press,
"He was dancing so wildly that I did a double-take when I first saw him and thought it must be
a lookalike.
But before long everyone realized they really were partying with Prince William."
Even though Prince William was embroiled in many scandals through the years, nothing captured
the media's attention the way that his alleged affair with Rose Hanbury did.
In Touch first broke the news that William may have cheated on Kate Middleton with the
Marchioness of Cholmondeley.
Apparently, the affair occurred when the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting Louis in 2018,
and only came to light in 2019.
The outlet alleged that Kate confronted her husband, but he reportedly laughed off the
accusations.
A prominent staff writer at The Times of London, Giles Coren, then seemingly confirmed the
rumors when he tweeted,
"It is an affair.
I haven't read the piece but I know about the affair.
Everyone knows about the affair, darling."
He later deleted the message.
However, Kate was apparently concerned enough to make a few demands of her own.
The In Touch source alleged that she didn't want William to continue their friendship
with the Cholmondeleys and told him that all socializing had to stop.
According to the outlet, their source claimed,
"They come across as a perfect couple who can do no wrong.
But the reality is, most couples have their issues, and William and Kate are no different."
The Daily Beast claimed that the royal family tried to suppress the allegations of the affair.
Kate Middleton apparently also pushed Rose Hanbury out of her circle.
An interesting bit of gossip hit the tabloids during the Rose Hanbury scandal.
Apparently, Kate Middleton could not cope with the news of the alleged affair.
The Globe, according to Micky, was the only tabloid that reported that Kate was heartbroken
amid Prince William's cheating scandal.
They claimed that she wept and fled to her parents' home in Berkshire, away from the
spotlight.
However, Kate’s mother came across her darling daughter after she collapsed on the bathroom
floor.
Mama knew best and called a doctor and her son-in-law.
After all, things just couldn't go on this way.
However, when William arrived, Kate allegedly tore into him, and he left the Middleton family's
home.
For the record, no mention is made of what happened to the kids amid all the drama.
And photos during Kate's pregnancy and directly thereafter show no hostility between her and
William.
So, what really went on behind closed doors is between the Cambridges.
Good for them!
It's no secret that the Fab Four didn't last very long.
Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle were going to revolutionize
the British monarchy.
And when they started out, it seemed as if they were a dream team who would actually
modernize the royal institution.
Unfortunately, the vision failed and, with it, family ties were broken.
"And you're not going to tell me who had the conversation."
"I think that would be very damaging to them."
As far back as 2018, The Times reported that William and Harry had decided to part ways.
A source told the outlet,
"The brothers have leant on each other and looked after each other since their mother
died."
But even their relationship had to change, and the source revealed, quote, "they have
become different people with different outlooks on life," particularly since they each had
their own families to consider.
Then, Megxit occurred in 2020, and things spiraled out of control.
Harry and Meghan spoke to Oprah in a controversial tell-all interview where the Duchess of Sussex
accused Kate of making her cry before her wedding.
"A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining to, yes, the issue
was correct, about flower girl dresses.
And it made me cry."
Apparently, William was furious after the interview because it put his wife in a bad
light, and he then became, quote, "very protective" over Kate, according to People.
Will they ever be able to come together again as a family and stop airing their dirty laundry?
As for Kate and William, they have faced many challenges together.
Surely, they will overcome this one too.
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