Dragon boats, school records, and an allergy definitely not
fit for a queen. You've never seen Kate Middleton like this.
Princess Catherine's upbringing was far from the luxurious life Prince William
and his family experienced living in the likes of Buckingham Palace. Her parents,
Michael and Carole Middleton, met while they were both working for British Airways,
but they decided to establish roots when daughter Kate reached school age. It was Carole who had
the idea for Party Pieces, an online business specializing in decorations for kids' parties.
In 2017, Carole celebrated the company's 30th anniversary with a blog post on the
Party Pieces website, along with some of the company's first advertising photos — including
one featuring Kate and her siblings as models. Carole proudly wrote in part,
"It is still very much a family business today, and over the years all my children have played a
huge part in it from modelling for the catalogue to developing new categories for the brand."
In fact, the future Princess of Wales and her siblings regularly appeared in
Party Pieces marketing campaigns. Claudia Joseph, author of "Kate:
The Making of a Princess," previously confirmed to CNN,
"Both Pippa and Kate used to model for the catalogs,
wearing t-shirts with their ages on them and holding cupcakes."
Despite the married pair's entrepreneurial success,
their eldest daughter was still labeled a "commoner" in the press. In fact,
Kate became the first so-called commoner to marry a future king in about 350 years.
If you grew up in the 1990s, odds are you had a little crush on Prince William or
knew someone who did. It was rumored that Princess Catherine took her supposed crush
to borderline obsessive levels and even had a poster of her future husband on her bedroom
wall. Former classmates told The Telegraph that was the case, at any rate, claiming Kate
would always say "there's no one quite like William" when their talks turned to boys.
The alleged William poster made for a good story,
with Kate painted as the girl who married the prince of her dreams — but as it turns out,
it definitely wasn't true. The future Princess of Wales set the record straight in the couple's
2010 interview with Tom Bradby. Referring to a popular ad campaign for jeans in the '90s,
Kate revealed that there was someone else she had a crush on back then.
"I had the Levi's guy on my wall, not a picture of William, sorry."
They're basically a picture of marital bliss today, but not even royal relationships are
immune to setbacks. Back in April 2007 — and with rumors of wedding bells rife in the press — Prince
William shocked followers when he decided he needed some space from Kate Middleton.
"We both were very young, it was at university and we were sort
of both defining ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff."
The split had dominated headlines, but, according to
William, it wasn't about any issues the pair were experiencing as a couple.
"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 soon worked out for the better."
Although William was the one who briefly brought the relationship
to an end, Kate later admitted that it was ultimately for the greater good, saying,
"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."
"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."
Of course, the royal couple reunited just a couple months
after their infamous breakup and — barring those cheating allegations
made against Prince William — they have seemingly been going strong ever since.
You're probably wondering how you missed such a huge cinematic event, right? Don't worry,
this low-budget romance was neither huge nor particularly cinematic. Lifetime's feature film
"William and Kate" aired on cable TV in 2011, just 149 days after the royal couple announced
their engagement. The movie came out to very little fanfare, but when the UK's Channel 5
picked up the flick to show overseas, Brits reportedly didn't know whether to laugh or
cry at what they were watching. In its rather sarcastic review, London's Evening Standard said,
"This may be made for the US,
but the English will cherish it in ways its makers could scarcely have envisaged."
The Guardian claimed the movie was so terrible that it could well become a cult classic, stating,
"So bad it's awful, toe-curlingly,
teeth-furringly, pillow-bitingly ghastly. You begin to wonder what the happy young
couple have done to deserve this. It will probably be a smash."
The Telegraph, Express, and the Radio Times also trashed the movie in their reviews,
but there were at least two people who were supposedly happy with it: the Prince and Princess
of Wales themselves! Actor Camilla Luddington, who plays Kate in the rom-com, told Access Hollywood,
"We heard that Will and Kate did see the film — from an insider — and they loved it."
Well, luckily for these royals, Hallmark produced "William & Catherine:
A Royal Romance" that same year, and the couple's love story is also set
to be immortalized on Season 6 of Netflix's "The Crown."
In 2007, while she and Prince William were still dating, Princess Catherine joined an
all-female team, dubbing themselves the Sisterhood and training to cross the
English channel while rowing a Chinese dragon boat. The stunt was part of a charity race,
with the women competing against a men's team called the Brotherhood.
Kate's celebrity status may have brought the team added publicity,
but the future royal had to demonstrate that she had what it took to embark on
such a physically taxing challenge. Team captain Emma Sayle told The Telegraph,
"She has had to prove herself. Our coach said she could join only if she was up to it."
In fact, Sayle added, Kate proved to be so phenomenal that she was
given the toughest job on the team, working the tiller to keep the boat
on course while also yelling out directions to the women rowing.
While Kate had successfully demonstrated her tenacity during training,
she was forced to pull out of the race due to the media frenzy that had been
sparked by her presence on the team. A spokesperson for the Sisterhood told BBC
News that this had resulted in security concerns. In an interview with People, Sayles complained,
"It's dangerous enough as it is, without having to take into consideration the
world's [paparazzi] causing us to capsize the whole time. They've been a nightmare."
While Princess Catherine eventually became a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth II,
she'd been dating Prince William for quite some time before actually meeting her.
In a televised interview she and William gave on the occasion of their engagement,
Kate revealed how and when she made the acquaintance of the longtime monarch.
"I first met her at Peter and Autumn's wedding, and again,
it was in amongst a lot of other guests and she was very friendly."
Given that the Phillips' wedding took place in 2008, and the Wales' first began dating in 2003,
that means the couple had been together for five years before
Kate officially met her royal boyfriend's grandmother. William said of the queen,
"She had wanted to meet Kate for a while."
In fact, Kate got to know Queen Elizabeth even better when she accompanied Her Majesty on a
royal "away-day" visit in 2012. In the British TV documentary "Our Queen at Ninety," Kate said,
"I went without William, so I was rather apprehensive about that. She
was very supportive. The fact she took the time to make sure that I was happy
and looked after for that particular occasion, which probably in everything
that she's doing is a very small element, it shows just how caring she is really."
Dragon-boat racing isn't the only athletic pursuit that Princess Catherine has enjoyed.
As her royal biography noted, her enthusiasm for sports was fostered by engaging in such
activities as tennis, hockey, and sailing when she was a child. Her commitment to
health and fitness was on display in 2015, when she got serious about scuba diving,
earning an advanced certification allowing her to dive to depths of nearly 100 feet.
Back in her school days, Kate also demonstrated a talent at track and field events. In fact,
as noted by the Mirror, she set a high-jump record while attending St Andrew's School, leaping 1.5
meters — more than four-and-a-half feet. That school record has reportedly never been broken.
However, Kate's former classmate, comedian Jack Whitehall, admitted he's a little dubious as
to whether her high-jump record actually still stands. Whitehall jokingly told The Sun in 2020,
"Kate Middleton is on all the record boards and holds school records — some of which are
20 years old and have never been broken. It makes you raise an eyebrow a little as
to the validity of some of those awards, bearing in mind every other school record
has been broken in recent history other than Kate's. Maybe there is some lenient
timekeeping going on at sports days now to make sure her name stays up there."
It's no secret that the late Queen Elizabeth was absolutely obsessed with horses. While
other royals have demonstrated a similar affinity — King Charles III, for example,
used to be a champion polo player, while Princess Anne earned a reputation as a
world-class equestrian — Princess Catherine has never been particularly enamored with
horses. Marcia Moody, who wrote "Kate: A Biography," explained to Town & Country,
"Kate doesn't ride, purely because [she] didn't do it growing up."
The reason for this became clear when Kate attended a charity polo match in
2009 and was asked why she didn't play polo herself. According to the Daily Mail,
she responded by revealing she had an allergy to horses.
Given that horseback riding is a favorite pastime of the rest of the royal family,
Kate decided that she should at least learn how. As The Telegraph reported in 2012,
she told Paralympic equestrian Lee Pearson that she'd been taking riding lessons,
despite being allergic. Recalling their conversation,
"I said, 'So am I — but [antihistamines] are wonderful.'"
While Kate may not have embraced riding,
that hasn't been the case for her children — particularly Princess Charlotte. Paralympic
rider Natasha Baker told Horse & Hound in 2016 of a conversation she had with Kate, saying,
"I asked her how the children were and she said Charlotte is really enjoying
her riding. [...] She emphasized that Charlotte has this passion about horses
and although she doesn't echo it, she'll do her best to champion and encourage it."
In addition to working for her parents' company, Party Pieces, Princess Catherine
held at least one other regular job before becoming a member of Britain's royal family.
During an appearance on a 2019 BBC Christmas special, hosted by chef Mary Berry of "The
Great British Bake Off," Kate was seen serving non-alcoholic cocktails in Liverpool, part of
a charity event hosted by an organization called Action on Addiction. Kate recalled,
"It reminded me of my university days when I did a bit of waitressing."
This spurred Berry to ask if the then-Duchess of Cambridge performed well on the job. Kate quipped,
"No — I was terrible."
While Kate may not have fond memories of her days as a restaurant server, viewers of Netflix's "The
Crown" are set to enjoy a dramatic recreation in the series' sixth and final season, which will
include the early days of her romance with Prince William, as previously mentioned. According to the
Daily Mail, actor Meg Bellamy — who plays Kate in the series — was spotted filming scenes in
a pizza restaurant in March 2023, outfitted in an apron and a name tag reading "Kate."