Kate

by Claudia Joseph

  As the crescendo of conjecture over their future grew ever louder and the country slumped into a recession, William and Kate made a conscious decision to keep a lower profile. Over the next few months, they were seen only at charity events – and even then separately – sparking rumours that their relationship was once again on the rocks. In fact, the couple were as strong as ever but were keeping out of the limelight, socialising at dinner parties and house parties rather than going clubbing.

  One of Kate’s rare public appearances that autumn was in support of a planned surgical ward at the Children’s Hospital, oxford. Tom’s Ward was to be named in memory of the brother of one of her friends, Sam Waley-Cohen, an amateur jockey who has ridden in the Grand National. Tom Waley-Cohen, who was the same age as Prince Harry and went to pre-prep school Wetherby with the princes, died in 2004 at the age of 20 after battling Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He was at Marlborough with Kate, where, although he was a few years below her, he was a recognisable figure because he had had his left leg amputated below the knee. ‘Thomas was a very remarkable boy and was always upbeat,’ says his mother Felicity, daughter of Viscount Bearstead, a member of the Hill Samuel banking dynasty. ‘Everybody was aware of him at Marlborough because he only had one leg and he was incredibly naughty. He was definitely not one of life’s victims.’

  Kate was one of the three organisers of an event called the Day-Glo Midnight Roller Disco to raise money for Tom’s Ward, at the new oxford Children’s Hospital, as well as for the charity Place2Be, which provides counselling for schoolchildren in need. She joined fellow organisers Sam Waley-Cohen and Holly Branson on 17 September for the roller disco at the Renaissance Rooms in Vauxhall.

  William couldn’t make it, and Kate turned up with her sister Pippa. Dressed in yellow hotpants, a green sequinned halterneck top and pink legwarmers, she was captured sprawling on her back, legs akimbo, in what was deemed an undignified pose for a future Queen. But the publicity raised awareness of the charity, which she has long supported behind the scenes. After the event, Sam said: ‘We wanted to do something fresh and new, something that would be fun and a bit tongue in cheek, reflecting the lighter side of life, very much like Thomas was himself. Kate has been fantastic in using her contacts to get people along. She has persuaded loads of people to commit. Her involvement has obviously raised the profile.’

  Not to be outdone by his girlfriend, Prince William joined his brother Harry in a charity motorcycle rally to raise money for Sentebale, the charity Harry set up to help disadvantaged children in Lesotho. The two brothers set off on 18 October on an eight-day ride through the South African wilderness, sleeping rough as they crossed 1,000 miles of inhospitable terrain. Both passionate bikers, they were believed to have been inspired by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who rode from John o’Groats to Cape Town for the TV series Long Way Down. Despite the fact that the princes’ participation in the rally contributed to the success of the fundraising event, questions were raised about the security required and that such costs were supplemented by the British taxpayer, undermining their altruism. Sitting on his Honda CRF 230-cc bike and dressed in body armour and thick protective boots, William said: ‘Harry and I had an idea last November to take part in this rally because it’s a mixture of adventure and charity, the key being the money raised today goes towards Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund, Unicef and Sentebale – three absolutely brilliant charities.’

  After her successful charitable ventures, Kate decided that she wanted to spread her wings and handed in her notice at Jigsaw. She left on 1 November, with an envelope of Jigsaw vouchers after a low-key finger buffet. The move sparked another round of rumours about her future with William and consternation within the palace over Kate’s insubstantial CV. Despite being 82 years old, the Queen has a reputation for being one of the hardest-working royals and is said to have a soft spot for Sophie Wessex, who was a career girl before she married Prince Edward.

  But Kate was set on a career in photography and it was rumoured that she flew to New york for a couple of lessons with Mario Testino, a favourite photographer of Princess Diana and the man who took the iconic Vogue shots of her. A month later, she curated her first exhibition, by celebrity portrait photographer Alistair Morrison, whom she had met while she was at St Andrews. The exhibition, Time to Reflect – a selection of portraits of stars such as Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet and Ewan McGregor taken in photo booths – was held at The Shop at Bluebird on Kings Road, owned by her former boss, and raised money for the United Nations children’s fund Unicef. Kate’s family and friends, including Guy Pelly and Laura Parker Bowles, rallied around and William, who had just arrived back from a secret mission with the Special Boat Service, formed during the Second World War to conduct raids behind German lines in North Africa, with the motto ‘By Strength and Guile’, made a last-minute appearance.

  Speaking at the launch, Alistair, 51, who has a gallery in Windsor, said: ‘Kate approached me when she was at university to come and do a little bit of work with her and we’ve kept in touch. She came to my gallery and we talked through some of her work. She was looking to get a little help. She is very, very good, and it shows. She takes very beautiful, detailed photographs. She has a huge talent and a great eye. I’m sure she will go far.’

  However, although the exhibition was deemed a success, Kate still had to earn a living, and by the end of the year she was working for Party Pieces, doing a technology course to learn how to compile digital catalogues, photographing products and setting up its new venture, First Birthdays, which she was going to manage. It was mundane work and can have done little to stretch the brain of the girl who got an upper second at St Andrews; nor did it silence her critics, but it did mean that she was on hand for her prince when he called.

  On 13 December, he did just that and they spent a weekend pheasant shooting at Sandringham, showing just how comfortable Kate was with the green-wellie brigade. But while she inevitably attracted more criticism from the animal-rights lobby, it was William’s appearance at the shoot that got people talking. The prince had grown a beard during an exercise in the Caribbean with the Special Boat Service the previous month, following a naval tradition, like his father and grandfather before him, of remaining unshaven. Charles grew his facial hair while serving in Alaska in 1975 and Prince Philip grew a beard during his wartime service aboard HMS Valiant.

  As dictated by royal protocol, the couple spent Christmas apart, Kate on her third holiday to Mustique that year and William at Sandringham. They were reunited for New year at Birkhall, where they went walking and shooting. Then, for the first time in three years, they spent Kate’s birthday together, on 9 January 2009, celebrating with a low-key family dinner at her parents’ home. However, any thoughts that the family might have had about a royal wedding had to be put on hold, as William had a new career.

  Chapter 25

  A New Princess

  Standing arm-in-arm with her prince in a stateroom at St James’s Palace, one of London’s oldest royal residences, the future Queen Catherine smiled coyly as she showed off her engagement ring, which had once belonged to her fiancé’s mother, Princess Diana. It was 16 November 2010, and the newly engaged future princess was making her first appearance on the world stage with Prince William.

  William had proposed to Kate three weeks earlier by a remote lake on the slopes of Mount Kenya, but the couple had kept the news secret while the prince asked his future father-in-law for her hand in marriage. He told the Queen and Prince Charles only a few hours before the announcement. Yet after William and Kate turned up together at the wedding of his close friend Harry Meade in Northleach, Gloucestershire – rather than arriving separately – speculation grew about the date of the betrothal. It reached fever pitch a week later when Kate’s parents were guests at a private shooting party at Birkhall with the couple. But the announcement was delayed after Michael’s father, Peter – Kate’s only surviving grandparent – died on 2 November after a short il
lness.

  Interviewed on the day of the announcement, William said, ‘We had been talking about marriage for a while, so it wasn’t a massively big surprise. I’d been planning it for a while, but, as any guy out there will know, it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going. It just felt really right out in Africa. It was beautiful at the time. I had done a little bit of planning to show my romantic side. I had been carrying it [the engagement ring] 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 because I knew if it disappeared I would be in a lot of trouble. It’s my mother’s engagement ring, so I thought it was quite nice because 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 close to it all.’

  ‘It was very romantic,’ added his bride to be, laughing. ‘There’s a true romantic in there.’

  The engagement marked the first time that Kate and William had given a formal interview, and the eyes of the world were upon them. Beaming broadly, they looked the epitome of a couple in love. Wearing a royal-blue dress by her favourite designer, Issa, Kate looked comfortable in the spotlight, although she deferred to her prince on the more difficult questions.

  Revealing that she is looking forward to producing a royal heir, she said: ‘Family is very important to me. I hope we will be able to have a happy family ourselves. My family has been great over the years, helping me with difficult times. We see a lot of each other and they are very, very dear to me.

  ‘My mother is absolutely over the moon. We had quite an awkward situation because I knew that William had asked my father but I didn’t know if my mother knew. So I came back from Scotland and my mother didn’t make it clear to me whether she knew or not, so both of us were there sort of looking at each other and feeling quite awkward about it. But it was amazing to tell and obviously she was very happy for us.’

  The news of the betrothal delighted Britain at a time when it was suffering from a recession. Hearing the news, Prime Minister David Cameron said that the engagement marked ‘a great day for our country’. The Queen said that she was ‘absolutely delighted’ for the couple, and the Prince of Wales, who joked that ‘they have been practising long enough’, said he was thrilled. Prince Harry gave Kate the ultimate accolade: ‘I’m delighted that my brother has popped the question,’ he said. ‘It means I get a sister, which I have always wanted.’

  But it is for Kate’s family that the world has now spun on its axis. Accompanied by staff from Clarence House, they made a statement saying that they were ‘thrilled’ at the prospect of a royal wedding. ‘As you know, Catherine and Prince William have been going out together for quite a number of years, which is great for us because we’ve got to know William really well,’ they said. ‘We all think he’s wonderful and we’re extremely fond of him. They make a lovely couple. They’re great fun to be with and we’ve had a lot of laughs together.’

  The announcement took place more than two years after commentators began seriously to anticipate a royal wedding. Widely expected to propose to Kate and take on the role to which he had been born after leaving the military at Christmas 2008, Prince William confounded all expectations – and stunned royal analysts – by transferring from the British Army into the RAF. He announced plans to train as a search-and-rescue pilot two days after Kate’s 27th birthday. He was committed to his training for 21 months, dashing hopes that the couple would get engaged when they reached 28 years old – the age at which William had notoriously declared he would consider marriage.

  Given the codename ‘Golden osprey’, Flight Lieutenant Wales arrived at RAF Shawbury, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire, where he had first discovered a passion for flying helicopters, on 11 January 2009 and rented a country house in the county, complete with swimming pool and tennis courts, as an alternative to his cramped room on the base.

  His move came after Prince Harry had led his men into battle in Afghanistan. It was deemed too dangerous for the second in line to the throne to follow suit and go into a war zone, but he was allowed, as a compromise, to sign up with the RAF, learning to fly single-engine Squirrels and twin-engine Griffins.

  Wearing an olive-green flying suit and regulation goggles under his helmet because of his poor vision, Flying officer Wales took off for the first of his training flights three days later. With an instructor by his side, the prince – who is rarely seen in public wearing the metal-rimmed glasses he needs for driving – underwent an hour-long lesson in a Squirrel at the Defence Helicopter Flying School at the base, where helicopter crews for all the armed services are trained.

  ‘I now want to build on the experience and training I have received to serve operationally,’ he said at the time. ‘For good reasons, I was not able to deploy to Afghanistan this year with D Squadron of the Household Cavalry Regiment. The time I spent with the RAF earlier this year made me realise how much I love flying. Joining Search and Rescue is a perfect opportunity for me to serve in the forces operationally while contributing to a vital part of the country’s emergency services.’

  After graduating a year later, William spent the next nine months in intensive training at RAF Valley on Anglesey. He lives in a cottage there, where Kate is a regular guest, and the couple are regularly spotted by locals. He finally qualified as a search-and-rescue pilot on 17 September 2010, and began his career in earnest as a member of C Flight, 22 Squadron, co-piloting a yellow Sea King helicopter, call sign ‘Rescue 122’, on 24-hour shifts to mount sea, mountain and flood rescue missions. Two weeks later, he took part in his first live search-and-rescue operation, saving a gas-rig worker who had suffered a heart attack. It was then that he finally felt ready to propose to Kate.

  ‘I had my military career and I really wanted to concentrate on my flying,’ he said after the engagement was announced. ‘I couldn’t have done this if I was still doing my training, so I’ve got that out of the way. Kate’s in a good place in terms of work and where she wants to be, and we both just decided now was a really good time.’

  William is not the first member of the royal family to live with his wife while serving in the military. He is following in illustrious footsteps: Prince Philip was posted to Malta a year after his marriage to the young Princess Elizabeth, and the couple had one of the most carefree years of their married life there. They lived in Lord Mountbatten’s Villa Guardamangia and danced many a night away at Valletta’s Hotel Meridien Phoenicia.

  Kate’s introduction to royal life stepped up a pace immediately she became engaged to the prince. Palace protocol dictated that until that day she was not accorded any status within the royal family. Although she had met the Queen socially on a couple of occasions, stories that she had dined alone with the monarch or had one-to-one meetings with her were greatly exaggerated. So were reports that her parents had met the monarch, making a mockery of spurious gossip that her mother Carole had breached etiquette by greeting her with the words ‘Pleased to meet you’.

  There had also been much speculation over the grooming for royal life that Kate was supposed to have received since she began dating William and the personal protection she was supposed to have been afforded. In fact, she received little advice about how to handle the role until she became a royal fiancée.

  But now Kate’s world has changed. She is entitled to round-the-clock police protection, has been assigned an official bodyguard from So14, the Royalty Protection Branch, and will have the full weight of the palace publicity machine.

  It has been an extraordinary journey for the woman who was christened Catherine Elizabeth Middleton and has become known to the public as Kate. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, the shy, retiring schoolgirl has transformed into a confident and glamorous young woman with the poise to become a royal bride. Vogue editor Alex Shulman has described her as ‘a contemporary version’ of Princess Diana. ‘She has the same mainstream style and will go on, like Diana, to get more glamorous
,’ she said. But Kate is made from a different mould; Diana had aristocratic connections and was a member of the Establishment. Kate’s background is more in line with those of the consorts of European royalty; on the Continent, the wives of princes and kings have degrees and careers. When Kate becomes Queen Catherine, she will be the first wife of a British monarch to have graduated from university, displayed her lingerie on the catwalk or lived with a king out of wedlock.

  At some stage in the future, William V will become the 42nd monarch to ascend the throne since his namesake William the Conqueror overthrew Harold in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Kate could be the sixth of her name to rule. The first was Catherine of Valois, daughter of the French King Charles VI, who married the Plantagenet King Henry V in 1420 after his historic win at Agincourt. Then there were three wives of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon, mother of his daughter Mary, whom he divorced; Catherine Howard, whom he beheaded; and Catherine Parr, who outlived him. Finally, there was the Portuguese infanta Catherine of Braganza, who married Charles II by proxy in 1662, two years after the restoration of the monarchy. She was the sister-in-law of Anne Hyde, the last commoner to marry a British king.

  William and Kate are keeping their lips sealed over whether he got down on bended knee. Perhaps he followed in the footsteps of William Shakespeare’s Henry V when he proposed to his Kate: