Kate (22 page)

Jecca’s parents, Ian and Jane, who played host to the prince during his gap year and whom he regards as a ‘second family’, and her uncle William and aunt Emma live in the grounds of the ranch, enjoying a colonial lifestyle fit for a prince. Under the name Lewa Wilderness Trails, they rent out eight luxury cottages, complete with fireplaces and verandas, in the gardens of their home. Guests can use a saltwater swimming pool, a clay tennis court and riding stables; they can choose to go on drives around the estate, bush walks with a professional tracker, jogs with a Masai warrior, or horse or camel rides.

William, however, was not there just for a holiday but to learn about conservation from Jecca’s family. The prince spent the majority of his African trip working on the ranch, but also took the opportunity for a long-awaited post-graduation holiday with his friends. He spent around £2,000 to hire the lodge for his friends to stay in, complete with a glorious swimming pool that looks as if it is overflowing into the wilderness below. Kate and William’s cottage had its own balcony and a double bed on castors, meaning that the royal lovebirds could sleep outside, protected by a mosquito net, under the stars. It would have been a wonderful experience for the group, who were spoiled for choice of what to do. They could have followed the river with local guides, toured the estate in a 4x4 looking for game, visited the baboon troop and the black rhinos, or simply relaxed at the lodge.

For Kate and William, the African break was the first chance they had had to spend time together since leaving St Andrews, and they must have wanted to enjoy every minute, away from the stresses and strains of their lives in Britain and the storm of speculation over their future.

Kate and William had left the sanctuary of the small university town on Friday, 25 June 2005, after their graduation ball, knowing that their lives would never be the same again. They would no longer have the freedom they had enjoyed over the previous three years. It was a pivotal time for the young prince and his girlfriend, who both had to think hard about what they intended to do now that they had completed their degrees.

But before they addressed themselves to that task, there was one more night of carefree, student-style partying to enjoy, at the upper-crust private members’ club Boujis, a favourite haunt of the young royals, socialites and aristocrats, as well as the odd sports personality, Eurotrash banker and Hollywood star. It is there that
Starsky & Hutch
stars Ben Stiller and owen Wilson were smuggled out of a fire exit to avoid the paparazzi only to be spotted when their driver was nowhere to be found, and there too that England cricketers including Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen ended their 32-hour drinking marathon after the Ashes win in 2005. But its most famous clientele are William and Harry, who are drawn in by its exclusivity and discretion. It is located in Thurloe Street, South Kensington, just a few doors from the flat where Princess Diana lived before her marriage. One doesn’t get behind the Boujis rope unless one has serious connections, which gives it the advantage of being a WAG- and soap star-free zone. The doormen never tip off the paparazzi – they have to cruise around until they spot the royal protection officers – and the princes can retreat to the exclusive Brown Room for their own private party. At the club, the motto is ‘Rules Are Broken’ and the signature drink is the Crack Baby, a cocktail of vodka, passion-fruit juice, Chambord and champagne that arrives in a test tube. Kate has gained a reputation at the club for her demure behaviour. She drinks modestly and always touches up her make-up in the lavatories before leaving the venue and facing the waiting paparazzi.

Jake Parkinson-Smith, the grandson of the flamboyant fashion photographer Norman Parkinson, ran the club in 2005. (He has since been sacked – and reinstated – after accepting a caution for possessing cocaine.) ‘The princes are very ordinary, nice guys,’ he said once in a rare moment of indiscretion. ‘They remind me a lot of my friends. They feel very safe because their pals come – Guy Pelly, Freddie Windsor. It’s the English aristo set. They all know each other, they all went to Eton together and all play polo together, so it’s all very comfortable and happy.’

William and Kate, with Guy Pelly, turned up at the club in the early hours of Monday, 28 June, two days after leaving their graduation ball, and headed straight onto the tiny dance floor beside the neon-orange bar. With typical discretion, they left separately a couple of hours later, Kate disappearing first in a waiting BMW before William and Guy emerged.

Within hours, Kate was back at home while the prince was heading to New Zealand with his recently appointed private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former SAS officer, and Thomas van Straubenzee. The trio arrived at Wellington Airport on a scheduled flight and were greeted by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

William had first been to the South Pacific country with his parents when he was just nine months old and he was now there 22 years later on an official visit to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Representing the Queen, he met war veterans and laid two wreaths: at the National War Memorial in Wellington on 3 July and at the Cenotaph in Auckland a week later. He also spent time with the British Lions, who were on tour in the country, watching them lose to the All Blacks before flying out to Africa for his reunion with Kate.

Kate Middleton returned from Africa facing one of the hardest challenges of her life: how to adjust to life outside the confines of university and create a role for herself while dating the heir to the throne. Whereas William had his life mapped out – although he did not like to admit it – Kate had nothing in her diary bar a few social engagements. Not only did she face the logistical nightmare of trying to find a suitable job for a princess in waiting, but she had to conduct herself with decorum outside the protection of ‘The Firm’.

It was an extraordinarily difficult path for the 23-year-old to negotiate, one that her fellow graduates would never have to experience, but which she managed with typical aplomb. In keeping with her reputation for decorum, she spent most of her time sheltered in the bosom of her family, to whom she is very close. Her sister Pippa, who had just turned 21, was midway through her English degree at Edinburgh, and her brother James, 18, had just left Marlborough. She kept her head down, smiled for photographers and ignored the tittle-tattle implying that her relationship with the prince would never last the course.

Such was Kate’s discretion while William was on the other side of the globe that she was rarely seen out and about, unless it was for everyday activities such as shopping in her local Waitrose or browsing with her mother in Peter Jones, the department store that has become a haven for Sloane Rangers and the Chelsea set. Her one trip out, to the Festival of British Eventing, sparked yet more speculation, this time about an imminent engagement, because the horse trials were held on Princess Anne’s country estate, Gatcombe Park. However, Kate’s appearance, in the Stetson she had worn on safari in Africa, could hardly be deemed especially significant, as the event was open to the public and was a favourite with her country set.

Within a few weeks, she was reunited with William when he flew back from Kenya to take the gruelling selection test for the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, held at Westbury Barracks in Wiltshire. The 23-year-old prince passed both the physical and technical tests with flying colours.

Then it was back to the social whirl. On 24 August 2005, the couple spent the evening at Purple, a cavernous nightclub with a sunken dance floor and two raised bars at either end, throbbing with house music. Although the club, which has since closed, did not have the exclusivity of Boujis, it had the distinct advantage for the royals of being hidden away in private grounds at Chelsea Football Club, a stumbling block for the paparazzi. William and Harry had first discovered the club in September 2003, when they went there for the birthday party of TV presenter Natalie Pinkham, the daughter of a millionaire Northamptonshire property developer. Photographs taken that evening would later cause a storm of criticism when, three years after the event, a national newspaper published one of Harry kissing Natalie, mistakenly suggesting that he had cheated on Chelsy Davy.

In 2005, it was Kate and William who attracted some attention, although not quite the same level of controversy. They began their evening with friends at The Collection, a striking bar and restaurant housed in an old warehouse in Chelsea’s fashionable Brompton Triangle. The building had previously been home to a Porsche garage, a Conran furniture shop and a Katharine Hamnett boutique, and the restaurant was renowned for its entrance – an 80-ft catwalk, designed by the architect Sir Norman Foster – and its long bar. As well as hosting parties for the British Fashion Awards, the exclusive jeweller Cartier and the singers Beyoncé and Prince, it had become a favourite haunt for celebrities and royals.

After having a few drinks – William stuck to red wine while Kate sipped margaritas – it was on to Purple, where the couple, for once, let their hair down. After spending some time in the VIP room, they took to the dance floor, where William drank sambuca, chatted with the DJ and requested a few tracks for his girlfriend, including ‘Shakedown’ by rapper DMX, dance hit ‘I Like the Way you Move’ by BodyRockers and Starsailor’s ‘Fall to the Floor’. The couple finally emerged at 1.30 a.m. looking slightly the worse for wear. But their carefree student behaviour could not last much longer.

Over the next month, Kate put on a brave face as her boyfriend flitted all over the country, preparing for life as a working royal. His next public engagement, on 3 September, was with the Queen and Prince Philip at the Highland Games in Braemar, a quaint village in Aberdeenshire. William sat in the royal box, chatting with his grandparents as they watched a tug-of-war competition, Highland dancing and a veterans’ parade and listened to the pipes and drums of the 1st Battalion The Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders Regimental Association. Meanwhile, in contrast, his girlfriend busied herself by going shopping on Kensington High Street, where she was spotted popping into Topshop and Miss Sixty.

Four weeks later, on 30 September, William left Kate alone again to celebrate his friend oliver Hicks’ record-breaking solo voyage across the Atlantic at the Chain Locker pub in Falmouth. The old Harrovian, 23, had spent the previous 124 days out at sea in a 23-ft boat, travelling 4,040 miles from North America to the Isles of Scilly and becoming the first person to row solo eastwards across the Atlantic as well as the youngest person to complete a solo row across an ocean. ‘There was masses of scrummage on the pontoon when I rowed in,’ said oliver. ‘Richard Branson – one of my sponsors – shook my hand and sprayed me with champagne. Willy came along and pulled my hat down over my eyes and then they carried me off to the pub.’

But, according to oliver, the only reason that Kate did not turn up with her prince was because William wanted to protect her from the scrum. ‘They are together,’ he told the press. ‘I spent the weekend with them. The reason they never confirm their relationship is because they don’t want to make it open season for people to ask questions.’

Indeed, the following night Kate was at William’s side for a black-tie charity ball organised by the Institute of Cancer Research for 400 socialites at the Banqueting House in Whitehall. But yet again the couple faced a barrage of speculation, this time because they sat at separate tables for the £80-a-head event, despite the fact that at such a function this would be considered normal etiquette, not a sign of a disintegrating relationship. The prince was also criticised for ignoring Kate – only dancing with her once – and flirting with other girls, but in society circles it is deemed polite to work the room, albeit perhaps in a more thoughtful manner.

In any case, their time together was short-lived. Three days later, William would start the first of three work-experience placements chosen to prepare him for his duties, and Kate would discover just how challenging and contradictory her own role as the girlfriend of a future king could be.

William’s first job as a working royal began on 4 October 2005, when he arrived at Chatsworth, seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and one of Britain’s grandest stately homes. He spent the next two weeks in the Peak District learning how to run the 35,000-acre estate, even working behind the scenes in its award-winning butcher’s shop. Wearing a traditional apron and straw boater, he joined the other backroom workers weighing the heavy cuts of meat. But he and his two police detectives lived in more luxurious surroundings than his fellow workers, staying in a sixteenth-century hunting tower overlooking Capability Brown’s stunning park. Originally built as a summer banqueting house from which ladies could watch their gentlemen hunting, the 400-ft turret with its narrow spiral staircase had been restored earlier that year to accommodate paying guests, although William was let off the £900-a-week rent. It was a plum first job for the prince, who has inherited his father’s love of the environment and has always harboured a desire to be a gentleman farmer. In the visitors’ book, which he signed ‘Will, Gloucestershire’, he wrote: ‘A wonderful place to stay but don’t try to tackle the stairs once you have a drink!’

After discarding his green wellies, William donned a pinstriped suit for the next stage in his work experience, shadowing bankers at HSBC. He spent a week working with the bank’s Charities Investment Services team in St James’s Street, just around the corner from Clarence House, before commuting to its investment arm in Canary Wharf. He also spent some time at the Bank of England, learning how it sets interest rates, and visited the London Stock Exchange, Lloyd’s of London, the Financial Services Authority and the Queen’s lawyers, Farrer & Co.

His final stint before Christmas was with the Royal Air Force Valley Mountain Rescue Team in Anglesey, North Wales, where he spent two weeks learning emergency lifesaving skills. He then took part in a mock rescue, abseiling down a 200-ft cliff while holding one end of a stretcher that had been filled with ballast to simulate an injured climber. But his trip was thrown into controversy, after he was flown from Anglesey to RAF Lyneham, in Wiltshire, on a 622mph Hawk jet to collect the army boots he wanted to break in for Sandhurst.