Kate (18 page)

Kate lived on the Kings Road where she was often photographed shopping and clubbing at some of the capital's most exclusive clubs. Here she is on a night out with her party-loving sister Pippa, in June 2006. (© Chicago/EMPICS Entertainment/Press Association Images)

As a royal girlfriend Kate was followed everywhere by the paparazzi. On the morning of her 25th birthday there were rumors the couple were about to announce their engagement and Kate had to battle her way past the cameras to drive to work. (© Mark Cuthbert/Getty Images)

William draws Kate in for a tender embrace on the slopes of Klosters in January 2006. Happy and in love, the usually camera shy prince throws caution and royal protocol to the wind and kisses his girlfriend. (© Scott Hornby/The Sun/News Syndication)

The pressure of being in the limelight was sometimes too much for Kate and William, who seemed distant from each other at the Cheltenham Festival Race in March 2007. Weeks later William announced they had split up. (© Stephen Lock/Rex Features)

Newly single, Kate took part in a charity dragon boat race, but when the event turned into a media circus she pulled out at the eleventh hour. (© Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)

At the Concert for Diana in August 2007, William and Kate were secretly back together but they sat in separate rows in the royal box to avoid being photographed together. Kate danced with her sister Pippa and brother James instead. (© Alpha)

In addition to the Queen, who had been suffering from a cold on that day, Prince Charles and Camilla came to watch William, and of course Michael and Carole were there to proudly see their elder daughter graduate. As William knelt before the chancellor's wooden pulpit to collect his parchment, the flash of cameras was overwhelming as graduates and their guests captured the moment that the future King of England was awarded his degree. Moments later, Kate was called to the stage as Catherine Middleton to receive her degree in the history of art.

At the end of the ceremony, echoing his words from four years earlier when the assembled graduates had listened as nervous freshers, Brian Lang delivered his final words to them: “You will have made lifelong friends. You may have met your husband or wife. Our title as the top matchmaking university in Britain signifies so much that is good about St. Andrews, so we rely on you to go forth and multiply.” Poignant and, as it turned out, prophetic words.

CHAPTER 7

The Breakup

I
T WAS A BIZARRE
experience and one Kate still hadn't gotten used to. As she flicked through the news channels, there was her boyfriend, leading every story. On his first solo overseas tour, William was in New Zealand representing the Queen, and as he laid a poppy wreath in Wellington to mark the sixty-year commemoration of the end of World War II, Kate watched with a mixture of respect and disbelief. This was exactly the situation that made their relationship so surreal, and although she had been catching up with William by email, there had not yet been a chance to talk on the phone for any length of time.

It was the first time that they had been away from each other since graduating a few weeks earlier, and their time together at St. Andrews already seemed distant. They had both agreed that they wanted to make their relationship work and didn't want to be apart for too long, so Kate planned to join William and his best friend, Thomas van Straubenzee, in
Kenya in July. They were going to Lewa Downs, and never having been to Kenya before, Kate was looking forward to the trip, but she was also apprehensive. William's friendship with Jecca was still a sensitive subject, even though he had assured Kate they had only ever been friends. Kate and Jecca had met at William's twenty-first birthday party and then again more recently at the wedding of William's old friend Hugh Van Cutsem. The newspapers, which had already labeled Kate and Jecca “love rivals,” had had a field day when Jecca, dressed in a poncho and cowboy hat, sat just a few pews ahead of Kate, rather more dignified in a cream suit and a black fascinator. Now, the very fact that William was taking Kate to Kenya was enough to allay any major fears on her part.

Kate fell in love with Lewa, where they stayed in the $2,300-per-night Masai-inspired Il Ngwesi Lodge in the middle of the Mukogodo Hills. It had spectacular views of the majestic snow-capped peak of Mount Kenya, which the couple enjoyed from their outdoor bathroom and the canopied four-poster bed that could be wheeled out onto the terrace underneath the stars. Days were spent outdoors, too. Situated next to the Ngare Ndare River, Lewa Downs is the natural habitat of the lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo, and the biggest herd of the world's endangered species of Grévy's zebra. While William tracked the endangered beasts, Kate, Jecca, and Thomas were taken into the bush. Each morning, as dawn broke, they set off in the safety of a guarded 4x4 safari truck over the waking plains of the savannah. Kate had brought her camera and took advantage of being so close to the wildlife. There were also plenty of other things to do while William worked, and she played tennis on the clay court with Jecca or swam in the saltwater pool. At sunset, William would join his
friends for cocktails while a chef prepared freshly caught fish. Dining al fresco as the African sun set was a magical experience and any previous coolness between Kate and Jecca soon melted.

Post-holiday, William's future was already mapped out. Like his brother, Harry, he would be enrolling at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2006. Before that, in fall 2005, he was to undertake a series of work placements, including two weeks of land management in the Peak District, on the Chatsworth Estate owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, followed by three weeks at the Bank of England and the head offices of HSBC bank. It was, he reluctantly told friends, “time to join the real world.” Similarly, after four years as a carefree student, Kate also had her future to think about, and she duly sent out her CV to a handful of London art galleries so that she could put her history of art degree to some good use. Finding somewhere to live wasn't a problem. Her parents had bought an expensive apartment in Chelsea before she graduated and had given Kate the keys. Located on Old Church Street off the fashionable and sought-after King's Road, the two-bedroom pied-à-terre was perfectly positioned and had been beautifully furnished by her mother. The plan was for Pippa to move in with Kate when she graduated from Edinburgh.

Kate's apartment was only a short drive from William's living quarters at Clarence House. By now, she was a regular visitor, and when she pulled up in her VW Golf, Kate was waved through the cast-iron gates without needing to stop for a security check. She even had a parking space reserved next to William and Harry's in the gravel courtyard. Kate was beginning to get to know Harry, who had been at Sandhurst since
May and was full of tales of the tough training he had had ahead of his older brother. Unlike Pippa, who had come to visit at St. Andrews, Harry hadn't visited his brother, but he had met Kate many times at Balmoral on shooting weekends. Although they got along well, it was rather crowded when all three of them were at Clarence House. Charles and Camilla had the run of the large, four-story building, while William and Harry shared a small wing, consisting of a functional kitchen with a dining table for entertaining, a living area, a bedroom each, and a small gym.

In between looking for a job, Kate filled her days shopping on the King's Road, meeting friends, and seeing William. Because of the ongoing intense speculation about the seriousness of her relationship with William, she had to quickly come to terms with the fact that she was a constant target for the paparazzi. She only had the benefit of the prince's protection officers when she was with him, and so she had to deal with the unwanted attention alone. It was like navigating an obstacle course, and it seemed there was always a photographer ready to pounce, whether she was leaving her apartment to go to the shops or heading to Buckingham Palace to swim at the pool, a privilege she now enjoyed. The paparazzi soon worked out where she lived, shopped, and worked out, and she was photographed nearly every day. William was aware of the situation and anxious about it. He had seen firsthand how his mother had been harassed by the paparazzi and was determined that Kate not be subjected to the same treatment. At his request, she was given a hotline to the press office at St. James's Palace and the mobile number of the Prince of Wales's head of press, Paddy Harverson. “We had been introduced to Kate early on, and we were instructed from the outset to give
her every support possible,” said a senior press aide. “She was obviously the subject of a lot of press interest and intrusion from the paparazzi. William said we had a duty of care to her and her family and so we advised her on how to deal with the cameras. We told her to smile at the photographers so that it would be a better picture. She was given advice on how to manage the media, and we were there to support her if there was a crisis.”