Kate (21 page)

The memory of the Princess of Wales still lingered—it was just weeks since the official inquest into her death had been published and concluded that the car crash in Paris was a tragic accident. When William called to wish Kate a happy birthday, she was close to tears, and the prince instructed his aides to issue a statement complaining about the level of harassment Kate was experiencing. His message to the press was unequivocal: leave Kate alone. “Ms. Middleton is a private individual and as such can expect to have the privacy and private life that would be enjoyed by any member of the public,” the Palace insisted. Even Prime Minister David Cameron remarked about his “concern about the number of people on Kate Middleton's doorstep.”

There was no engagement, and deep down Kate feared there might not be one in the future. She was increasingly miserable at having to cope with the downside of her fame without William present, which only compounded her sense of loneliness. The pang of uncertainty she had felt since New
Year's Eve had not subsided, and although she and William spoke regularly on the phone, she knew they would not be seeing much of each other over the coming months. After several weeks in Windsor, William was posted to Dorset for a two-and-a-half-month tank commander's course.

They managed to see one another on occasional weekends, and in March 2007, Kate and William were able to spend some proper time together on a skiing holiday at Zermatt in Switzerland with friends. Tucked away in their wooden chalet, Kate felt bold enough to voice her fears about their relationship, while William did his best to allay them, but they both knew this was a rocky patch. A long-distance romance didn't worry Kate, but she did have a problem with William coming to London to party instead of spending time with her, which had became a pattern since he had moved to Dorset. It seemed to her that William would rather go out and enjoy himself when he had a free weekend than spend time with her. When the press reported that William had spent the night flirting and dancing with another woman on a boy's night out at Boujis, Kate was furious and told him so.

William, who can be headstrong and stubborn, seemed intent on having as much fun as possible, however, and when he was in Dorset, he often went out drinking with his platoon. For Kate, the final straw came as March drew to a close. William had been photographed partying at the Elements nightclub in Poole with two local girls, and to ensure her humiliation, his drunken antics were published in the tabloids. There were pictures of William dancing on a podium with a nineteen-year-old student, Lisa Agar, who claimed William was “touchy, feely, and quite pissed.”

Kate knew that the worst thing was to back William into a corner, but the time had come when she felt she had no alternative but to deliver William an ultimatum. If they were together, she wanted his full commitment, otherwise the relationship was over. The strain between them was apparent at the Cheltenham races at the end of March. In their matching tweeds, Kate looked downcast and hid behind dark glasses, while William seemed distant from her. That Easter, early in April, they agreed to split, for the second time in their six-year-long courtship. Kate was heartbroken.

William had spoken to his grandparents and his father about his concerns in the weeks leading up to the breakup. When he canceled the new year celebration with Kate at the eleventh hour, his grandfather told him he had to make his mind up about marriage. The Duke of Edinburgh had enjoyed a long courtship with the young Princess Elizabeth before officially proposing two months after her twenty-first birthday. They would have married sooner had it not been for King George V insisting they wait until Elizabeth's coming of age. Charles, meanwhile, advised William not to hurry into marriage. Although he knew firsthand the dangers of procrastinating, he had also endured the pain of a very public divorce. The Queen advised William to take his time and not be rushed into marriage. The truth was, commitment frightened William and he had gotten cold feet. He was twenty-four, loved his army lifestyle, and already said he didn't want to get married “until I'm at least twenty-eight, or maybe thirty.” Apparently, he had been spooked by talk of courtiers looking for a suitable date for a royal wedding and china cups being made ahead of a royal engagement.

Kate, however, was prepared to wait, but no one was going to make a fool of her. Fortunately, on the weekend of the split, she was at home with her family, who as always, was there to support her. Belle Robinson, who had read the news in the papers along with the rest of the country, told her not to come into work that week, while Carole, always a cool head in a crisis, advised Kate to give William time. She reassured Kate that William would be back and suggested they go on a holiday to Ibiza with some friends. To make matters worse, the papers that weekend were full of spiteful commentary suggesting that the breakup came down to the fact that Kate was too middle class for William and was not a suitable royal bride. Given her love and loyalty to the prince, this must have stung Kate like salt in a raw wound; and besides, it wasn't true. Although Carole's family was proudly working class, Michael's family could be linked to earls, countesses, a former Prime Minister—William Petty-Fitzmaurice, the first Marquess of Lansdowne, who served as Prime Minister in Britain from 1782 to 1783—and royalty.

Genealogists are able to trace the Middleton lineage to King Edward III through Sir Thomas Fairfax, a wealthy aristocrat born in the seventeenth century. Fairfax was a parliamentarian general who served under King Charles I and was married to Anne Gascoigne, a direct descendent of King Edward III. They had twin sons who gave rise to two lines of descent. Nicholas Fairfax, the elder son, was distantly related to Princess Diana's family, the Spencers, and William Fairfax, the younger twin, was related to the Middletons. The discovery meant that William and Kate are in fact fourteenth cousins once removed.

But despite the family's distant connection with royalty, the Middletons came in for criticism, in particular Carole, who was labeled pushy and “unashamedly ambitious.” Some commentators believed the royal family had lost its greatest asset since Diana. Others compared Kate to Camilla, fearing that like his father, William had just let his first true love slip through his fingers. Kate allowed herself the weekend to mourn the end of their romance. She was deeply touched to receive messages of support from Charles and Harry, who was preparing to go to Iraq, as well as the Duke of Edinburgh, who sent her his best wishes.

She mustered all her strength and took her mother's advice to show William exactly what he was missing. The prince had marked the end of their relationship with a night out at Mahiki nightclub, a Polynesian-themed bar in Mayfair, and Kate followed suit. The club, famous for its outrageously expensive and flamboyant cocktails, was managed by Guy Pelly. Dressed in a thigh-skimming minidress, Kate let her hair down and ordered a round of piña coladas. Michael Evans, who worked at the club, recalled that Kate was a model of decorum: “When Kate came to the club, she always queued and never expected free drinks.” After hitting the dance floor, she spent the rest of the evening sitting on a swinging wicker seat talking to Guy. Until now, their friendship had been a touch frosty, but Guy had always been kind to Kate, protecting her from the jealous taunts of some snooty royal hangers-on who whispered “doors to manual” when Kate walked into the club—a derogatory reference to her parents' airline industry careers. He knew William better than most and assured her that the prince cared for her a great deal.

But Kate hadn't spoken with William, who was now drowning his sorrows back at the Elements nightclub with his new army friends. He could not have failed to notice the pictures of Kate in the daily newspapers. There she was, looking sensational, on front page after front page, enjoying nights out with her sister, with her friends, with people he didn't even know. She was photographed at a glamorous book launch in Mayfair with socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and leaving a party to celebrate a movie about adult sex toys. It was a far cry from the tweed-clad young woman who had stood unhappily next to him at Cheltenham just a few weeks before. Far from appearing heartbroken, she seemed to be reveling in the attention she received from the many male admirers who were lining up to dance with her.

It seemed a case of what William could do, Kate could do better.

CHAPTER 8

Waity Katie

T
HE WEEKS AFTER
the split were incredibly difficult for Kate and her family, and friends rallied around to support her. Fortunately, the media interest in her every move eventually died down, giving her some time to think about what she was going to do. Her life had come to a standstill; the man she hoped to one day marry had told her it was over, and now Kate was alone. For her, the future had always been William, and she had relegated every other part of her life to second place. She took her mother's advice and decided to turn what had happened into something positive. She now had an opportunity to think about herself and what she wanted to do. One friend from Marlborough, Alicia Fox Pitt, had been in touch to see if Kate wanted to take part in a charity boating challenge. A group of women, who called themselves the “Sisterhood,” had decided to row across the English Channel to raise money for two children's charities, and Kate thought it sounded like an excellent idea for a worthwhile cause.

The criticism she had received in the wake of the split had wounded her, and she badly wanted to prove that she wasn't just “William's former girlfriend,” as she was now referred to in the press, but a bright, determined, and driven young woman with a life of her own. Since the breakup in April, she had been inundated with interview requests and had been offered a multimillion-dollar book deal, but she would never dream of discussing her past with William. Secretly, she hoped there might be a reconciliation, but for the moment, she needed to focus on herself. She picked up the phone and called Emma Sayle, who was organizing the race.

“I first spoke to her in April on the phone after she and William had broken up,” remembered Emma. “She said she wanted to be involved with something, and I told her about the race and she signed up in May.”

Taking her place at the helm, Kate took the tiller and steered down the River Thames. Although she had learned how to sail a seventy-two-foot Challenger during her gap year, a dragon boat was an altogether different experience. Emma made Kate her co-helm, and Kate, who as a child enjoyed sailing holidays in Norfolk with her family, had proved herself to be a natural. “The idea was to split the rowing between us,” said Emma. “The boat was heavy but Kate was strong and well coordinated. She was able to deal with the currents and waves, and I was very impressed with how good she was.”

The race, from Dover to Cap Gris Nez, near Calais, was quite a challenge. The Sisterhood—a group of twenty-one young women—was competing against the all-male “Brotherhood,” and Kate was expected at every 6:00
A.M
. training session without fail. Having taken a week's compassionate leave, she was now back at Jigsaw and the early morning starts
on the river were not her usual choice before a full day's work. However, she soon found that rowing was a form of therapy, and on this hazy morning, as she steered down the River Thames past Chiswick and downriver to Hammersmith, with the frenetic exercise clearing her mind, there was time to reflect.

Since the split, Kate had gone through a noticeable transformation. It wasn't just the shorter hemlines and daring outfits—she was more spontaneous without William at her side and more outgoing. Behind the scenes, Carole had encouraged her not to dwell on what had happened but to live her life to the full. Pippa, who had just finished her finals, had made it her duty to take her older sister out, insisting that sitting on the sofa at home would do her no good. A steady stream of gilt-edged invitations to the best parties in town dropped onto the doormat of their Chelsea apartment, and Pippa kept a busy social diary for them both. They rarely strayed further than Chelsea, and evenings out entailed drinking at Mahiki, dancing at Boujis, or sipping champagne at a glitzy party. With their amazing figures, glossy hair, and matching smiles, they were a tantalizing and photogenic duo. Pippa, at five foot six the shorter of the sisters by four inches—Kate stands at an impressive five foot ten inches—was always the more outgoing, steering Kate around and fielding off the paparazzi. That season, they topped
Tatler
magazine's prestigious Most Invited list and, according to one newspaper, were now known not simply as the Middleton sisters but as “The Wisteria Sisters” because they were “highly decorative, terribly fragrant and have a ferocious ability to climb.” William was certainly seeing a more tantalizing side to his ex-girlfriend and must have been reminded of the Kate who sashayed down
the runway in her underwear and a see-through dress all those years before at St. Andrews.

Without the prince to take up all her time, Kate also had the chance to rekindle old friendships, and she was grateful for the chance to spend a week in Ibiza with Emilia d'Erlanger. Carole had arranged for them to stay at Gary's villa, La Maison de Bang Bang, and although she was “very low, spending huge amounts of time on the phone, walking around the pool,” according to her uncle, she made an effort to go out to the fashionable Blue Marlin beach club, where she and Emilia drank cocktails and danced through the night. Kate loved spending time with her old best friend. It was, she said, the one good thing to have come out of the split.

Back in London, Kate forged a new friendship with Emma Sayle. They were spending a lot of time training together and got along well. They shared a love of sports: they both lived close to the King's Road and they had friends in common. In between training sessions, they would meet for coffee and got to know each other better. “She was very easygoing, and we all got on with her. She didn't have any airs or graces,” Emma recalled. “We got to see a very different girl from the Kate you read about in the papers. She was lots of fun and really relaxed when she was training. She didn't make a big deal about the fact that she used to date William; in fact she kept it very quiet. A lot of the girls didn't know who she was at first, which really helped her settle in. She was very dedicated and always on time for training. She was also very fit and worked out at the gym. I remember she dropped down to a size six while we were training. She was devastated when she and William split up.”