Prince William and Kate Middleton met at university, forming a firm friendship before falling in love. But in 2007, Kate's dreams were crushed when the future King phoned her at work and ended things.
It is thought he got cold feet as speculation grew about an engagement, but both William and Kate have since said the split made them stronger. Kate admitted: “At the time, I wasn’t very happy about it, but it made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realised.
“I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you’re younger. I really valued that time for me as well, although I didn’t think it at the time.”
William said: “We were both very young… we were both finding ourselves and being different characters.
“It was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up, so it was just a bit of space and it worked out for the better.”
His nerves had seemingly been building for some time.
Royal expert and author Katie Nicholl said that the Christmas beforehand, William had become so anxious he confided in Prince Charles and the Queen.
She said: “William had been having second thoughts and sat down with his father and his grandmother to have a frank discussion about his future with Kate. Both advised him not to hurry into anything.”
Sources said the Queen was disappointed by the break-up.
Kate’s method of coping was to hide her emotions behind a smile, enjoying nights out at London hotspots, edgier fashion choices, sightings with William’s pals, and even the glimpse of a cheeky self-help book in her handbag, entitled Love Is Not Enough: A Smart Woman’s Guide To Keeping (And Making) Money.
She even signed up to an all-female dragon boat race team and was snapped, looking poised and independent, slicing through the waves. The 21-woman team, called The Sisterhood, aimed to row across the English Channel to raise funds for children’s hospices.
Kate’s teammate Emma Sayle admitted Kate “was in touch with William the whole time”, and it wasn’t much more than two months before he began to miss her.
Royal historian Robert Lacey described how the prince “got the message quicker than he or anyone else expected”.
He and Kate were seen kissing at an army party at barracks in Bovington, Dorset and, in July 2007, Kate and her brother James were seen at the Concert for Diana, held at Wembley to mark 10 years since William’s mother’s death. They were a few rows behind William, Prince Harry and his then-girlfriend Chelsea Davy.
Kate then attended the wedding of William’s cousin Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly, taking the royal’s place, while he attended a friend’s wedding in Africa.
It wasn’t long before their romance was confirmed to be back on, and Kate moved into William’s Clarence House flat, where he would return from military duties on Friday nights for cosy weekends together.
Reportedly, when friends told her she was lucky to be with William, she replied: “He is lucky to be with me.”
It is thought the couple agreed on a marriage pact during a secret break in the Seychelles. The plan was for William to finish military training before they wed, and Kate is said to have advised him to “let off steam” ahead of their marriage.
Pictures emerged of the prince drunkenly dancing to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean in a London basement bar with a woman in a basque in September 2007.
But in April 2008, Kate was there to see William awarded his wings after he finished flight training at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
He then began an assignment at the Britannia Naval College in Dartmouth before beginning training as a search and rescue pilot.
Kate, meanwhile, left the fashion firm Jigsaw, where she was a buyer, to work with the Middletons’ family firm, Party Pieces.
Although regularly apart, William and Kate were increasingly embedding into each other’s lives. The Middletons joined shooting breaks at Birkhall, Prince Charles’ private residence on the Balmoral estate, while William went with the Middletons on holidays.
Reportedly, what he loved were the regular home comforts they could offer at their home in Bucklebury, Berks, where he once landed a search and rescue helicopter in the garden.
In Battle of Brothers, Robert Lacey wrote: “One pillar of William’s year at Sandhurst had been his regular Friday night escapes to Bucklebury, where he could collapse and be mothered by Carole and also fathered by the quiet and affectionate Michael.”
By the beginning of 2010, with military training ongoing, William had to locate to RAF Valley on Anglesey.
This time, Kate went with him.
They lived together in the privacy of a rented farmhouse. They took long walks with their Cocker Spaniel Lupo, and were seen shopping at Waitrose.
That October, William made a secret trip by motorbike to see the Queen. His mission was to collect his late mother Diana’s 18-carat blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring.
On a safari in Africa later that month he carried it in his rucksack, terrified of losing it, and proposed to Kate in a secluded spot near Mount Kenya.
Announcing their engagement on November 16, 2010, he said: “It is my mother’s engagement ring. It is very special to me and Kate is very special to me now as well. It is only right the two are put together.”
He added: “The timing is right. As any guy knows, it takes an amount of motivation to get yourself going.”
