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A young Prince William partied with friends and shouted “I’m free!” after calling off his relationship with Kate Middleton in a frank 30-minute phone call, a royal insider has revealed.
The Prince of Wales, then aged 25, is said to have ended things with the Princess of Wales after deciding he was too young to settle down, Rob Jobson reveals in his new biography of Kate which details the couple’s brief 2007 split.
It came about after William, who formed a romantic relationship with Kate as an undergraduate student at St Andrew’s University, in Scotland, cooled on future plans for the pair amid speculation he was preparing to propose.
“‘I’m free!’ he shouted as he slipped into a drunken version of the robot dance,” Jobson claimed of the celebration, which took place in Mayfair’s Mahiki nightclub. “He then told his friends that they should all ‘drink the menu’, which they more or less ended up doing.”
According to reports at the time, the Prince also had his eye on someone else, the socialite Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, but she is said to have rejected his advances because she did not want to be constrained by the inevitable demands of royal life.
“This did not cool William’s ardour,” Jobson explained. “He reportedly tried to woo Isabella, visiting her several times at her family home. Despite his evident crush, she apparently rebuffed his advances.
“Few could have predicted that he’d return to Catherine – or that she’d ever agree to take him back...”
At the time of the couple’s brutal split, they had been an item for five years, having seen their initial friendship blossom into romance when Kate wore “a daring black sheer ensemble that showed off her figure” at a student charity fashion show in 2002.
By the time the pair graduated, rumours of an engagement were swirling, with some members of the press dubbing the future princess “Waity Kate” because of the length of their relationship without an engagement.
After William cancelled plans around the time of Kate’s 25th birthday in January 2007, she “sensed something was wrong.”
Jobson wrote: “[William] told her they both needed ‘a bit of space’ to ‘find our own way’, and he was unable to promise her marriage.
“In an emotionally charged 30-minute conversation, they both acknowledged they were on ‘different pages’. It was a devastating blow to Catherine, who felt doubly let down at being dumped over the phone.
“William, of course, simply got drunk at Mahiki and started yelling about being ‘free’.”
But Kate’s actions after their breakup reportedly made it impossible for the young prince to get his university girlfriend off his mind.
She was helped by her mother, Carole, who took her on a trip to the Irish capital of Dublin to distract her from her heartache.
“Carole Middleton acted swiftly, taking her heartbroken daughter for a break in Dublin – a welcome respite from media scrutiny,” Jobson added.
“On Catherine’s return, she decided she wasn’t going to sit around moping; what was good for the goose was good for the gander.”
Now in the public eye, she was repeatedly photographed by paparazzi wearing more risqué outfits than ever before when she went out with friends, and there was one, in particular, that sealed their eventual reunion.
Jobson continued: “She turned to old friends for support, going on holiday with a girlfriend to Ibiza. They partied long into the night.
“Back in London, there were soon so many paparazzi shots of Catherine leaving nightclubs – often with her sister Pippa – that the media dubbed them the ‘Sizzler Sisters’.”
This outfit caught William’s eye at a fancy dress party when “[Kate] arrived dressed as a nurse and William had made a beeline for her.
“They then spent the first part of the evening deep in conversation before hitting the dance floor, where they ended up kissing.”
However, because of their earlier split, their reunion was initially kept a secret, but William did promise to marry Kate and give her some assurance about their future.
“He finally proposed formally during a holiday in Kenya in 2010, by the side of the turquoise waters of Lake Alice,” Jobson wrote. “The question wasn’t entirely unexpected, of course, but Catherine’s face lit up with a radiant smile as she said yes.”
William later said that the reason he waited so long before proposing was to give Kate a true insight into royal life before entering into a marriage that will one day see her become queen.
Kate and William have had three children since tying the knot in 2011 – Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six.
This year has been one of the most tumultuous of their married life so far after the Princess of Wales was diagnosed with cancer.
She won international praise for her brave announcement of her diagnosis via a poignant video in March and the public’s affection for the future queen was evident when she and Princess Charlotte stepped out to a standing ovation at Wimbledon this month.
