In 2007, six years into their relationship, Kate, Princess of Wales and Prince William’s relatively lowkey romance was thrust into the spotlight following their high-profile split. It came while the Prince was stationed with the Household Cavalry in Dorset and Kate was living in London,
meaning that the young couple often spent time apart. Both William and Kate have acknowledged their split publicly, with William insisting they were “trying to find their own way,” at the time, and that “it was just a bit of space. It worked out for the better.”
However, years later, a royal expert claimed there was another reason behind the split. Christopher Anderson, author of ‘William and Kate: A Royal Love Story’, told The Daily Beast that William’s stepmother may have been a driving factor in the breakup.
In 2016, he said: “I was in London when the breakup [of William and Kate] occurred. I was shocked, completely stunned, everyone thought it was only a matter of time before William was going to ask Kate to marry him. And then people started telling me that Camilla was behind it.”
To help understand why the former Duchess of Cornwall would want to break up William and Kate, Mr Anderson claimed that you have to know that “Camilla is a bit of a snob”.
He continued: “She’s an aristocrat, she has always been moving in Royal circles. She had always thought of herself as the heiress to Alice Keppel, her great-grandmother, who was the mistress of Edward VII.
“She was very proud of that connection, she boasted about that as a child and as an adult and that’s what she intended to be; part of the Royal circle in the role of mistress to the future king, and then the king.
“She did not look at Kate as someone who was worthy of joining the Royal Family. Kate is the first working-class woman to be accepted into the Royal Family. She is descended from coal miners and her mother was a flight attendant.
The author added: “So for all those reasons Camilla never really felt that Kate Middleton as an individual and the Middleton family as a whole were going to be worthy of entering into the Royal Family. I was told at the time of the breakup, and later on as well, that Camilla basically whispered in Charles’s ear that it was really time to make — to force — William to make a decision one way or the other.
“It has been since confirmed publicly that Charles did suggest to William that he either make a commitment to Kate or basically set her free, as it were. Now, his motives for doing that may have been pure but Camilla’s…not so much. She was the instigator of this.”
Despite Mr Anderson’s assertions, many have noted that Kate is from the upper-middle-classes rather than the working classes, with historian Robert Lacey describing the Middleton family as having aristocratic ancetry. Baroness Airedale is a distant ancestor of Michael Middleton — Kate’s father — and Kate and William are inf act distantly related, 14th cousins once removed.
Later on, William “sat down with his father and grandmother” for a frank conversation about his future with Kate, according to royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl. Writing in Vanity Fair, she said the Prince had been due to spend New Year’s Eve with the Middletons, but pulled out at the last minute. During his conversation with Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, “both advised him not to hurry into anything”.
While Mr Anderson claimed Camilla was the “instigator,” other commentators and experts have offered different explanations for the couple’s split.
According to Ms Nicholl, William started to feel “claustrophobic” as he approached graduation. Apparently, the Prince booked a holiday with his friend Guy Pelly and went away on the “boys-only sailing trip to Greece”. In her 2010 book, ‘William and Harry: Behind the Palace Wall’, the royal biographer also revealed that Kate’s “turbulent” relationship with Guy meant that she wasn’t surprised when William’s friend hired “an all-female crew for the yacht”.
The conversation came just a few months before the breakup. However, as it is known now, Kate and William’s split did not last long, with the couple reuniting just ten weeks later after the Prince decided he couldn’t be without her.
But it wasn’t until three years later that William asked the important question both Kate and royal watchers had been waiting for. During a trip to Kenya in 2010, William proposed to his long-term girlfriend.
During their engagement interview in November 2010, Kate admitted that she “wasn’t very happy” about the breakup at the time, but came to realise that it was for the best, revealing: “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.”
The couple married in April of the following year and have since welcomed three children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in 2013, 2015 and 2018.
A royal commentator has since claimed Kate’s handling of her and William’s breakup contributed to her favour within the Royal Family.
Kinsey Schofield, founder and creator of ToDiForDaily.com, told Express.co.uk the Princess’ stoicism during the split made her a “no brainer” for the role of “future Queen”.
She said: “Kate was probably a sure thing because, despite being considered a commoner, they [Kate and William] were together for such a significant amount of time.
“They [the Royal Family] knew she was a good girl, they knew she wasn’t talking to the media, because in between those break-ups, she was so stoic and kept her mouth shut and in all of the photographs of her during her break up, she’s looking ahead.”
Ms Schofield added: “She just handled herself so well throughout the rollercoaster that was her and Prince William’s dating history leading up to their inevitable marriage. It made Kate a no-brainer — she was the future Queen.”
