Payday Loans News

Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton has gone from a smalltown girl with a relatively ordinary middle class upbringing, to a Princess-in-waiting in just a few short years.

The 29-year-old ‘commoner’ – as she is often referred to – shot to worldwide fame when she began dating Prince William in 2001 after the pair met at St Andrews university.

The early years

Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on 9 January, 1982, at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire.

She is the eldest of three children to Michael and Carole Middleton, who run a successful mail order business called ‘Party Pieces’, which has turned them into self-styled millionaires.

Kate went to St Andrew’s School in Berkshire, southeast England then briefly to Down House before entering Marlborough College in Wiltshire, the exclusive public school William’s cousin Princess Eugenie also attended.

Described by friends and teachers as a popular, talented and genuinely nice girl, she was captain of the hockey team and a good tennis player.

Kate’s mother Carole was a flight attendant for British Airways at the time of her birth, and father Michael Middleton a flight dispatcher for the same company.

Her younger sister Pippa, 25, studied at Edinburgh University and now divides her time between her role as a party planner and running the online magazine for her parents’ company. The middle Middleton sibling is also well known on the social scene and was crowned the country’s most desirable singleton by Tatler magazine in 2008.

Kate’s brother James, 23, also attended Edinburgh University but quit after his first year to set up his Cake Kit Company in 2007.

A blossoming romance

In 2000 Kate started a degree majoring in art history at St Andrews University in Fife, where she met Prince William who was enrolled in the same course.

They were placed together in St Salvator’s Hall where she was known by fellow students as “Beautiful Kate” and he as “P-Willy”.

William reportedly went through a “wobble” at the end of his first year and had hesitations about returning to St Andrews. It is Kate who is said to have helped persuade him to stay on, at which point he changed courses to start a degree in geography.

Kate and William soon moved out of their college dorm and into a private cottage which they shared with two other friends.

Due to a privacy deal William’s father Prince Charles had struck with the press, they were both left alone during Kate’s university days in return for the Prince’s appearance at limited press and photo calls in semester breaks.

It was during this time that their relationship apparently flourished, they played lots of tennis and Kate repeatedly saved the kitchen from catching alight during William’s attempts at cooking dinner.

They also spent some weekends alone together at the Queen’s Balmoral Estate.

Hounded by the media

The silence Kate originally enjoyed from the press was not to last long, and in 2005 tabloids published photos of the pair and Prince Charles on a skiing trip at Klosters resort in Switzerland.

When Kate graduated from university and moved to London, paparazzi interest went out of control and the then 23–year-old was often followed around.

With rumours of an imminent engagement starting to make headlines, she was greeted by more than 50 paparazzi at outside her house on the morning of her 25th birthday. The scenes prompted William to publicly express concern at the on-going “harassment” of his girlfriend, saying he wanted “more than anything” for her to be left in peace.

The treatment of Kate by photographers resulted in former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter comparing it to that of William’s late mother Princess Diana.

Perhaps because of the media pressure, Kate and William spilt up for six months in April 2007, but were back together before long.

Along with their relentless coverage, the press also coined a few unflattering nicknames for Kate, including “Waity Katy” amid criticism she was hanging on for a proposal and did not have a proper job.

In 2008 she began to work as a website designer and photographer for her parents’ company Party Pieces, which she quit prior to her engagement.

Kate and her sister Pippa have also been branded the “Wisteria Sisters”, because of their perceived decorative, fragrant nature and social climbing skills.

The sisters are very close and have often been spotted holding hands when faced by a media scrum.

On top of this, Carole Middleton’s former career as an air stewardess is said to have led to teasing by some of William’s friends, who would mutter “doors to manual” under their breath when Kate was out of earshot.

Kate has been commended recently about the demure way she has handled what would have been overwhelming attention and criticisms over the years.

During the couple’s first post-engagement interview she admitted that joining the Royal Family was a “daunting prospect”, but added, “hopefully I’ll take it in my stride”.

Behind the lens

Perhaps wanting to experience what it was like on the other side of the camera, Kate decided to take up photography in 2007. The then 25-year-old reportedly quit her job as an accessories buyer for clothing label Jigsaw to pursue her camera work as a professional career.

In January 2008 it was reported that Prince William had pulled some strings so Kate could receive lessons from Princess Diana’s favourite photographer Mario Testino – a man famous for taking iconic photos of Diana before her death and also the man behind Kate and William’s engagement photos.

It was later rumoured that Testino would be hiring Kate to work with him, which he denied.

Kate apparently also wanted to show her work to the public, looking at different art galleries in London to host an exhibition, but this never eventuated.

It was highly tipped that Testino would be the couple’s official wedding photographer, but the pair have announced they have selected ‘society photographer’ Hugo Bernand, whose portfolio includes the wedding of Prince William’s father Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Kate the trend setter

When Kate Middleton was no more than an attractive brunette who happened to be dating a Prince, most women in the world generally ignored her.

But with her status as impending Princess, Kate has been pinned (not literally) as a global fashion icon – albeit a tad on the conservative side.

The Daily Telegraph has named her the ‘Most Promising Newcomer’ in its 2006 list of style winners and losers, and she has also been featured in several best-dressed lists.

Her style is usually defined by the less-is-more look, opting for floral dresses and cardigans. But then she will completely throw everyone by turning up at the races in a fur coat or strange tweed ensemble.

She also has a fascination with quirky and creative hats, and has commissioned Irish designer Philip Treacy to create hats for members of the Royal Family on her big day.

A big fan of high end label Issa by Daniella Issa Helayel, Kate chose the Issa London Sapphire dress as her engagement outfit. The £ 385 dress sold out worldwide within 24 hours, and a £16 Tesco’s replica sold out online one hour after it went on sale.

The simple patterned Top Shop dress she was photographed in on her 25th birthday also sold out in record time.

But her clothing choice hasn’t always been well behaved. She first caught William’s eye wearing a black see-through dress which showed her knickers on the runway of a charity fashion show for St Andrews University. Wills reportedly paid £200 for a front-row seat at the show, so it can be safely assumed he is a fashion enthusiast too.

Why we like her

She is yet to throw a tantrum (at least in public), which counts as a reason in itself given the pressure she has been under, and in the land of the monarchs, silence and poise is a princess’s biggest weapon when fighting critics.

She also has a “very naughty sense of humour”, according to William. He says it perfectly credits his own “more dry” sense of humour, which we think is cute too.

By Emma Kemp – royalwedding.yahoo.com