Prince William and Kate Middleton dated on and off for 10 years before he popped the life-changing question, but before he did there were some changes that Kate needed to make. Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge might have got married more than a decade ago, but sweet details about their big day are constantly being revealed.
Kate and William met at St Andrew’s University when they were 19 and were friends before their relationship blossomed. Despite a brief split in 2007, the Duke of Cambridge proposed during a trip to Kenya and Kate said ‘I do’ in April 2011.
But according to a royal expert, Kate started making subtle changes to her appearance before the engagement in 2010. Speaking on Channel 5’s documentary William & Kate: Too Good To Be True, royal author Tom Quinn explained that Kate started to change her wardrobe in order to be seen as “more appropriate” by the palace and the public.
“Her clothing almost began to reflect what people saw in her character, a kind of restraint, kind of modesty almost,” he said. “I think that did come about because William and Kate were coming towards the point where they would announce their engagement.
“It was Kate starting to behave in ways which would be seen more appropriate for a future Queen.” The couple made their first public appearance together at their university graduation from St Andrew’s, which was attended by the Queen, Prince Charles and Carole and Michael Middleton. Royal expert Victoria Arbiter adds: “Graduation for William and Kate, it really was their last moment in that protective bubble.
“I think perhaps they might have both been a bit naive about what was to come.”William understood how the media works but Kate would have had no idea what it meant to be on the receiving end.” All eyes were on the prince, with an engagement announcement expected at any moment, however, it wasn’t until Kate made a surprise appearance at William’s graduation with her parents that experts were 100 per cent sure she was ‘The One.’
While many predicted that William would propose soon after the pair graduated in 2005, it didn’t happen.And it wasn’t until many years later that William asked Kate to be his wife, with his dad Prince Charles famously joking: “They have been practising long enough.”
