Catherine, Princess of Wales

• Born: January 9, 1982
• Place of Birth: Reading, Berkshire, England

Catherine, Princess of Wales, is the wife of Great Britain's Prince William. As the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, William (the older son of Charles, the Prince of Wales , and the late Diana, the Princess of Wales ) was second in line—behind his father—to become the king of England. After Queen Elizabeth's death in September 2022, William's father became King Charles III, and William became next in line to the throne. Catherine and William, a couple since 2001, became engaged to marry in November 2010 and were married the following April. As part of the royal family, she devoted herself to a variety of royal duties. In 2024, Catherine publically announced that she was battling cancer.

Early Life

Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on January 9, 1982, in Buckleberry, a small town in southern England. She has a younger brother, James William, and a sister, Philippa "Pippa" Charlotte. Her parents both worked in the airline industry at the time of Middleton's birth, her father as a pilot and her mother as a flight attendant. Her parents eventually earned substantial wealth as the owners of a mail-order company specializing in children's party supplies.

Catherine attended St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, until the age of thirteen, when she enrolled at Marlborough College, a boarding school also attended by William's first cousin, Princess Eugenie of York. She then studied at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland's oldest university. It was here, in 2001, that she met and established a friendship with fellow St. Andrews sophomore Prince William. They both studied art history at the time, and the two shared a house with other roommates.

Around Christmas of 2003, Catherine ended her relationship with her boyfriend at that time, and her friendship with William turned into a romance. The two took a ski trip together in the spring of 2005 that marked the beginning of intense scrutiny by British tabloid media. Catherine and William were frequently photographed together at equestrian competitions, polo matches, royal events, and other social engagements.

By 2005, reports began surfacing in the British press about the possibility of an official engagement between the prince and Catherine. Such speculations increased the already aggressive attention being paid to Catherine by tabloid photographers as she went about her daily business. In the fall of 2005, Catherine issued an appeal to newspaper editors, through her attorney, asking for the media to respect her privacy. The harassment continued, however. When a German magazine revealed, in the winter of 2005, the location of Catherine's London residence, rumors emerged that William was considering seeking, through the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), legal remedy to the invasions of his and his girlfriend's privacy.

After completing her university degree in the spring of 2005, Catherine moved to London, where it was widely assumed she would work in one of the city's art galleries. However, she began plans to establish her own high-end children's clothing company, following the mail-order model of her parents' successful business. When one of her key financial backers pulled out, she was forced to postpone her plans.

In December 2006, Catherine attended, together with the queen and other senior royals from William's family, the ceremony marking the twenty-four-year-old prince's graduation from Sandhurst Military Academy. British palace authorities subsequently announced that Catherine would soon be provided with round-the-clock security, provided by the Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Department (RDPD), a service for which the cost would be covered only if Catherine were a royal fiancée. (In this case, Princes Charles and William covered the cost.) The move caused a surge in media and public expectations of an announcement of an engagement. However, the engagement did not materialize.

In the fall of 2006, Catherine took a job with a British clothing chain as an accessories buyer assistant. She remained very much in the public eye, however, especially after a British tabloid published a report that Catherine had been invited by the queen to spend part of the Christmas celebration at Sandringham House, privately owned by the British Royal Family. The invitation was the first of its kind to a non-spousal partner of a royal, but Catherine declined the offer and spent the holiday with her family instead.

In January 2007, around the time of Catherine's twenty-fifth birthday, tabloid rumors that the long-anticipated announcement of a royal engagement was imminent led to a throng of paparazzi staked out near Catherine's residence. Not long afterward, despite William's pleas that the media leave her alone—and despite the settlement of a harassment suit Catherine had filed against several tabloid newspapers—London police had to be summoned to a club to prevent photographers from hounding the couple too closely.

Temporary Breakup

The pressure of media harassment may have played a role in the April 2007 announcement, widely unexpected by the British public, that Catherine and William had amicably ended their five-year-long relationship. Although the palace issued no comment, many in the media speculated that the twenty-four-year-old William's unwillingness to make a relationship commitment at such a young age had played a role in the breakup.

Specifically, many press reports centered on the strains created by William's assignment to the Bovington Army Camp in Dorset. At Bovington Camp, William, a second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals, joined his younger brother, Harry, who had also graduated from Sandhurst a year earlier.

William undertook four months of training to qualify as a troop commander in an armored reconnaissance unit. He also announced his intention to pursue training stints with England's Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy. Military and royal authorities had made it clear to the young couple that Catherine would not be permitted either to travel or live with William, if he chose a military career, unless the two were married. While William fulfilled his military obligations, Catherine remained in London, more than 120 miles away from Dorset.

Future Queen of England

Within a few months of their breakup, however, Catherine and William reconciled. In the summer of 2007, William invited Catherine to a high-profile event, a concert dedicated to the memory of his mother, the late Princess Diana. It was the first of several public appearances together that seemed to confirm a rekindling of their romance. Reports that Catherine had quit her London job in November 2007 further fueled rumors of an impending engagement.

In the summer of 2008, Catherine and William were photographed while vacationing together in the Caribbean. Then, in late September 2008, the twenty-six-year-old Catherine, who had previously refused personal bodyguard services, accepted police protection. Catherine's change of heart came amid fears that relentless paparazzi scrutiny could jeopardize her safety. As no official engagement between William and Catherine had been announced, Catherine's security arrangements continued to be paid by Prince William and his father.

Both men remained keenly aware of the dangers posed by celebrity photographers in pursuit of their subjects, particularly after William's mother, Princess Diana was killed in a 1997 car crash. The cause of the accident was attributed to her driver, who was legally intoxicated and crashed the car when speeding through Paris's Pont de l'Alma tunnel in an effort to elude pursuing tabloid photographers on motorcycles. Princess Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi al-Fayed, and the driver were all killed in the accident.

In November 2010, it was announced that William and Catherine had become engaged to marry the month before while traveling in Kenya. The news was reported by tabloids, newspapers, and television stations worldwide. The couple was married on April 29, 2011, in Westminster Abbey. Catherine took the title of duchess after marrying Prince William, who was also the Duke of Cambridge.

As duchess, Catherine performed many royal duties alongside her husband. Those included official visits both around the country and overseas, welcoming foreign dignitaries, and engaging in philanthropic pursuits. She also embarked on solo state visits to the Netherlands in 2016 and to Luxembourg in 2017, among other obligations.

The Duchess of Cambridge joined her husband and brother-in-law's nonprofit, the Royal Foundation (formerly the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry). She and William continued to operate it together following Harry and his wife's departure from the organization in mid-2019. Children and families, maternal health, and art are particular areas of interest for her. An avid sports enthusiast, she also took over several sports-related patronages from the queen and served as an official representative at numerous sporting events. Catherine continued to support charitable causes in the UK and abroad throughout the early 2020s. In June 2021, she founded The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to increase awareness of the importance of early childhood development and support programs to improve opportunities for children in the UK. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she created a photography project called Hold Still that allowed people to share images that documented their lockdown experiences.

On September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of ninety-six, and William's father, Charles, soon ascended the throne as King Charles III. As such, Catherine's new title became Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her husband became next in line to the throne.

Kensington Palace announced on January 17, 2024, that Catherine had undergone a successful, planned abdominal surgery, and would likely not make any public appearances until after Easter (March 31). The Palace also stated that they would only provide "significant updates" regarding her progress as she recovered. Despite this guidance, speculation and conspiracy theories arose regarding Catherine's health, particularly since she had not been seen in public since Christmas Day 2023. On March 4, 2024, TMZ published a photo of Catherine riding in the passenger seat of a car driven by her mother, Carole Middleton, but the photo was not authorized or released by Kensington Palace, nor was it published by major media organizations in the UK.

On March 10, the Palace released a family photo of Catherine and their children to celebrate Mother's Day, but several major news agencies retracted the photo after finding it had been digitally edited. Catherine subsequently apologized for sharing the photo, saying, "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."

On March 22, 2024, Catherine released a video on social media in which she revealed that she had cancer. Discovered after her major abdominal surgery for a non-cancerous condition, she said that she had been receiving preventative chemotherapy since February 2024 and was postponing her return to work until cleared by her medical team. The news prompted an outpouring of public support and sympathy for her and for the royal family, who were already facing a difficult time following the announcement in early February that her father-in-law, King Charles III, was receiving treatment for cancer.

In another video message released in September 2024, Catherine said that she had completed chemotherapy and was looking forward to taking on some limited public duties. Although she offered few specifics about her illness, she said her focus was on remaining “cancer free.”

Personal Life

Catherine and William had three children: George (b. 2013), Charlotte (b. 2015), and Louis (b. 2018). Their children became the next in line for the British throne. The family reside at Kensington Palace and often visit their home at Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. Catherine is an avid sportswoman, enjoying tennis, sailing, and hockey, as well as an amateur photographer.

Bibliography

The Princess of Wales. The Royal Household, www.royal.uk/the-princess-of-wales. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Elser, Daniela. “Hounded, Harassed and Hated: Kate’s Rocky Road to Royalty.” News.com.au, 30 May 2020, www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/hounded-harassed-and-hated-kates-rocky-road-to-royalty/news-story/355675cfe636cc78c4c160632f682496. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Foster, Max, and Lauren Said-Moorhouse. "Catherine, Princess of Wales, Announces She Has Cancer." CNN, 22 Mar. 2024, www.cnn.com/2024/03/22/uk/kate-princess-of-wales-cancer-diagnosis-intl-gbr/index.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Greenspan, Rachel E. “‘Slightly Terrifying,’ Says Kate Middleton of Royal Tradition to Pose With Newborns Outside London Hospital.” Time, 17 Feb. 2020, time.com/5785304/kate-middleton-birth-press. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

“History.” Royal Foundation, 6 May 2020, royalfoundation.com/our-history. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Kindelan, Katie. “Kate Middleton Says She Has Completed Chemotherapy 6 Months After Announcing Cancer Diagnosis." ABC News, 9 Sept. 2024, abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/kate-middleton-completed-chemotherapy/story?id=113156389.  Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

Shah, Simmone, and Solcyré Burga. "A Timeline of Events Involving Kate Middleton, Her Cancer Diagnosis, and the Royal Family." Time, 11 Mar. 2024, time.com/6899819/kate-middleton-appearances-surgery/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.