The Royal Romance That Captivated A Nation: How Wills And Kate Kept Us Guessing For Eight Long Years
For the past eight years the nation has been kept on tenterhooks as just how serious Prince William was in his relationship with Kate Middleton.
But today it has finally been confirmed that she is the love of his life.
It has been such a long time coming, that poor Miss Middleton, 28, has earned the nickname 'Waity Katie', and her regular presence on his arm at the weddings of friends drew criticism that she has been hanging on for a proposal.
But her patience has finally paid off, and she can finally look forward to planning her dream wedding, set to take place next spring or summer.
The couple's long courtship developed after they became friends in 2001, when they met at St Andrews University.
It has been a far from easy ride for the bride-to-be, whose family, career and even fashion sense have come under close scrutiny over the past decade. Even her lack of blue blood has also been the focus of criticism.
Miss Middleton, who was studying history of art, had an early taste of the limelight of that lies ahead during their first year together, when William was spotted in the audience as she modelled in a charity fashion show.
The Prince, who read geography at the Scottish university, paid £200 to watch fellow students take to the runway where Miss Middleton, in a sheer black lace dress over a black bra and bikini bottoms, stole the show.
Though the pair would go on to live together during their second year, they did not start dating straight away. Miss Middleton dated fellow student Rupert Finch, while William was linked with close friend Jecca Craig.
It is not known exactly when William and Kate became an item but their romance was finally exposed after they were pictured on the ski slopes of Klosters together in March 2004.
William's statement on the same holiday was perhaps an indication of the wait Miss Middleton had coming. He said: 'I don't want to get married until I'm at least 28, or maybe 30.'
The following year, William was still non-committal about the relationship, and Miss Middleton was a noticeable absence at his father's wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles.
Just three months later, however, she was on his arm at the wedding of William's close friend Hugh van Cutsem - the first of many the pair attended together.
Shortly after, their families met for the first time at their graduation ceremony. Now that their studies were over, it would be the first of many occasions that would spark rumours of an engagement.
Instead they went on to enjoy a string of lavish holidays, taking in the Lewa Downs game reserve in Kenya, and another skiing trip to Klosters, where they were pictured kissing for the first time, before William began his Army training at Sandhurst.
Breaks in his training were also punctuated by luxury getaways in Mustique and Ibiza.
However in April 2007 the couple split. But it was not to last long as just two months later the pair were seen kissing and dancing together at an Army party.
By May the following year, it seemed that the relationship was firmly back on track when Kate attended the wedding of William's cousin, Peter Phillips, to Autumn Kelly, on her own, while her beau attended another wedding in Africa.
Meanwhile, Miss Middleton responded to public criticism over her lack of career - one of the factors that earned her the 'Waity Katie' nickname, with a job as an accessories buyer with Jigsaw, the fashion chain owned by friends of her family.
The couple went on to spend increasing amounts of time with each others' parents - they spent New Year together in 2008 at Birkhall, Prince Charles’s private residence on the Balmoral estate.
But still, there was no news of a Royal wedding, not even when William joined the Middleton family on a skiing holiday in Courcheval in March this year.
When asked by a member of the public about the prospect of a royal wedding, William said: 'You'll have to wait a while yet.'
But the rumour mill went into overdrive when Miss Middleton's parents were spotted enjoying a shooting weekend at Birkhall earlier this month - a clear sign that the family had been accepted into the Royal fold.
And last week Royal aides would not rule out the prospect of an invitation for Miss Middleton to spend Christmas Day on the Sandringham estate for the first time - though this now looks less likely given that William has volunteered to work at RAF Valley in Anglesey on Christmas Day.
Though given that Miss Middleton has a lifetime of Royal formality ahead of her, she may be relishing the fact that this is the last 'normal’ Christmas she has left.
THE GIRLS HE LEFT BEHIND
No less than three of William's old flames attended the wedding of his friend Harry Meade in Gloucestershire last month.
While it is unlikely that, after ten years, any of these girls are brokenhearted, the Prince has left a string of beauties in his wake.
Jecca Craig, whom he met as a teenager, was the first to be romantically linked with him. William was said to have been so besotted with the heiress that they staged a mock engagement ceremony when he spent his gap year in Kenya on her family's estate.
Rose Farquhar was William’s first serious girlfriend, and dated the prince shortly after he left Eton.
And during his first year at St Andrews University, he dallied with Olivia Hunt, but the relationship soon fizzled out.
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Sources: Daily Mail, InStyle Mag., Youtube, Google Maps
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