Kate Middleton

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Catherine Elizabeth "Kate"; née Middleton; born 9 January 1982) is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and a member of the British Royal Family. The Duke of Cambridge is second in line to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realms and, should he eventually ascend to them, she would automatically become Queen Consort.

Catherine grew up in Chapel Row at Bucklebury, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, England. She studied in Scotland at the University of St Andrews, where she met the then Prince William of Wales in 2001. Their engagement was announced on 16 November 2010, and Middleton attended many high-profile royal events before they married on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Catherine has created a major impact upon British fashion which has been termed the "Kate Middleton effect", and in 2012, she was selected as one of The 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine.

Early life

Middleton was born at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on 9 January 1982 and christened at St Andrew's Bradfield, Berkshire on 20 June 1982. She is the eldest of three children born to Carole (née Goldsmith), a former flight attendant and now part-owner of Party Pieces, a private company with an estimated worth of £30 million, and Michael Middleton, who also worked as a flight attendant prior to becoming a flight dispatcher for British Airways, currently also an owner of Party Pieces. Her parents were married on 21 June 1980, at the Parish Church of Dorney, Buckinghamshire. In 1987, they founded Party Pieces, a mail order company that sells party supplies and decorations. Middleton has a younger sister, Pippa and a younger brother, James Middleton. The family has complained about press harassment of Pippa and Carole since Middleton's engagement.

Middleton's paternal ancestors were from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Her paternal great-grandmother Olive was a member of the Lupton family, who were active for generations in Leeds in commercial and municipal work. Catherine's relatives include her 2nd cousin (thrice removed) Lady Bullock (née Barbara May Lupton), wife of the former Permanent Under-Secretary of the British Air Ministry, Sir Christopher Bullock (died 1972). Lady Bullock was the 2nd cousin of Catherine's great-grandmother Olive Middleton (née Lupton). The Revd Thomas Davis, a Church of England hymn-writer is also an ancestor.

Carole Middleton's maternal family, the Harrisons, were working class labourers and miners from Sunderland and County Durham.

Middleton's parents worked for British Airways in Amman, Jordan from May 1984 to September 1986. In Jordan, Middleton went to an English language nursery school before returning to their home in Berkshire. After her return from Amman, Middleton was enrolled at St Andrew's School near the village of PangBourne in Berkshire, then briefly at Downe House. She attended Marlborough College, a co-educational independent boarding school in Wiltshire, and graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland with an undergraduate MA in the History of Art.

Career

In November 2006, Middleton accepted a position as an accessory buyer with the clothing chain Jigsaw. She also worked part-time until January 2011 as a catalogue photographer, webpage designer and marketing officer for her parents' firm "Party Pieces". Despite this, at one point she was nicknamed "Waity Katie" by the media for her apparent lack of work ethic and seemingly lack of desire to work except to wait for a wedding proposal.

In 2008, it was reported that she had quit her job at Jigsaw to become a professional photographer, intending to take private classes with photographer Mario Testino, who had taken several well-known photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons. Testino later denied that Middleton was going to be working for him.

Public image and style

Catherine became prominent for her fashion style and has been placed on numerous "best dressed" lists. She was selected by The Daily Telegraph as the "Most Promising Newcomer" in its 2006 list of style winners and losers. Tatler placed her at number 8 on its yearly listing of the top ten style icons in 2007. She was featured in People magazine's 2007 and 2010 best-dressed lists. Middleton was named as one of Richard Blackwell's ten "Fabulous Fashion Independents" of 2007. In June 2008, Style.com selected Middleton as their monthly beauty icon. In July 2008, Middleton was included in Vanity Fair's international best-dressed list.In February 2011, she was named the Top Fashion Buzzword of the 2011 season by the Global Language Monitor. In January 2012, she was voted 'Headwear Person of the Year'. Middleton was number one on Vanity Fair's annual Best Dressed lists in 2010, 2011 and in 2012 also their cover star. She was awarded the accolade of ‘Best Celebrity Smile’ in May 2012 after placing first in a poll by Bupa.

Middleton is known for mixing couture pieces, often by British designers, with 'High Street' retail fashion. Designers worn by Middleton include Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, Issa, Jenny Packham, Beulah London, Alice Temperley, Erdem, Burberry and Catherine Walker. High street labels worn by Middleton include Reiss, Zara and L.K.Bennett.

Relationship with Prince William

In 2001, Middleton met Prince William while they were students at the University of St. Andrews. The couple began dating as early as 2002, although their relationship remained unconfirmed. On 17 October 2005, Middleton complained through her lawyer about harassment from the media, stating that she had done nothing significant to warrant publicity. In February 2006, it was announced that Middleton would receive her own 24-hour security detail supplied by the Royalty Protection branch (SO14). Many speculated that she and Prince William would soon be engaged, since she would not otherwise be entitled to this service.

No engagement was forthcoming and Middleton was not granted an allowance to fund this security. Media attention increased around the time of her 25th birthday in January 2007, prompting warnings from both The Prince of Wales and Prince William and from Middleton's lawyers, who threatened legal action. Two newspaper groups, News International, which publishes The Times and The Sun, and the Guardian Media Group, publishers of The Guardian, decided to refrain from publishing paparazzi photographs of her. Middleton attended at least one event as an official royal guest, Prince William's Passing Out Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 15 December 2006.

On 17 May 2008, Middleton attended the wedding of Prince William's cousin Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly, which the prince did not attend. On 19 July 2008, she was a guest at the wedding of Lady Rose Windsor and George Gilman. Prince William was away on military operations in the Caribbean, serving aboard HMS Iron Duke. In 2010, Middleton pursued an invasion of privacy claim against two agencies and photographer Niraj Tanna, who took pictures of her over Christmas 2009. She obtained a public apology, £5,000 in damages, and legal costs.

Breakup and reconciliation

On 14 April 2007, The Sun newspaper broke a "world exclusive" suggesting that Prince William and Middleton had split up. Other media outlets, such as the BBC, confirmed the story as the day progressed. The couple decided to break up during a holiday in the Swiss resort of Zermatt. Clarence House made only one comment about the relationship's end, according to The Times, stating, "We don't comment on Prince William's private life". Newspapers speculated about the reasons for the split, although these reports relied on anonymous sources.

The original report in The Sun quoted a "close friend of the couple" as saying that Middleton felt Prince William had not been paying her enough attention. The paper highlighted reports that Prince William had been spending time with other young women and said the Prince, aged 24 at the time of the split, felt he was too young to marry. A report in the Daily Mail blamed a desire by royal courtiers not to "hurry along" a marriage announcement, and Prince William's desire to enjoy his bachelor status within his Army career. The Mail also suggested that a friend of Prince William encouraged the Prince to take a "careless approach" to relationships. The same article suggested that Middleton had "expected too much" in wanting Prince William to demonstrate his commitment to her.

In June 2007, Middleton and Prince William insisted they were "just good friends" following reports of a reconciliation. Middleton and her family attended the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium, where she and Prince William sat two rows apart. The couple were subsequently seen together in public on a number of occasions and several news sources, including the BBC and the Daily Mail, stated that they had "rekindled their relationship". She also joined Prince William and The Prince of Wales on a deerstalking expedition at Balmoral and attended the wedding of Prince William's cousin, Peter Phillips, even though Prince William, due to a prior commitment, did not. In April 2008, Middleton accompanied Prince William when he was awarded his RAF wings at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell. On 16 June 2008, she attended Prince William's investiture into the Order of the Garter, along with the Royal Family.

Engagement and marriage

Prince William and Catherine Middleton became engaged in October 2010 in Kenya, East Africa, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate Prince William passing his RAF helicopter search and rescue course. Clarence House announced the engagement on 16 November 2010. The couple married in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011, (St. Catherine's Day) with the day declared a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the global audience for the wedding ranged around 300 million or more, whilst 26 million watched the event live in the United Kingdom.

In October, several months after the wedding, Commonwealth leaders pledged that they would implement changes in British royal succession law to allow daughters of future monarchs to have equal rights to the throne.