Prince William Called It Quits With Kate In 2007 After Catching Commitment Jitters

Oct 09, 2022 by apost team

The entire world watched on Apr. 29, 2011, as Prince William and Catherine Middleton wed in a beautiful ceremony at Westminster Abbey, London. The heavily publicized wedding prompted all kinds of celebrations, including street parties across England, William and Kate merchandise and plenty of speculation about how the royal couple would navigate their roles.

The couple is particularly prominent in the royal family, given that William is next in line to the throne after his father, King Charles III, who ascended on Sept. 8, 2022, after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, passed. At the time of their marriage, the couple had been together for several years. They started dating while both were students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. 

A lot has happened since those days, including the couple’s official engagement announcement on Nov. 16, 2010, followed by their wedding. Since then, the Prince and Princess of Wales have been busy building a family, which includes the future king, Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4. 

The couple has been very prominent in their native United Kingdom, where they are full-time working royals, while they also contribute philanthropically through their official charity fund. As the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton has kept her step along with her husband, Prince William. For his part, William has ditched his wild partying days and become a doting husband and father and a dutiful heir to the throne. 

However, one bleak phase in the couple’s timeline appears close to fading from the public consciousness – their short-lived breakup in the spring of 2007. Let’s take a closer look at what transpired back then and how the future king and queen of England got back on track.

Kate and  William met at the University of St. Andrew's, where the two enrolled in 2001. In one of the most famous stories from their university days, the prince attended a charity fashion show that featured none other than Kate herself walking down the runway in a sheer dress.

The relationship moved fairly quickly, and the two moved in together. However, it wasn't until 2004 that their relationship was out in the open after the press snapped photos of the pair on a ski trip.

After the news broke, the media couldn’t get enough of the young couple. They were photographed getting cozy together at William’s polo matches and other sporting events, spurring rumors of a royal union and eliciting comparisons between Kate and Princess Diana.

It might seem hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the couple actually separated for a brief period in 2007, making headlines across the world. The Sun, which first broke the news on Apr. 14, 2007, as reported by The Guardian, quoted a source as saying:

“As far as Kate is concerned, William simply hasn’t been paying her enough attention. She is stuck in London while he is living in an officer’s mess in Dorset. Kate feels hugely frustrated that their relationship just seems to be going backwards at a rate of knots.”

After the breakup, Kate and William were later seen out and about on the town on the arms of different suitors. 

Judy Wade, royal correspondent for Hello Magazine, told Reuters: “I am totally shocked. We were all convinced they were going to get married. She and William had so much more in common than Charles and Diana ever did. Maybe she realized the awful burden she would have been under. It’s a life sentence marrying a royal.”

apost.com

In his book “William and Kate: A Royal Love Story,” Christopher Andersen details the couple's rough patch. He wrote that William, who felt he was not ready for the commitment of marriage and “Kate felt ‘confining’ and ‘claustrophobic,’” he wrote, as reported in Today. He also feared for Kate’s safety after his mother’s death. Anderson wrote William reportedly called Kate at work and broke up with her over the phone.

However, Kate “was not willing to give up quite so easily,” Anderson wrote, adding she told him “he made her happy and that she believed she made him happy, and that was all that mattered in the end. But he just shook his head and said that for someone like him, it wasn't that simple.”

However, by early 2008, the couple had rekindled their romance, capping their somber episode with a ski holiday.

Years later, as William and Kate announced their engagement to the world, they were waylaid by questions about their split.

Kate opened up about the split in an interview, as reported by The Guardian. She said:

“At the time I wasn't very happy about it, but it made me a stronger person. ... You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn't realized, I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger and I really valued that time for me (the months apart) although I didn't think it at the time.”

William also quipped in, saying in the same interview, “We were both very young… we were both finding ourselves and… it was very much trying to find our own way and… so it was just sort of, you know, a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it soon worked out for the better.”

Were you aware that Kate Middleton and Prince William had split up for a short while? Do you think their time apart was good for the relationship? Let us know, and do pass this along to family and friends who need a refresher on the pair's love life.