Prince William and Kate Middleton relationship: Timeline, history, how they met, children | Inside the Prince and Princess of Wales’ ‘unshakeable’ marriage as they mark 15th anniversary

They touched on their first meeting during their engagement interview in November 2010.

“I think you said I actually went bright red when I met you and sort of scuttled off,” Catherine said of the moment she first locked eyes on her handsome prince.

“[I was] feeling very shy about meeting you.”

With each studying Art History at the time – William later switched to Geography – it wasn’t long before they had an excuse to spend time together.

William said in the same interview that he and Catherine were “very close friends” for about a year.

“[We] realised we shared the same interests [and] just had a really good time,” he said.

British journalist and author Katie Nicholl touched on how friendship formed the foundation of their relationship during a 2024 episode of the podcast Dynasty: The Royal Family’s Most Challenging Year.

She said she had spoken to Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former senior courtier with close ties to both William and Catherine, who had known them for about 20 years.

“He pointed out the early days [of] that relationship was formed within the bubble of St Andrews, that it started as a friendship,” she said.

“We shouldn’t forget that. They started off as friends. It was platonic.

“But this beautiful love story, this long-lasting marriage has been built on a foundation of friendship, and I think it’s that that has stood them in greater stead.”

That fashion show and moving in together

The catalyst for William reportedly seeing Catherine in a new light was a charity fashion show held at the university in March 2002.

He was reportedly seated in the front row when she sashayed down the runway in a see-through dress. 

Just eight months after they first met, the couple took a big step when they moved in together to a share house with two other friends in May 2002.

“We lived with a couple of others as well, and it just sort of blossomed from there, really,” Prince William revealed during their engagement interview.

They went a step further the following year by moving into their own place – without the press or public even knowing they were a couple.

Relationship debut

After managing to keep their burgeoning relationship out of the public eye, they were finally outed in April 2004 when the UK’s The Sun published photos of them on holidays at Klosters Ski Resort.

The news, splashed across the front page and inside in a five-page spread, included the headline, “Finally… Wills gets a girl”. 

It was revealed Middleton had accompanied William, his brother Harry and father, now King Charles, on the holiday, which spoke to the serious nature of the relationship.

People quoted a friend as saying their romance had “been going on for a bit” and described Kate as “his girlfriend”.

The couple continued to date for the next two years, with paparazzi often following Middleton.

However, they kept largely out of the spotlight apart from a few major milestones, such as their graduation from St Andrews in June 2005.

Middleton and her parents were also invited to attend Prince William’s graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in December 2006.

That event marked a major milestone in their relationship as like the earlier graduation, the late Queen Elizabeth was present, although the two were not introduced until two years later.

Split and reunion

In April 2007, news broke that the two had split up, but within a couple of months, they reportedly got back together.

During their engagement interview, William confirmed they once parted, although he confused royal watchers by saying the split had occurred when they were at university.

Whatever the case, they were by each other’s sides during key events, such as William’s RAF graduation ceremony in April 2008.

The following month, Catherine was introduced to the Queen for the first time at the wedding of Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly, and in June, she attended the Order of the Garter procession where William was made a Royal Knight of the Garter.

That same month, she moved with William to a cottage in the Welsh town of Anglesey, while he worked as a RAF search and rescue pilot.

A look back at William and Catherine’s royal wedding

Engagement announcement

Finally, nine years after they first met, Clarence House announced on November 16, 2010, that Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton had become engaged the previous month during a private holiday in Kenya.

William revealed details of how he popped the question during their engagement interview.

“It was about three weeks ago, on holiday in Kenya. We had a little private time away together with some friends, and I just decided that it was the right time, really,” he said.

“We’d been talking about marriage for a while, so it wasn’t a massively big surprise, but I took her up somewhere nice in Kenya, and I proposed.”

Catherine revealed the moment he popped the question with his late mother’s iconic sapphire and diamond engagement ring was “very romantic”.

Three months later, Catherine took part in her first royal engagement when she accompanied William to Wales.

Wedding

The couple’s wedding took place on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey.

An estimated global audience of about 300 million people watched the wedding on TV.

The Queen gave the couple new titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on their wedding day and also gifted them a home, Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham estate.

After the wedding, they returned to Wales so Prince William could continue his work.

Children

In December 2012, St James’s Palace announced Catherine was expecting their first child.

The announcement was made earlier than normal because she had been hospitalised with the severe form of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum.

Prince George Alexander Louis was born on July 22, 2013

The young family returned to Wales briefly while he finished his stint with the RAF before returning to London and their newly renovated home in Kensington Palace.

They welcomed their second child, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, on May 2, 2015.

Two months after that, William began working full-time as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

The couple and their two young children moved to their Anmer Hall for the next two years before relocating back to London in July 2017 after he left his role to take up a position as a full-time working royal.

Their third child, Prince Louis Arthur Charles was born on April 23, 2018.

Milestone anniversary and big move

In 2021, the couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary by sharing two portraits of them embracing and laughing at their Kensington Palace home, as well as a video of them with their children filmed at their country home.

A year later, in August 2022, they announced they were moving their young family from London to a new home in Windsor to provide their children with a more normal upbringing.

But just weeks after they moved into the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage, their lives were upended following the death of Queen Elizabeth on September 8, 2022.

Prince and Princess of Wales

The following day, King Charles announced William and Catherine would be known as the Prince and Princess of Wales.

They took on a more high-profile role within the royal family while balancing the demands of their young family.

Among their high-profile public appearances over the next 18 months was Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla and various public engagements.

Surgery and cancer diagnosis

The couple attended the traditional Christmas Day church service on December 25, 2023.

It would be Catherine’s final public appearance before Kensington Palace announced in a statement on January 17, 2024, that she had been admitted to hospital the previous day to undergo planned abdominal surgery.

“The surgery was successful and it is expected that she will remain in hospital for 10 to 14 days, before returning home to continue her recovery,” the statement said.

“Based on the current medical advice, she is unlikely to return to public duties until after Easter.

“The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate.

“She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.”

However, in the months that followed, rumours about Catherine’s health reached fever pitch, and only worsened in March of that year after a photo of the princess and her three children released by the couple to mark Mother’s Day in the UK was found to have been Photoshopped.

It led to a maelstrom of criticism and rumours about her continued absence from public life and even rumours about their marriage.

Then on March 22 Catherine announced in a pre-recorded video she had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy.

During the video, Catherine made special mention of William, who she said was a “great source of comfort and reassurance”.

British journalist and author Katie Nicholl, speaking on the podcast Dynasty: The Royal Family’s Most Challenging Year, said the rumours about their marriage were nothing new.

“Well, it wasn’t for the first time because they’ve dealt with all sorts of rumour and speculation and, frankly, rubbish in the years they’ve been married,” Nicholl said.

“We’ve all heard marriage rumours. We’ve heard it all and there’s no substance to any of it.

“But now we know what they were dealing with – a cancer diagnosis. It just puts it, I think, in a completely different light.

“This is sickness and in health, right? You don’t give up on someone at a point like this in life. And [William] was never going to.”

She said she spoke to Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who had known the couple for 20 years, about the marriage rumours prior to her cancer diagnosis being made public.

“I put it to him, because of course we have heard speculation about the marriage, and this was something that was also circulating online,” she said.

“And this is from someone who really is in the know, who just said, ‘They are a team. They’re a partnership.’

“I think the point is that in all of this, they have remained a team. They’ve remained a partnership.

“They are devoted to each other. They are loyal to each other. They have each other’s best interests at heart.”

Life after cancer

In September 2024, Catherine announced she had completed chemotherapy in a moving video that also highlighted her and William’s close bond.

Numerous moments from the video showed the pair embracing, holding hands and even sharing a kiss.

Then in January 2025, Catherine took to Instagram to announce she was in remission while announcing her new role as Joint Patron of The Royal Marsden Hospital, where she also underwent treatment.

During an interview with Eugene Levy for his series, The Reluctant Traveller, which aired in October 2025, Prince William said he was “so proud of my wife” for how she handled her diagnosis and treatment.

He reiterated this during a November 2025 interview in Brazil.

Since recovering, Catherine has returned to public duties.

While they each undertake solo engagements, about 40 of the more than 100 royal engagements William undertook in 2025 were joint engagements with his wife.

You only have to look at them during their royal outings to see how much they enjoy each other’s company.

They are often photographed laughing, and you can’t miss the true affection between the pair.

Often, one will place a supportive hand on the other’s arm or back. At the end of one engagement in 2025, as they headed to catch a train, they were seen holding hands.

Then there was the public way they chose to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary last year, which included an overnight stay on the Isle of Mull in Scotland.

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They spent the night in a self-catered cottage, and even shared a photo of themselves with their arms around each other to mark their special day.

Now, as they prepare to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary –their first in their ‘forever home’, Forest Lodge – they are “at the start of a new chapter” in their marriage, according to a source quoted by the UK’s The Telegraph.

“If continuity and stability is what the monarchy is supposed to give you, you only need to look at this marriage,” the source said.

“Whatever has happened in his life, in her life, the continuity and stability of their relationship has seen them through it.

“They are exactly the same as they have always been. They’re unshakeable, the two of them.”

The outlet also quoted a palace source who described them as a “true team”.

“They’re side by side.”

Another source, who has worked with the couple, said they “lean on the other”.

“When one of them is finding something hard and is stressed, the other one kicks in. If he’s down, she’s there. If she’s down, he’s there.

“They complement one another and lean on each other. They have somehow found a balance of working together and still being in love.

“[And] that’s impressive.”

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