William and Harry (21 page)

As the brass band broke into a cheerful rendition of Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’, Kate smiled and reflected on the months that had passed since their graduation. Their relationship had withstood post-university teething problems and was going from strength to strength. The very fact that Kate and her parents – who William had grown fond of – were at one of the most important occasions of his life spoke volumes. Bookies William Hill slashed their odds on a royal engagement from 5–1 to 2–1 and eventually stopped taking bets altogether. Kate’s position in the ‘firm’ seemed in no doubt. Two weeks before she had even been invited for a weekend at Sandringham where she looked confident and quite the country girl as she shot under William’s watchful eye.

Now that it was clear that theirs was not just a university romance, aides at the Palace suddenly started paying attention to the middle-class girl who had so captured the prince’s imagination. Mindful of the mistakes that had been made with Diana, it was unanimously agreed that Kate should be introduced to royal life as quickly as possible. William may not have asked her to marry him, but there was no disputing how important a part of his life she had become. At his request, it was decided that Kate should be advised on how to cope with the intense media
interest in her. William was determined that Kate should suffer none of the loneliness or isolation his mother had felt in the early days of her courtship. Kate was given the support of the Prince of Wales’s press team and, when she was with William, her own protection officer. At a polo match she was spotted with her own two-way radio in case she required back-up. She received advice on how to handle the photographers who followed her about, which included watching footage of the late Princess of Wales to see how she had coped with the paparazzi. According to friends, Kate found it all fascinating if ‘a little creepy’.

With or without a ring on her finger, Kate had become one of the world’s most photographed women, and unlike Chelsy who hated the attention, she was surprisingly confident. Always impeccably dressed, she was advised never to talk to the press, but to politely smile at photographers, who she handled with aplomb. During a visit to the horse trials at Gatcombe House with her mother shortly after she graduated in August 2005, Kate had been asked to pose. ‘If I do it now I’ll have to keep doing it at skiing or every time,’ she told them. It was a calculated response that showed how well she had been briefed. By now Kate had the number of Paddy Harverson saved in her mobile phone, and when a German magazine pinpointed the exact location of her Chelsea home, called him. She had panic buttons linked to the local police station installed at the property. Charles was made aware of the situation and instructed his lawyers Harbottle & Lewis to send out letters to Fleet Street editors pointing out that Kate was a private individual and should be left alone. The problem was that Kate, like Diana, had become a story in her own right. When newspapers and magazines
published pictures of her, sales rocketed. People wanted to know everything about Kate.

Being William’s girlfriend seemed to take up most of her time, but Kate had set up a children’s clothing business under the umbrella of her parents’ company Party Pieces. Travelling frequently to Milan for materials, she quickly ran into debt and sought the advice of William’s friend Jamie Murray Wells, a successful Internet entrepreneur. Although James was just twenty-four, he was making millions through his venture Glasses Direct and William considered him a safe pair of hands. At a summer party at the Kensington Roof Gardens – owned by Sir Richard Branson, whose children Holly and Sam are friends of William and Kate – she asked for his advice. As she queued at the dinner buffet she confided to James, ‘The business is running into debt, but I really want to prove to my dad that I can do this without asking him for any money.’ It was a fascinating insight into her developing character. Until now Kate had not seemed career driven, but here she was trying to find a solution to her problems without asking her parents to bail her out.

An answer was just around the corner: by November 2006 Kate had been offered a job as an accessories buyer for the high-street chain Jigsaw. The Middletons were good friends of John and Belle Robinson, who own the successful company, and William and Kate had been guests at their luxury holiday home in Mustique that Easter. The Robinsons had waived the £8,000-a-week rent after William complained that he could not afford to holiday on the exclusive Caribbean island. Instead he made a donation to a hospital in St Vincent, and in return the pair had enjoyed the run of the hillside house, which has five double
bedrooms, a gazebo and an infinity pool overlooking the sweeping white sands of Macaroni Beach.

At Jigsaw Kate was allowed to work a four-day week, which enabled her to enjoy long weekends with William. It was perfect for her but less ideal for some of her colleagues. ‘Kate told me that some of the people she worked with were mean to her and made her sweep the floors after a fashion shoot,’ recalled Kate’s friend Emma Sayle. ‘Kate stuck it out though and she loved the job. She always said she had great fun travelling to fairs across the country, where she would hunt for ideas and inspiration.’ While she was keen to be treated the same as everyone else, it was clear that the attractive brunette who drove herself to work in a silver Audi A3 hatchback was no regular employee. The fact that she regularly graced the front pages of newspapers and magazine covers was something of a giveaway.

Earlier that year, in March 2006, she had been photographed with Charles and Camilla in the royal box at the Cheltenham Gold Cup meeting. She had not attended the royal wedding because of protocol, but she had attended the May wedding of Camilla’s daughter Laura Parker Bowles to Harry Lopes, grandson of the late Lord Astor of Hever, in the Wiltshire village of Lacock. She seemed to all intents and purposes part of the family, and the question on everyone’s lips was when she and William would be walking up the aisle. Woolworths had already started manufacturing wedding memorabilia, including William and Kate china, ahead of an announcement; the press toyed with the will-they-won’t-they question; and the couple kept a chart of newspaper speculations on a royal wedding. While Kate was relatively relaxed about the constant conjectures, William was less comfortable.
The fact that wedding memorabilia had already been manufactured had eerie echoes of the past. When Diana had last-minute jitters about her wedding to Prince Charles her sisters Sarah and Jane had told her, ‘Bad luck, Duch. Your face is on the tea towels so you’re too late to chicken out now.’ William had witnessed his parents’ marriage crumble under pressure and he didn’t want to endure a similar fate. He was also aware that his father had been pressurised into marrying Diana because she was deemed a suitable bride. He was reluctant to bow to similar pressure and vowed not to be hurried to the altar. He had made his feelings clear, even telling a journalist in an off-guard moment that he had no plans of getting married any time soon.

The music was loud in the fashionable Casa Antica nightclub in Klosters, and William had been enjoying an evening with Harry and Kate. It was April 2005, and with just days to go before Charles and Camilla’s wedding the subject of matrimony was on the agenda. For once William had agreed to chat with a reporter, who boldly asked him if he and Kate would be next. William blushed before rebutting the question. ‘Look, I’m only twenty-two for God’s sake. I’m too young to marry at my age. I don’t want to get married until I’m at least twenty-eight or maybe thirty.’ If it hurt Kate when William hinted that his younger brother Harry was more likely to tie the knot before they would, she didn’t show it. She insisted she was in no hurry to settle down, but in truth she longed for security. While William would have the structure of the army and a strict timetable of engagements to keep him occupied, Kate’s future was far less certain.

Despite William’s protestations, speculation that the pair
were on the verge of announcing an engagement wouldn’t go away. In November 2006, just before William graduated from Sandhurst, Kate was invited to Sandringham for the royal family’s traditional Christmas lunch, the first time a girlfriend had received such an invitation. The story, published in the
Mail on Sunday
, was not denied by Clarence House, who simply said it would not discuss royal guests. The year before Kate had joined the royals for their traditional Boxing Day shoot, which had given her the perfect opportunity to use the binoculars that William had given her as a Christmas present. But this Christmas she planned to be with her family at a rented manor house in Perthshire and declined the invitation to Sandringham.

William had promised Kate he would join the Middletons to celebrate Hogmanay at Jordonstoun House and Kate was eagerly awaiting his arrival. The eighteenth-century property on the outskirts of Alyth was set in snowy countryside. A Christmas tree twinkled in the grand drawing room, and with open fires burning in every room, the setting could not have been more romantic. But at the last minute William had a change of heart and decided to stay with his own family instead. He informed a tearful Kate during a late-night conversation on Boxing Day of the change of plan. For William it was no big deal, but for Kate the cancellation was a sign of something more sinister to come. She had good reason to be concerned. William had been having second thoughts and sat down with his father and his grandmother to have a frank discussion about his future with Kate. Both advised him not to hurry into anything.

Kate turned twenty-five on 9 January. The day before William had joined the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household
Cavalry at Combermere Barracks in Windsor where he would be stationed until March. They had had a joint celebration at Highgrove before he reported for duty but Kate was still reeling over William’s snub in Scotland. In the newspapers, however, the engagement rumour was gathering momentum once more. Kate’s birthday was preceded by an article written by Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson in which he claimed that Kate was on her way to becoming a royal bride. Under the headline T
HE
N
EXT
P
EOPLE
’
S
P
RINCESS
, the article was highly speculative, but there was no doubting the thrust of the piece – William was set to make Kate his bride and her twenty-fifth birthday looked like a likely date for an announcement. ‘The smart money now says that brand Windsor is about to get a much-needed injection of fresh young glamour to complement its established octogenarian market leader,’ he wrote in the venerable
Spectator
magazine. The story snowballed, and by the morning of Kate’s birthday hundreds of photographers were camped outside her house waiting for the ‘pre-engagement picture’. The rumours could not have been further from the truth – William had no plans to propose. Instead he phoned Kate from the Combermere Barracks in Windsor to apologise. William was furious that Kate’s birthday had been spoilt and in an unprecedented statement complained she was being harassed and said he wanted ‘more than anything’ for her to be left alone. For the first time Kate felt overwhelmed and desperately isolated. Usually she smiled brightly for the photographers, but this time as she made her way to work she looked as though she was about to crack under the pressure. As always in a crisis, she depended heavily on the support of her mother and sister. The Middleton mantra is ‘Grin
and bear it’, which was exactly what Kate did, although her smile was beginning to wear thin.

For the first time those close to the couple began to speak of doubts about their relationship. The plans for a spring wedding were shredded as quickly as they had been drawn up, and the talk now, among their friends at least, was that an engagement was certainly not on the cards. William had started a two-and-a-half-month tank commander’s course at Bovington, and although they enjoyed a skiing trip to Zermatt in March he and Kate were spending less time together. He had warned her that his schedule was packed and he would have little time to visit her. She understood but was upset when William came to London and went clubbing instead of seeing her. On one occasion he had spent the night at Boujis flirting with another girl. William was with Harry and a group of friends including Arthur Landon, Hugh Van Cutsem and Jack Mann, the son of ex-SAS officer Simon Mann, when Tess Shepherd walked into the club. The petite blonde knew some of William’s friends and before long she and William were dancing, arms entwined, on the dance floor.

As March drew to a close William and Kate’s relationship became increasingly strained. As if the embarrassing night at Boujis was not enough, William further humiliated Kate when he was photographed with his arm around Ana Ferreira, an eighteen-year-old Brazilian student, at a nightclub in Poole not far from Bovington. From the picture it looked as though William had his hand on her breast. He had spent much of the night dancing on a podium with a local called Lisa Agar, and this time there were pictures to prove it. It was the final straw for Kate, and she delivered an ultimatum: either she had his full commitment
or they were over. She was no longer prepared to be made a fool of. When they attended Cheltenham races at the end of March, their body language spoke volumes. Walking several steps ahead of Kate, William, his head cast down and his hands dug deep in his pockets, was deep in thought. By now both of them knew that their love affair had run its course. Kate’s ultimatum backfired and William told her that they should have a break. Over the Easter weekend they agreed to separate for the second time.

While Kate mourned the end of their relationship at home with her family, William celebrated his ‘freedom’ in London at Mahiki. The two-storey bar in Mayfair had become a popular haunt with the princes. With its kitsch interior of bamboo screens, round wooden tables, retro-style ceiling fans and wicker basket chairs, the club, run by entrepreneurs Piers Adam and Nick House, is modelled on a Polynesian beach bar. A wooden canoe from Fiji hangs over the main bar to complete the look. While Boujis is smart and sophisticated, Mahiki is laid-back and fun, but the wealthy clientele have serious money to spend. The signature drink, the Treasure Chest, which is served in a wooden chest containing brandy, peach liqueur, lime, sugar and a bottle of champagne, costs an eye-watering £100.