As the Duke of Cambridge celebrates his 32nd birthday today (as do The Killers’ singer Brandon Flowers and Lana Del Rey, we hasten to add), we take a trip down memory lane, and look back on the fairytale romance that came about over a decade ago.
September 2001: Prince William and Kate Middleton meet at St Andrews University, Scotland where they are both studying art history (but William later switches to a geography course.) The pair have rooms close to each other in the St Salvators Hall of Residence.
September 2002: They move into a student house together, with two other friends.
June 2003: Kate attends William’s 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle, but the Prince later claims in an interview that he does not have a steady girlfriend.
September 2003: William, Kate and their two flatmates move into a cottage in the third year of university.
Christmas 2003: William and Kate are believed to have become an item after she splits from her previous boyfriend, a former St Andrews student.
March 2004: The couples romance is exposed after they are pictured together on the ski slopes of Klosters, Switzerland. Clarence House do not deny they are dating.
June 2005: William and Kate graduate in the same ceremony at St Andrews and attend a celebratory lunch together joined by their families.
July 2005: The pair enjoy a romantic holiday at the Lewa Downs game reserve in Kenya.
October 2005: Kate’s lawyers – the same used by the Prince of Wales – ask newspaper editors to leave her alone, claiming she is being hounded by photographers.
April 2006: The pair holiday in the Caribbean hideaway island Mustique.
January 2006: William is photographed kissing Kate in public for the first time during another skiing break.
May 2006: William and Kate attend the wedding of the Prince’s stepsister Laura Parker Bowles together.
August 2006: The couple holiday in Ibiza.
December 2006: Kate makes her most significant appearance to date as she turns up to watch William graduate as an Army officer at Sandhurst.
April 2007: William and Kate are confirmed to have split.
June 2007: The couple are reported to be dating again.
April 2008: Kate watches as William receives his wings as a qualified RAF pilot from the Prince of Wales – her first appearance
June 2010: The couple move in together into a cottage in north Wales close to Prince William’s RAF Valley in Angelsey.at a formal event with Prince William since December 2006.
October 2010: The couple become engaged after William proposes while on holiday in Kenya.
April 2011: The pair wed in a lavish ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey. William is made the Duke of Cambridge by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and Kate becomes the Duchess of Cambridge.
December 2012: The palace announces that Kate is pregnant and being treated in the hospital for acute morning sickness.
July 2013: Kate gives birth to Prince George Alexander Louis., weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces, with William by her side.
September 2014: The palace announces that Kate is pregnant with their second child
May 2015: Kate is admitted to London hospital for birth of her second baby, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Baby girl is born at 8.34am UK time, weighing 8lbs 3oz.
