Kate Middleton ‘Sealed and Locked Down’ the ‘Doors to Her Past’ When She Married Prince William
Kate Middleton‘s royal wedding to-do list might’ve gone beyond cake, flowers, and invitations. A royal biographer says the Princess of Wales gave the impression she “locked down” her past prior to marrying Prince William in 2011.
A royal biographer had a ‘very difficult’ time getting ‘information’ on Kate’s past
Discussing writing a biography on Kate, author and royal expert Katie Nicholl revealed a perhaps unexpected challenge.
“I found it very, very difficult to get information about Kate Middleton’s early life when I was writing the biography on her,” Nicholl said (via Slate).
Also a royal correspondent, Nicholl released a 2013 biography on the royal titled Kate: The Future Queen. She’s since authored other books on the royal family. The most recent is 2022’s The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown.
“I got the feeling that when she married into the royal family, she made sure that the doors to her past were well and truly sealed and locked down,” Nicholl continued.
“People have been asked not to talk to [the] press, not to talk to journalists, not to talk to authors,” she added. “So I did get people to talk eventually, but it was very, very hard.”
Kate Middleton may not have known ‘just how peculiar royal life is’ when she married Prince William
According to journalist and author Catherine Mayer, Kate may not have known everything about joining the royal family when she married William.
“The one thing I suppose she may not have known, and will now know, is just how peculiar royal life is,” Mayer said in Kate: The Making of a Modern Queen (via Marie Claire).
“It’s the strangest place I have ever spent time ‒ the palace,” the author continued. “Just that sense of never ever really being alone.”
Plus, “the palaces are sort of strange old buildings that are all about actually being built for show, for people to look inwards. And so they’re really not about comfort, they’re really not about family life.”
Kate went through a ‘testing period’ during 2007 split from William
The Prince and Princess of Wales’ brief 2007 split marked what Mayer called an obvious “testing period.” Kate herself later described it as being beneficial though she didn’t think that at the time.
Now 41, Kate “had this very interesting period in her relationship with the prince where they split up and got back together again, which was very clearly a testing period, a proving period.”
William and Kate broke up in 2007 for a few months before getting back together. They went on to get engaged in 2010 before marrying in April 2011.
It was “something where she had already been through the baptism of fire in terms of what it meant for destroying any chance of a private life she would ever [have] had,” Mayer continued. “And she went into it in that sense with her eyes open.”
April 29, 2023, is William and Kate ‘s 12-year wedding anniversary.
