Was Kate Middleton Upset About Her Breakup with Prince William?

Prince William and Kate Middleton have been married since 2011. And while the couple appears to get along almost perfectly, it’s hard to forget that they once took some time apart, which was Will’s doing. But how did Kate actually handle that breakup, and how did they end up getting back together?

Will and Kate split briefly, but nobody is exactly sure of when

Will and Kate first met at the University of St Andrews in Scotland back when the two were attending university in 2001. The couple supposedly started out as friends at first, but the relationship soon turned romantic. (It’s been reported that one of Kate’s outfits is what actually swept Will off his feet.) However, the couple’s relationship did hit a breaking point. Will and Kate briefly spent some time apart, but the royal family never officially announced their split. This created speculation of when the breakup actually happened. Experts believe it was in 2007, but Will said during the couple’s engagement interview that they split while still attending university. If that’s the case, the time stamps wouldn’t match up, but we’ll never know for certain which year they called it quits.

The couple needed to ‘find themselves’

Will and Kate haven’t been incredibly open about their breakup, but they haven’t entirely shied away from it, either. When the couple got engaged, they opened up a bit about why they took a break. “We were both very young,” Will said in the interview. “It was at university — we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff. It was very much trying to find our own way, and we were growing up.”

Everyone goes through major changes when they’re in school; it’s a time for reflection and character building. And it may have been too much for the young couple to handle at the time. Thankfully, the break didn’t last.

Kate admitted she was not very happy about the split

When the couple broke up, it was Will’s doing. And Kate admitted in that engagement interview that it wasn’t what she wanted. “At the time I wasn’t very happy about it,” she said. However, she noted that looking back, it made her into a stronger person and said she realized she had been too consumed in the relationship and was doing less for herself. “You find out things about yourself maybe you hadn’t realized … I really valued that time for me as well, although I didn’t think it at the time.”

Sources suggest Will’s jealousy helped speed up their rekindled romance

Since the couple was spending time apart, it meant they could see other people. And when Kate started to get friendly with someone in Will’s social circle, it supposedly made him jealous. According to Cosmopolitan, Kate had been spotted spending time with Henry Ropner, and a source close to the couple said the two had been flirting for some time. But it appears that when Will caught wind of the budding romance, he quickly got his act together. The two got back together shortly after.

“From my point of view, when I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her,” he said in the engagement interview. It might have taken a brief split for the couple to realize they were meant to be, but we’re all thankful it worked out in the end.

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