The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated their eight-year wedding anniversary this year but 12 years ago it looked as if the couple were no more when they split after four years of dating.
Just months later the couple rekindled their relationship, but according to a new revelation by the author of a newly published book Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert Katie Nicholl says the couple made a very important promise to each other before agreeing to get back together.
William and Kate met while they were students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
During a holiday on the island of Desroches, in the Seychelles off East Africa, Nicholl says the couple made a secret pact to get married so that Kate had some certainty about how William felt about their relationship and to take some of the pressure off.
As Nicholl writes: “There on the island paradise, William promised Kate that he was in the relationship for the long term.
“For the very first time, they talked seriously about marriage, and with the ocean before them and beneath the night sky, they made a pact to marry.”
Three years later Prince William made good on his promise, with the couple announcing their engagement in 2010, before they exchanged vows at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.
According to a royal expert, the couple made a marriage pact when they rekindled their relationship following a short split in 2007. (Image: Getty)
William and Kate first met in 2001 while they were both students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
The following year they flatted together and in 2003 began dating, however according to royal biographer Andrew Morton, he revealed in his book William and Catherine that in the early days of their relationship Kate sometimes felt like William treated her “like a servant”.
“Obstinate and strong-willed, William could be an overwhelming presence and, at times, Kate felt taken for granted – treated like a servant rather than his girlfriend,” Morton wrote.
Author Jessica Jayne revealed in her book, The Duchess of Cambridge: How Kate Middleton Became A Future Queen, that it was because Prince William had begun to feel “claustrophobic” in the relationship, that the couple split.
Kate and William during their recent tour to Pakistan. (Image: Getty)
Speaking of the split sometime later Kate has said: “I think at the time I wasn’t very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person.
“You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realised, I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger and I really valued that time for me as well although I didn’t think it at the time.”
While William added, “We were both very young, it was at university, we were both finding ourselves as such and being different characters.
“It was very much trying to find out own way and we were growing up, it was a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it worked out for the better.”
Twelve years and three beautiful children later, it really does seem the case.
