Kate Middleton navigated the early days of her relationship with Prince William in her own way. According to a royal biographer, Queen Camilla once gave the now-Princess of Wales advice about “hanging on to a prince” she didn’t exactly follow. Instead, Kate made a move to “camouflage” her “objective” with her husband, the Prince of Wales.
Camilla told Kate the ‘secret’ to keeping William is building her life around his
Kate got some advice on staying with William while the couple were in college at Scotland’s St. Andrew’s University. Queen Camilla told her, Robert Lacey claimed in his Battle of Brothers book, that she should organize her life to fit William’s.
Camilla had confided to Kate the secret of hanging on to a busy prince,” Lacey wrote (via Express). The answer: “Fit your timetable — well, basically your whole life — around his.”
Through the years, Camilla is believed to have subdued her rather spontaneous nature, instead living life by a spreadsheet with practically every moment of her day planned out. It’s a practice not unlike her husband and William’s father, King Charles III, who’s known to work long hours.
Lacey continued, explaining Camilla’s advice proved impossible for Kate to follow because William’s schedule was, at the time, “un-fit-roundable.” William started carrying out royal duties shortly after graduating college in 2005. That meant Kate, then a non-royal, couldn’t exactly make his schedule hers.
So, the author said, Kate developed a plan of her own. “While Kate’s medium-to-long-term objective was quite simple — to lead William in handcuffs to the altar — for the time being,” Lacey wrote, “she had to devise her own independent career path as camouflage.”
In doing so, Kate became protected in a sense, publicly and privately. “This was a matter of both personal and public tactics,” he said. “In neither respect would it help Ms. Middleton to appear the slightest bit needy. And, of course, there was the ultimate unthinkable possibility that she might end up getting dumped.
William and Kate did break up, but only for a short period of time in 2007 before getting back together.
William sometimes calls Kate ‘Duchess Dolittle’ as a nod to her lack of a pre-royal career
Even royals have nicknames for each other. William’s said to sometimes — goodheartedly — call Kate the “Duchess of Dolittle.” The name references how William’s grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, used to slam Kate for not having a career in the years before joining the royal family in 2011.
Indeed, Kate worked various jobs during her time as William’s girlfriend. When they became engaged in November 2010, Kate wasn’t in pursuit of a career path but rather working for her family’s successful party supply company, which she helped inspire as a kid.
