Prince William and Kate Middleton celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary yesterday, and it’s hard to imagine them with anyone but each other. After all, they’ve been together—minus a brief split in 2007—for roughly 23 years, which amounts to half of their lives.
That said, though, there were those dark few months in 2007 where William and Kate—who met as first-year college students at the University of St. Andrews in 2001 and began dating around 2002 or 2003—split up. (William, only 24 at the time, reportedly broke up with Kate over the phone while she was at work.)
Prince William and Kate Middleton on February 10, 2007, just before their breakup.
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During their split—which lasted around three months—both hit the London nightclub scene with aplomb, William reportedly standing on a table at one point at his favorite nightclub, Mahiki, and yelling, “I’m free!” (according to The Mirror). Meanwhile, Kate headed away for a few days with her mother, Carole, and came back and hit the town with her younger sister Pippa, the sisters “invited to almost every top party and the most exclusive nightclubs,” The Mirror reported.
Kate Middleton on a night out in the 2000s.
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On one of these nights out, Kate attended a book launch, where she ran into socialite (and King Charles’ goddaughter) Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. The Sun reported that Kate “grinned when she was asked if she’d be keen to appear on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here,” a reality show Kate was apparently offered 1 million pounds to appear on. (Not surprisingly, she declined.)
That same night, Palmer-Tomkinson was seen consoling Kate in a corner of the room, and offered the 25-year-old Kate advice on how to win William back.
“Do you want him back?” Palmer-Tomkinson (who tragically died in 2017, 10 years after this exchange) asked Kate. Kate then responded by telling Palmer-Tomkinson how she really loved William.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Kate Middleton at the book launch on May 14, 2007.
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Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Kate Middleton at the book launch on May 14, 2007.
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The socialite then gave Kate advice that she took to heart: “Keep your chin up,” Palmer-Tomkinson said. “Say nothing, do nothing, and you’ll be fine, and he’ll come back.”
Heeding Palmer-Tomkinson’s advice, Kate never spoke publicly about their breakup until she and William’s engagement interview on November 16, 2010. William and Kate got back together months later, ultimately marrying at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011.
Kate Middleton on December 15, 2006.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton after their reconciliation on April 11, 2008.
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“We were both very young,” William said in their 2010 engagement interview of their brief breakup. “It was at university, and we were both sort of 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.”
“It was just sort of a bit of space and a bit of things like that, and it worked out for the better,” Kate added. “I think I—at the time wasn’t very happy about it, but actually, it made me a stronger person.”
Kate Middleton on June 17, 2006.
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Kate Middleton on May 4, 2007, during her brief breakup from Prince William.
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“You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realized, or 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,” she continued.