• Right around this time 15 years ago, Prince William proposed to his girlfriend of nearly a decade, Kate Middleton.
  • The two were on holiday together in Kenya when the future king went down on one knee and presented her with Princess Diana’s iconic sapphire and diamond engagement ring.
  • The two were on the last day of their trip—or so Kate thought—and the Princess of Wales “had given up hope” that she’d return to the U.K. engaged, according to a royal biographer.

When Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton 15 years ago in October 2010, the couple had been together for nearly a decade—yet when the future king got down on one knee in Kenya, Kate was rendered “speechless” and in “total shock,” according to a royal biographer.

In her book Kate: The Future Queen, Katie Nicholl wrote that the now-Princess of Wales had “dared to hope that she might return from Africa with a ring on her finger.” Once the couple got to Kenya, though, the vacation went on, and by the last day of their holiday, “Kate had given up hope” that she would return home to the U.K. an engaged woman, Nicholl wrote.

Kate Middleton and Prince William announcing their engagement on November 16, 2010.

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Nicholl added that “Kate’s heart was heavy” when there was still “no sign of a proposal” as the trip wound down and they headed out for another safari alongside two friends from South Africa. What Kate didn’t know? That actually wasn’t the end of their vacation, as William had secretly extended their trip, booking them for a day and a night at the Il Ngwesi Lodge, which Nicholl wrote was a “remote log cabin in the heart of the countryside near the great Lake Rutundu.” William had visited before and “knew it would be the perfect place to return with someone special.”

When William actually did propose, Kate was stunned, not only because she wasn’t expecting a proposal on this trip but also because of the “immediately recognizable” ring she was given—the iconic 12-carat sapphire ring surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds that once belonged to Princess Diana. William, it turns out, had been carrying the ring around in his rucksack for about three weeks, he later said in his engagement interview alongside Kate after the couple formally announced their engagement on November 16, 2010.

Prince William and Kate Middleton in one of their engagement portraits taken on November 25, 2010.

Mario Testino / Clarence House Press Office via Getty Images

“I’d been planning it for a while, but as any guy out there will know, it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going,” William told ITV’s Tom Bradby. “I was planning it and then it just felt really right out in Africa.” Of the ring, he added, “I literally would not let it go. Everywhere I went, I was keeping hold of it because I knew this thing, if it disappeared—I would be in a lot of trouble.”

“You hear a lot of horror stories about proposing and things going horribly wrong,” he added. “It went really, really well, and I was really pleased she said yes.”

Kate, it turned out, was stunned. In that same interview, she said, “It was a total shock when it came. There’s a true romantic in there.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29, 2025.

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“It’s my mother’s engagement ring, and it’s very special to me, as Kate is very special to me now as well,” William said. “It was only right the two were put together. It was my way of making sure my mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together.”

William hadn’t told anyone that he was going to propose in Kenya, though his brother Prince Harry knew an engagement was on the horizon because “William had spoken with Harry to make sure his younger brother was happy for him to have their mother’s ring, as and when the time came,” Nicholl wrote. The first person William and Kate told after returning to the U.K. from Kenya was Kate’s father Michael Middleton, it turns out. William and Kate invited Michael and Kate’s mother Carole Middleton up to Birkhall and “Just before supper on the first night, William took Michael into the dressing room, poured them both a large whiskey, and asked for permission to marry Kate,” Nicholl wrote. “Without a moment’s hesitation, Michael gave William his blessing.”

Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton on November 16, 2010, the day Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement was announced.

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Per Marie Claire, even before William and Kate told Carole, they had to let someone else in on the secret—William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who needed to give her blessing for their engagement to become official.

Thirteen years after the proposal, in 2023 King Charles spoke at a state banquet in Kenya and shared details about William and Kate’s romantic proposal, saying (per People), “It was here, in sight of Mount Kenya, that my son the Prince of Wales proposed to his wife, now my beloved daughter-in-law.”

Prince Charles, Kate Middleton, and Prince William in 2013.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2008.

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William, too, has commented on the proposal over the years, saying in 2020, “The African continent holds a very special place in my heart. It is the place my father took my brother and me shortly after our mother died. And when deciding where best to propose to Catherine, I could think of no more fitting place than Kenya to get down on one knee.”