Prince William and Princess Kate may now have been married 14 years, but they have known each other a lot longer. Before exchanging vows in 2011, the couple had an almost decade-long relationship, which was not short of ups and downs, including one temporary break-up in 2007.
While the break-up didn’t last long, it did seem to confirm to the couple just how much they wanted to be together, and it was this that led to William making a sweet promise to Kate. After reuniting in 2007, William, now 43, took Kate, also 43, on a secret holiday to Desroches in the Seychelles.
It was here that the couple, who checked in to a resort under the secret names Martin and Rosemary Middleton, laid the foundation for their future.
Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl wrote in her book The Making of a Royal Romance that the holiday was “perfect” for the couple and was where William made a pact to Kate that he did not break, reassuring her that she was the one.
Nicholl wrote: “William, who had inherited something of his father’s fear of commitment, knew he would lose Kate if he could not give her some form of guarantee.
“They didn’t agree to get married there and then; what they made was a pact,’ a member of their inner circle explained.
“William told Kate she was the one, but he was not ready to get married. He promised her his commitment and said he would not let her down, and in turn she agreed to wait for him.”
It was then another three years until William popped the question to Kate in 2010, which she said came as a “shock” in the couple’s 2010 engagement interview.
This is despite the fact that William confirmed the couple had spoken about getting married beforehand.
In their engagement interview with ITV in 2010, William said: “We’d been talking about marriage for a while, so it wasn’t a massively big surprise, but I took her up somewhere nice in Kenya, and I proposed.”