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Prince & Princess of Wales

‘Happy Birthday Kate’ – 31 Facts About The Duchess Of Cambridge

Today, HRH The Duchess Of Cambridge ‘Kate’ celebrates her 31st birthday. Kate has been married to her husband Prince William for almost 2 years [this year] and is one of the most popular members of the British Royal Family. Here, we have composed a 31-fact fact file on Her Royal Highness The Duchess Of Cambridge, enjoy!

  1. Catherine was born on 9th January 1982 at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, England.
  2. Her parents are Michael Middleton and Carol Middleton. Michael once worked as a pilot and Carol was an air hostess.
  3. She if often now incorrectly referred to as Middleton, just like for every other couple, the wife takes the husband’s name, though due to titled members of the Royal Family officially having no surname, neither does Kate. If a surname is needed, she’ll either use Cambridge or ‘Mountbatten-Windsor’.
  4. She is one of the most influential figures in global history, her style has had so much effect on people’s fashion, it has been dubbed the ‘Kate effect’.
  5. She has 1 brother and 1 sister, both younger than her. Pippa [Middleton] (whose proper first name is Phillipa) and James Middleton (whose middle name is William).
  6. She graduated in 2005 from the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, with an undergraduate MA (2:1 Hons) in the History of Art.
  7. She met her husband, Prince William at St Andrew’s University when they were both housed in ‘St Salvator’s Hall’.
  8. In November 2006, Middleton accepted a position as an accessory buyer with the clothing chain Jigsaw. She also worked part-time until January 2011 as a catalogue photographer, webpage designer and marketing officer for her parents’ firm Party Pieces.
  9. Although she is regarded as the first commoner to marry into the Royal Family for around 350 years, this is not true if one uses the correct definition of a commoner, which is anyone without a title, meaning most members of the Royal Family who married into it were commoners before. What people mean is she’s the first person to be descended from commoners to marry into the Royal Family for 350 years!
  10. Catherine holds 4 different titles, 3 of which are used in different countries and one is her marriage title. She is also officially known as ‘Her Royal Highness Princess William’, in England she is The Duchess of Cambridge, in Scotland she is The Countess Of Strathearn and in Northern Ireland she is Baroness Carrickfergus.large_7329574936
  11. On 3rd December 2012, St James’s Palace announced the Duchess was pregnant. The significance of this pregnancy is that one day, this child will grow up to be King or Queen of the United Kingdom.
  12. Prince William and Catherine Middleton became engaged in October 2010 in Kenya, East Africa, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate Prince William passing his RAF helicopter search and rescue course. Clarence House announced the engagement on 16 November 2010.
  13. Their wedding was held on 29th April 2011 at Westminster Abbey, Catherine wore a wedding dress designed by Sarah Burton.
  14. The Duchess’s first official engagement after the wedding came in May, when she and her husband met with Barack Obama, the President of the United States, and First Lady Michelle Obama.
  15. On St Patrick’s day, 17 March 2012, the Duchess carried out the traditional awarding of shamrocks to the Irish Guards at their base in Aldershot; this was her first solo military engagement.
  16. In June 2012, The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry was renamed The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, to reflect Catherine’s contribution to the charity.
  17. In September 2012, the Duke and Duchess embarked on a tour of Singapore, Malaysia, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands as part of the Royal Jubilee celebrations. During this overseas visit, the Duchess made her first official speech abroad, while visiting a hospice in Malaysia, drawing on her experience as patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices.
  18. According to the Royal Geneaologist and Burke’s Peerage editor William Bortrick, there is an aristocratic branch on Michael Middleton’s family tree.
  19. At one point she was nicknamed “Waity Katie” by the media for her apparent lack of work ethic and seeming lack of desire to work, in preference for awaiting a wedding proposal.
  20. Her engagement ring belonged to William’s mother, Diana, Princess Of Wales – Prince William says giving Catherine this ring was his way of keeping his mother close to it all.
  21. Kate prefers to do the majority of the cooking for herself and William, and is often spotted shopping at Waitrose on Anglesely and, when she is at Kensington Palace, at the Waitrose on Kensington High Street. large_6850700184
  22. For Kate’s 30th Birthday, Kim Kardashian, uploaded a video onto her YouTube channel showing her wishing the Duchess a very happy 30th and announcing that she’d named a shoe in her honour!
  23. Kate is allergic to horsehair, which can be a bit of a problem considering a lot of the Royal Family’s favourite pastimes involve horses. Kate has been seen waiting in the car on the sidelines at polo matches Prince William has attended.
  24. After the wedding ceremony, on April 29 last year, her bouquet was placed on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey after the service, continuing a tradition started by the late Queen Mother.
  25. It was rumoured that at Marlborough College Kate had a poster of her future husband William on her wall. But she has quashed speculation by revealing it was in fact the “Levi’s guy” who adorned her bedroom.
  26. At the age of 13, she went to the £15,000-a-year Marlborough College in Wiltshire.
  27. Kate was christened at the parish church of St Andrew’s Bradfield in Berkshire on June 20 1982.
  28. Kate followed wedding tradition, and for ‘something blue’ had a blue ribbon sewn into the interior of her dress.
  29. During her tour of California and Canada during the summer of 2011 she wore more than 25 outfits, winning her accolades from the world’s fashion press.
  30. When in the capital Kate sometimes uses the London bike hire scheme – and London Mayor Boris Johnson gave Kate and William a tandem Boris bike as a wedding present.
  31. Kate and William’s first official event together after they got engaged was at Anglesey last February – dedicating a new RNLI lifeboat.
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