It is true that because of his accident of birth, William’s life was always going to be mapped out for him. He would never really own his destiny. Instead he would have to find a way to muddle through life bit by bit, hoping that somehow he would live up to the enormous expectations placed upon him. Unlike Harry, William would never have the freedom to play the field, to party his way through prospective suitors in a bid to find Princess Right. If Harry felt frustrated that his love life would be laid bare, like the plot of a soap opera, the pressures on his elder brother were in a different league.
Sure William had his flings. Over the years the heir to the throne was romantically linked to a host of glamorous young girls, most of them from wealthy, upper-class families. As soon as William entered his late teens he only had to look at a girl and the rumours that he had found his true love would begin to circulate. The rumours were never denied, because William’s intensely private nature meant his advisers were denied the freedom to play down speculation. And for their part, the girls at the centre of the gossip almost always basked in their fifteen minutes of fame.
It was not unheard of for young women to target the same parties and social events William would be likely to attend in a deliberate attempt to catch the future king’s eye. Everywhere he went, he would be aware that immaculately turned-out girls were looking in his direction, desperate for some way of breaking the ice. There is barely a teenage boy alive who wouldn’t have dreamed about this kind of female attention. While the average 17-year-old would try to get noticed by splashing on his father’s aftershave, pulling on his favourite pair of jeans and moulding his hair with his sister’s hairspray before going to a party, William would be dreading the attention.
What would be a dream for most teenage lads was in fact a nightmare for William, given that the eyes of the world would one day focus on who he would fall in love with. The paradox was that in spite of being born with wealth, status and privilege, in many ways the young prince was trapped. Fortunately for William, however, he reached the end of his search for the right girl when he least expected to.
The story of how William and Kate’s romance began is well known. But it is hardly surprising that when it came to choosing a bride, William took his time and ensured the only basis upon which he would marry was one of love. Courtiers and even his family knew better than to try and match-make.
He longed for the normal life, and he decided at a young age that when it came to the biggest decision of all he would follow his heart, not his head, and certainly not Royal protocol. And when a pretty brunette caught his eye at a charity fashion show in his first year at St Andrews University, William felt that knot in his stomach he had been waiting for. Kate was of course stunningly beautiful. But she was also a shy, understated girl who wasn’t loud and brash like many of her fellow students.
The more he got to know Kate, the more William began to realize that she wasn’t like the other women he’d met. Yes, she had been educated at one of the poshest private boarding schools in the country. But she’d never really fitted in and preferred playing hockey to sitting around chatting about boys. Kate had a strong personality and a confidence that William increasingly adored.
But he was never going to rush. Even as their relationship got stronger and stronger, it seemed that William was determined to do exactly what he’d said to me in Klosters, and wait to marry until he was ‘twenty-eight or maybe thirty’.
In 2007 it looked as though the fairy tale had ended. Before that, William had spent weeks away from his girlfriend and focused on his military training. By the end of 2006, when he passed out of Sandhurst, the eyes of the world were on the Royal couple as Kate and her parents were invited to watch the academy’s historic parade with the Queen. That was seen as a sign the couple were on the verge of getting engaged, which sparked an intense media scrutiny.
But William felt it was too soon; he was reluctant to make such a big decision at such a young age. He dithered, spending more and more time away from Kate as he trained to become a young officer in the Household Cavalry. And by the end of March 2007 their relationship had changed.
They were no longer living as a normal couple far away from the public’s gaze. Even a day at the Cheltenham races in March had seen them surrounded by photographers, so much so they could hardly get out of the racecourse car park at the end of the day. As William tried to drive through the scrum of photographers, frustration and anger were etched all over his face. In April, William and Kate had travelled to Zermatt with a group of friends, but sources later revealed that tensions in the Royal couple’s relationship came to the surface during that trip, and it was said that Kate had tearful discussions with William.
They decided to spend some time apart and even went to the unusual lengths of allowing news of their split to be confirmed by Clarence House. It was this experience that taught William how to advise Harry when his relationship with Chelsy hit the rocks. He suggested Harry take time out and focus on his flying training.
Less than two months after their very public split, Wills and Kate were back together. The time apart had taught William just how much she meant to him. He invited Kate to a summer ball at his base in Bovington, Dorset, and from that day on they never looked back. William and Kate agreed that they would stay together for ever, but only when the time was right would they make the ultimate commitment by tying the knot.
Kate patiently waited for her man to decide when he felt able to go down on one knee, and finally, three years after their split, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived.
Harry had witnessed his brother’s relationship grow and grow, and in some ways he envied the way William would talk about Kate with such tenderness. During their shared time together training to be helicopter pilots at RAF Shawbury, the brothers spent hours talking about their girlfriends.
Harry’s romantic troubles at that time seemed different from those of his brother. Chelsy was worried about commitment, while Kate had seemed strained by William’s lack of the very same thing. While Wills and Kate had worked through their troubles, Harry and Chelsy’s romance was well and truly over by the time the future king was about to confide in his brother that ‘it was time’.
In the late summer of 2010 William spoke to Harry, man to man. It was clear that he had something important to tell his brother and the excitement of what was about to come was written all over his face. That October William was planning to fly Kate to his favourite place on earth, the magnificent conservation reserve in Kenya where he had spent much of his gap year.
There was nothing too unusual about William’s choice of holiday destinations. He and Kate had shared many vacations together, skiing in the Alps, sunbathing in the Caribbean, and watching wildlife on the African reserve owned by William’s close friends, the Craig family. They had enjoyed at least three exotic holidays together each year as well as a host of romantic breaks on the Queen’s Scottish estate Balmoral.
But Harry sensed this time was different. Royal sources revealed how Harry was the very first person to discover the news that would become one of the biggest Royal events for decades. ‘William had decided he was going to pop the question to Kate when they visited Kenya in October that year,’ one source told me. ‘He had been dying to tell Harry about his plans and waited until the two of them were together and alone several weeks earlier.
‘Indeed William was bursting with excitement when he confided in Harry. He said “It is time” and Harry instantly knew what his brother was talking about. The brothers hugged each other before William added: “And I want you to be my best man.”’
With a youthful excitement, William described how he was going to take their late mother’s priceless engagement ring with him to Kenya in his pocket. During the trip he had arranged for them to fly by helicopter to a remote lodge high in the foothills of Kenya’s second highest peak. There they would stay in a simple log cabin to enjoy the views and the sounds of the wild animals roaming around.
; Harry loved the plans, the source said, and was amazed at how much thought his brother had put into them. ‘The only advice Harry gave to William was to try and sneak a bottle of champagne out to the lodge for when she said yes. He even joked that William might want to take a bottle of brandy as well for him to drink if she said no.’
It was vital to William that Kate knew nothing of his plans and Harry was naturally sworn to secrecy. The boys agreed that their own close circle of trusted friends would be kept in the dark. Even the Royal protection officers, famed for their discretion, were not to be told. They agreed that the only other people who would know in advance were the Queen, Prince Charles and Kate’s father, Michael Middleton.
Telling the Queen was a no-brainer. Royal protocol dictates that the heir to the throne should gain permission from the monarch before proposing marriage. This tradition has been followed for generations and in any case William was desperate to inform his grandmother. He and the Queen are famously close and there is no one in the world whose advice William would have valued more. His opportunity to tell his grandmother came during the August break when she was staying at Balmoral. Apparently the conversation between them has always remained totally private. There is no doubt, however, that Her Majesty would have been delighted for her grandson.
For most people, telling your granny your happy news is a pleasant experience even if she may not be the very first relative to find out. For William it was essential that he spoke to the Queen before even popping the question to Kate. Fortunately, the monarch had grown very fond of William’s only serious girlfriend in the years they had been dating. Kate had met the Queen many times and palace sources have always spoken of how fond they are of each other.
One source said: ‘The Queen is very proud of all her grandchildren but she has a special bond with William. They may be very many years apart in age, but they share a common understanding of the roles they were both born into. When William made the big decision to marry Kate he met with the Queen in Balmoral long before he was planning to go down on one knee. Of course his grandmother was delighted and she gave him her full blessing and wished him luck for the proposal. In the Queen’s view, Kate was a perfect match for William not least because their relationship had been given time to grow, get through its ups and downs. But most important of all, she knew how much they were in love.’
Before setting off for Kenya, William finally approached Kate’s father, Michael, to ask for his permission. Although he was sworn to secrecy, Michael respected William’s traditional approach of asking the bride’s father in advance.
The engagement was announced in November to a storm of media interest. At the time William and Kate kept the public guessing about the details of when and where they would tie the knot, revealing only that it would be ‘in the early summer’ the following year.
Bookmakers had listed the Queen’s home at Windsor Castle in Berkshire as a possible venue, as well as St Paul’s Cathedral, where Charles and Diana had been married. But in the end Wills and Kate agreed the best venue would be Westminster Abbey, the central London site where one day he will be crowned king.
As an intensely private couple, they would probably have dreamed of a small-scale event in a traditional parish church surrounded only by close family and friends. And even as William approached the chosen venue, he and his bride may well have been fantasizing about being free to elope abroad with just two witnesses and a friendly hotel manager for company. But as is so often the case for the Royals, they were duty bound to share their day with the world, a public ceremony rarely seen anywhere across the globe.
As William and his brother stepped into the abbey, the noise of cheers and screams from outside contrasted sharply with the relative peace and serenity of inside. On either side of the vast abbey the couple had chosen rows of trees to help create an air of calm and beauty as they each approached the altar. But despite the stillness those trees delivered, it would have been impossible for William and Harry not to have spotted the lines of famous faces that flanked them on either side.
More than a thousand people had been invited to attend the service and watch as a chapter of British history was written. They included stars of film, stage and sport as well as a host of people associated with Royal charities and William’s work with the military. David and Victoria Beckham had found their seats on one of the many pews to the left of the abbey. Nearby, Elton John and David Furnish had also arrived early and were flicking through the Order of Service that had been laid out on every seat.
Dotted among the throngs were friends of the couple, many of whom were sitting alongside leaders from government, religious bodies and Royal dignitaries from all over the world. In one seat sat the Sultan of Brunei – one of the richest men on the planet. But like all those gathered as William and Harry slowly made their way to the front of the abbey, the Sultan was treated as an equal. His seat was just one of those temporarily laid out along with dozens of others; there were no thrones or special positions from which to view this event.
I was lucky enough to have been given an invitation and was among a handful of other journalists seated in Poets’ Corner, a few rows away from the front. From this vantage point we were able to watch the vital role that Harry played that day. For a normal best man, the challenge is to smile at the guests, remember to wave at Great Aunt Maureen and, whatever you do, don’t forget the rings. But Harry wasn’t a normal best man. His biggest challenge that morning was to make sure his brother made it through the abbey without buckling under the enormous pressure.
The eyes of the world were quite literally on William as he arrived through the Great West Door to take his place at the front of the abbey. His every move was being analysed live by body language experts and even lip readers employed by media teams desperate to cover every cough and splutter. If Harry needed to turn to his brother to stop him flagging, this would be picked up and talked about all over the planet. William had to do his best to hold the line, to appear as though this was his dream day and the way it was being played out was exactly how he wanted it.
Nothing could really have been further from the truth, and who could blame a groom showing a few nerves on his wedding day – let alone a groom being analysed by two billion people. This wasn’t the wedding William would ever have chosen, but he knew it was his duty to get through the ordeal and to make it look on the outside that it was exactly how he had planned it.
Fortunately for William, who was dressed in the dazzling colours of the Irish Guards colonel’s uniform, his brother had already anticipated what he would be going through. The most nerve-wracking time for any groom is when he is waiting at the front of the church for the bride to arrive. This is the famous, no-going-back moment when the seconds spent waiting seem like minutes, and the minutes like hours. Harry knew this would be the most difficult part of the day for William. And being forced to stand at the front of Westminster Abbey with the television cameras rolling, it would have been almost impossible for him to have kept his calm. Again, any signs of nerves would have been instantly interpreted as a hint of doubt, even regret. A raised eyebrow, nervous cough or frown would have been subject to microscopic analysis.
With this in mind, Harry had arranged for the two of them to get to the front of the abbey and then disappear into a room adjoining Poets’ Corner to their right. The plan was for Harry to get his brother down through the aisle, then take him out of view of the cameras while they waited for the signal that Kate had arrived.
And so it was that with just minutes to go before the wedding of the decade would get underway, Harry led his brother to the side room and closed the door behind him. We will never know what was said in the minutes the two brothers spent in that room but it was a perfect plan to give William a chance to take a deep breath and try to calm his nerves before composing himself and reappearing two or three minutes later.
From where I was sitting I had a ringside view of the Royal brothers heading into that room. I had never seen Wi
lliam looking so nervous. The dazzle of his bright red tunic did little, I thought, to mask the sheer white fear he was trying so hard to hide. Harry, who was also wearing the ceremonial colours of his regiment, the Army Air Corps, managed to throw his brother a reassuring smile as he led William into the room. There is no doubt that the sight of Harry, seemingly playing it cool, must have come as a lifeline to William. There is no one he would have wanted by his side more.
Westminster Abbey was of course the place where, some thirteen years earlier, the teenaged boys had stood side by side as they went through the agony of their mother’s funeral. On that sad occasion in 1997, it was largely the fact they went through the ordeal together that enabled them to cope. Diana’s death brought William and Harry together in a way that nothing else could. So it was in some ways fitting that all these years on they were once again relying on each other to get them through another difficult event.
We will never know what was said as they waited in that room for the signal that Kate was about to arrive and William had to take his place at the altar. But what is certain is that they would have gained strength from the knowledge that their mother would be watching. The paradox of being surrounded by more than a thousand people, being watched by hundreds of millions more that day, yet feeling a sense of isolation and loneliness would not have been lost on William.
By the time the princes emerged from the room to make the short walk to the front of the Abbey, William looked much more composed. From that point on he would rely on adrenalin to carry him through the wedding service, and of course, he would be joined in the limelight by his bride.
As William walked towards his position and past the Queen and other Royals, the vast abbey echoed to the sound of cheers and applause from outside. This was it. Kate had clearly arrived, and the wedding of the decade was all systems go. For everyone inside the abbey there was a very real sense that they were watching history being made. The pomp and ceremony of the occasion produced an atmosphere never witnessed before.
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