Royal | News - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
Princess Kate’s mother played a crucial role in supporting the future queen as she dealt with heartbreak, a royal commentator has claimed.
Kate married Prince William in 2011, and the pair have since had three children together. But before that, the pair briefly broke things off in 2007, and Kate’s mum Carole Middleton was reportedly a vital source of support as she dealt with the aftermath.
Royal author Robert Jobson offered an account of the couple’s dating history in his new biography, Catherine, Princess of Wales.
“As Catherine approached her 25th birthday in January 2007, [William] unexpectedly cancelled plans to attend a New Year gathering in Dundee, arranged by the Middletons,” he wrote.
“She sensed something was wrong. It certainly wasn’t helping that newspapers were confidently predicting a royal engagement.”
Jobson continued: “Soon afterwards, seemingly out of the blue, William – now a 2nd Lieutenant in the Blues and Royals – telephoned her to suggest that they split up. He told her they both needed ‘a bit of space’ to ‘find our own way’, and he was unable to promise her marriage.”
The pair acknowledged in an “emotionally charged” conversation that they were on “different pages”, Jobson claims. “It was a devastating blow to Catherine, who felt doubly let down at being dumped over the phone,” he said, “Though it wasn’t the first time William had called time on their relationship, it felt final.”
It was then that Carole sprang into action and helped get Kate’s mind off it all.
“Carole Middleton acted swiftly, taking her heartbroken daughter for a break in Dublin – a welcome respite from media scrutiny,” he claimed.
When Kate returned she decided she wasn’t going to “sit around moping” and went on holiday to Ibiza with a girlfriend of hers where they were photographed out and about.
“Back in London, there were soon so many paparazzi shots of Catherine leaving nightclubs – often with her sister Pippa – that the media dubbed them the ‘Sizzler Sisters’,” Jobson wrote.
In time, Kate and William rekindled the relationship at a fancy-dress party hosted by their mutual friend Sam Waley-Cohen.
Jobson says that William and Kate “spent the first part of the evening deep in conversation before hitting the dance floor, where they ended up kissing”.
They wed five years later in a star-studded ceremony in Westminster Abbey in London.