A Tale of Two Lives - Kate & William - 1/2

it's the romance that's captured the world's imagination millions of us are expected to watch the big day the commoner who captured a Prince's heart as Prince William and Catherine Middleton prepare to spend the rest of their lives together this is the story of two very different upbringing the boy who was born to be king this was the golden child you know this was the pictures everybody wanted Wow a childhood touched by tragedy Diana Princess of Wales has been killed in a car accident whenever I see an image of the princes behind Princess Anne's coffin I imagine everybody feels like I do devastated at the level of their lives and the girl who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the world's most famous women she hasn't really changed that much since I was in primary school every single boy couldn't take their eyes off her she was completely stunning this is how fate and an eye-catching dress brought them together Kate was up on the catwalk looking amazing and certainly turned quite a lot of heads I think at the heart of it is a normal little story it's the idea that it could have happened to anyone it's the story of a royal couple who will define the future of the British monarchy my first met Kate's I knew there was something very special about him it was a total shock very excited it's official there will be a royal wedding next year Clarence House has announced that Prince William and Kate Middleton are engaged on the 16th of November 2010 came the announcement the nation had been waiting for a great day for our country a great day for the royal family and obviously a great day for Prince William and for Kate the most eagerly awaited Royal Wedding in 30 years we've been talking about it for a long time so for us it's kind of it's a real relief and it's really nice about tell everybody it's my mother's engagement ring this is my way of keeping her sort of close to them it is very very special so how did a normal middle-class girl find herself the future Queen was it fate or simply a case of being in the right place at the right time I just went bright red when I'm a and sort of settled off in a very shy about meeting you the story begins 29 years ago 1982 was the year of the Falklands War back home when employment had risen above 3 million but amid the doom and gloom came of welcome distraction the crowds began to gather just after 8:00 this morning and they've stayed here all day in alternate sunshine and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer had married amid euphoric scenes the previous summer now the nation waited expectantly for the arrival of their first child I think there was a mood of celebration there was a great deal of optimism still at this stage for the married couple for Charles and Diana would you like to see a baby Goya but I would like her to have a boy and I should think if she's having all this trouble it's a boy crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace throughout the evening then at 10:25 their patience was rewarded with the formal notice of the birth weighing in at seven pounds and one and a half ounces Prince William of Wales was born just after 9:00 p.m. on Monday the 21st of June at some Murray's Paddington the euphoria overflowed into song royal princes and princesses are traditionally born at palaces but not for Prince William he was born in a hospital he was born of some eras in Paddington and that was really the start of Diana's decision to give William and normal upbringing the baby Prince made his first public appearance aged just a day old Prince Charles came out and he was so excited and I remember climbing over the barre and going up shaking his hand and saying congratulations and he was so happy it was just unbelievable that same week in the more tranquil setting the rural Berkshire there was another celebration taking place the christening of baby Catherine Elizabeth the first child of Carol and Michael Middleton Kate was christened that June in the local church which is on the on the river pang her mother wore a Laura Ashley dress which was very fashionable at that time and her father wore a traditional dark suit while Prince William grew up in the grandeur of Kensington Palace Kate's childhood home was this Victorian semi in the village of Bradfield Southend bought by her parents in 1979 at 35,000 pounds it was a humble start for a little girl destined for greater things in those days Carol and Michael Middleton didn't have pots of money Carol trained as an air hostess and was working for British Airways and Michael was a flight dispatcher they met in the seventies at the airline and got married shortly afterwards the family emigrated to Jordan for Michael Middleton's work when Kate was aged just 2 when they return to Berkshire two years later she was enrolled in the local prep schools and Angie's at Pangborn she went to brownies she'd be part of after-school clubs she really excelled on the netball court I had teachers say that she was very studious her school friends and acquaintances say that she was sporty that essentially she was a pretty nice girl the most critical thing I've heard about her as perhaps she was a bit goody two-shoes like every good middle-class girl Kate was sent for piano classes I met Kate when she was 11 she came for piano lessons between the ages of 11 and 13 she was actually very confident she was very bubbly that a lovely person to teach she was always vague and loquacious she was always talking and having fun in her lessons I think anybody ever thought she was going to be a concert pianist but I guess she was she was good she happens to be a future princess in the future Queen and at the time she was just another girl perhaps not a concert pianist but at the age of 13 Kate did manage to learn a starring role in murder at the Red Barn a school play in which she was proposed to by a young gentleman called William she was very nice she was very quite shy she was kept herself to herself really but lovely lovely girl I think everybody liked her she wasn't the one that all the boys went for at the time probably because she was a bit taller I think maybe I don't know does that put some men off probably I don't know she hasn't really changed that much I don't thinking certainly her personality doesn't appear to have changed that much since I was in primary school Prince William would also spent his early years performing for the cameras but this was a very different childhood to the middle class normality enjoyed by Kate Middleton you know foto calls were a part of everyday life for the young prince and whether he liked it or not his every move was front page news this was the golden child you know this was the the pictures everybody wanted you see equal teachers get on the savages who see the faces the people in there they were everybody was taking pictures of him because you know he was the little star there was soon to be a new addition to the family younger brother Harry and at the age of four Williams education began at Weatherby school in West London his first day at school which I recall quite vividly we left Kensington Palace and we go to the car and Dinah said to him now you know William this is a very important day in your life so you need to be very careful and he said what do you mean he said well she said um there were lots of photographers there and and he said in this sort of just william way um I don't like tog refers I know but you've got to get used to it Williams had died you this little kid said to William excuse me is it true that you know the Queen and William sort of just looked at him said don't you mean granny I remember one picture I've got if in fact he's kind of run on the polo field his nanny's grabbed him and she's scolding him and Williams face creases into into tears and I remembered what happened afterwards he ran to his mother and she sat on his lap she soothed him as time moved on William was obviously very aware of who he was in a heated a show for the school he lived in a big house that would need and take too much to realize that there was something rather special about him but to his to his credit and certainly to the credit his mother she tried desperate to make sure that he had has normals and upbringing within that that raw line as possible she went about this in quite a regimented fashion she she said there will be play days and work days and on play days the boys from a very young age we're allowed to prepare jeans aren't t-shirt baseball cap you know behave like ordinary young men and they loved it absolutely lovely dinah would take William and Harry to McDonald's theme parks or park open tars whatever we went on a tube of the underground in the London bus this was Diana's idea of saying well look this is what normal everyday people do my experience of Miss Donna was that she was a sort of princess in how she behaved when she was working but at home she was just like the rest of us when she came to us she did the washing up she mucked about you know made you so I think that's what her sons must have always seen but even at an early age William was starting to realize the challenges that lay ahead I remember sitting with Diana in her drawing-room at Kensington Palace and whenever we chatted there that'd be pictures the boys all around she looked at Williams picture and she said he does feel the burden already on his shoulders that one day he'll be king and I think that has been a characteristic of him throughout in the eyes of the paparazzi of the tabloid press if there's a better story than a royal marriage the the royal marriage in chaos at crisis and breaking down we did have obviously a few posters on the wall of boys she had prints home Fitzwilliam but principally one was the big poster by 1992 10 year old Kate Middleton was studying at st. Andrews prep school in Pangborn meanwhile Prince William was just 20 miles away having enrolled at Ludlow boarding school for the young Prince it would be a year to forget the apron used to his family constantly being in the media spotlight but now they were making headlines for all the wrong reasons in the eyes of the paparazzi of the tabloid press if there's a better story than a royal marriage the lady royal marriage in chaos at crisis and breaking down reports are circulating in Westminster that a statement will be released very soon about the future of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales he's behavior did start to change during the breakup of his parents marriage but one stage I think a boy made a comment about it and he grabbed one of them and flushed his head down the toilet in the school and was actually reprimanded by the headmaster and severely ticked off I know this because I I wrote that story not knowing at the time what the poor lad was suffering 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure it has turned out to be an annus horribilis everything was going wrong that that year particularly you know his mother took part in writing Andrew Morton book motivation was to tell the truth for once forget the propaganda tell the truth about what's really going on because we do face a crisis in the House of Windsor it's obvious to everyone there was the breakup of Andrew Fergie's marriage there was Windsor Castle fired it was one thing after another all about this young boy's family it must have been hell for him it really must at while the House of Windsor was in turmoil the Middletons were going from strength to strength thanks to the success of the family business a mail-order company selling children's party paraphernalia I think what's so remarkable about the Middletons is the fact that Michael and Carol Carol particularly had this vision to make party pieces into a great business which they did they became self-made millionaires as the money rolled in Michael and Carol sold the house in in Brad filter Fenton and moved to the well-heeled village of buckle Bree where neighbours include Kate Bush Chris Tarrant Melinda Messinger it's a quintessential English village which wouldn't look how to play some Midsomer Murders Kate would spend two terms at the all-girl school down house where it said she suffered bullying her parents soon moved her to the 13,000 pounds a year more borough college by the summer of 1997 fifteen-year-old Kate was captain of the school hockey team and studying for her GCSEs but like the rest of us she'll never forget where she was on the 31st of August that year the summer had begun for William with a holiday in San Tropez with his mother and her new boyfriend Dodi al-fayed and where ever Diana went photographers swallowed I remember we were in San Tropez in those last few months of Diana's life and Diana came over to our boat and she said look Williams can't cope with all this pressure you know and she said Williams said to me like well why don't we go live abroad why aren't you going to live in exile the holiday over the young prince's flew back to Britain to spend time with their father at Balmoral unaware of the tragedy that was about to engulf their lives we have reports from Paris the Diana Princess of Wales has been killed in a car accident that her partner Dodi Fayed has also been killed Diana Princess of Wales has died it looks as though the princess has died about four hours after the terrible accident that had happened Dodi Fayed the boys were asleep but Balmoral they were there with Queen and with Charles the decision was taken by Charles and the Queen I think not to wake them when the news came through Charles went in in the early hours of the morning and told him the news who knows what went on in that room it must have been utterly utterly devastating eventually after a few days the public pressure for the Queen to make an appearance was such that she and the boys came outside the gates of Balmoral one evening and looked at all the flowers and tributes to Diana which must have been devastatingly awful for those boys with Prince William I just remember how brave he was in the subsequent days after she died because it was his moving gestures when he went to shake hands with people thanking them for their kind words were so brave thank you so much showed that he had to a natural grace and nobility about him to rise above that his own personal trauma I think that the nation surprised itself by being so grief-stricken over Diana's death I mean looking back maybe it was some form of mass hysteria I don't know but William and Harry were right in the middle of this Maelstrom whenever I see an image of the princes behind Princess Diana's coffin and I think when any of us see these images I imagine everybody feels like I do just incredibly protective and devastated at the level of their loss as I was outside a Westminster Abbey and it was quiet it was quiet of people there and you could just hear the clip-clop of the hooves of the horses as the coffin went by and Harry and William and their father were walking behind and all you could hear was the sobbing people I mean not not weeping but absolute sobbing everybody else it'll work money again in your life sounds like a small thing however many including me it has now reaches forward hollow and oak you know your memories at Marbury College Kate Middleton was excelling academically and had become a popular student with a close circle of friends I shared a dawn with Kate for two and a half years along with three others and we not only shared a dorm but we played sport together we were in the county hockey team which she was the captain of as soon as she arrived at Marbury just shone through when she first got tomorrow we had a summer holiday soon after and she went away and when she came back she just looked completely different she'd you know her hair had grown and she grew curves as soon as she got back every single boy couldn't take their eyes off her she was completely stunning yeah in the door mostly we talk to my boys you know general things that you know girls talk about we did have obviously a few posters on the wall of boys as you do I think I had Leonardo DiCaprio at the time she had Prince Harry and Prince William but Prince William was the big poster the story of Kate's poster of Prince William didn't take long to surface when their relationship became public that Kate remembers things differently there's a story that goes around that you had a picture of him on your wall as a child as wonders idea he wishes knew and now I had to Levis levi's guy on my own no not a picture of willing sorry it was me indeed but the rumors have persisted that Kate was smitten with William even as a teenager and that she may have caught her first glimpse of him in the flesh when he came to play sport at more breath in the school magazine at Marlborough there was apparently a photograph of Kate and William on the same page the sports page where he was photographed playing polo he was obviously up there from Eton and she was played hockey and later apparently one of her friends told me that she used to call that her kismet photograph it showed that fate had brought them together if cake did have her sights set on the handsome young prince she wasn't the only one there is a new star in town a tall 15 year old with the demure smile and his mother's looks is the very latest teenage heartthrob welcome to will mainly William found himself a global heartthrob and was greeted like a pop star on a visit to Canada in 1998 there was a walkabout or two in Vancouver and we were all there all the press and the girls were going mad absolutely potty in it holding up sighs marry me William and he's the me and I touched him they were going absolutely crazy I think William Carol both loved it and was embarrassed way after completing his studies at Eton and keen to evade the spotlight William chose to spend his gap year before University overseas as the new millennium dawned the prince went to chile on a charity expedition from Raleigh International I think the point of Williams gap year and the benefit of Williams gap here was was one that it got him away from from Britain and from the intense relentless media scrutiny that's both William and Harry are always under and it allowed him as well to have that sort of stab at normality and I think uh he needed that to be honest no one knew there was a prince of England and in the midst until until he arrived expedition leader how are you okay the whole project group lived in one room sleeping on mats with one toilet between them all small cooker in the corner and this is the incredible thing is that's that was the future King and he also spent time working with the local school board you say my name is will I am a one bat he was absolutely fantastic with kids he was a DJ for a day I'm afraid of you people were in a bit of a good with me for love this song is for you he had to cook for the rest of the project group and you had to clean toilets ah did he complain no he didn't he was he was absolutely fantastic while the future King was getting back to basics in Chile Kate Middleton spent the first three months of her gap year in the renowned art galleries and Cafe bars of Florence by sheer coincidence kate then went on the very same charity trip that William had experienced in Chile they did the same exhibition six weeks of parts neither knowing that they would meet each other in the future that was a massive coincidence looking back now I think the fact that Kate went to Chile to the same project that William had just left about a month before showed that they were already starting to move in the same sort of circles that they shared similar interests so their paws almost crossed Kate may have narrowly missed out on meeting William in Chile but she wouldn't have to wait long for fate to take its course the small university town of st. Andrews had never seen anything like it she was known as beautiful key almost from day one it's the chose confidence to to show your underwear in front of people and knowing that our princes there as well I think that she may may have known what she was doing you

Channel: MyDigitalRealm

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Keywords: william, kate

Id: k19YOToO1qs

Length: 25min 51sec (1551 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 28 2011