In full: William and Kate's 2010 engagement interview | ITV News

okay people are obviously incredibly curious about you so let's start with the obvious william where did you propose when how and kate what did you say uh it was about three weeks ago on holiday in kenya um we had a little private time away together with some friends and i just decided that it was the right time really um we've been talking about about um marriage for a while so it wasn't a massively big surprise but uh i took her up somewhere nice and in kenya and unproposed it's very romantic there's a true romantic and that's and you said yes obviously of course yes yeah absolutely yeah and you knew you were going to do this from day one of the holiday or you you waited till the end i've been planning it for a while but uh as every guy out there will know it's uh it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going so i was planning it and then it just felt really right out in in africa it was beautiful at the time and i just i had done a little bit of planning to obviously share my romantic side think okay you've been on holiday a while so did you see this coming was he getting a bit nervous and jumpy no not at all because you know we were out there with friends and things so i really didn't expect it at all i thought he might have sort of maybe thought about it but no it was a total shock when i came and very excited and you produced the ring yeah there and then i did yeah i've been carrying it around me in my rucksack for about three weeks before that and i literally would not let it go everywhere i went i was keeping a hold of it because i knew this thing if it disappeared i'd be in a lot of trouble um and yeah because i planned it i sort of it went fine as you know you'll hear a lot of horror stories about proposing and things get horribly wrong it went really really well and uh yeah i was very pleased she said yes and it's a family ring it's a phone ring yes it's my mother's engagement ring so i thought it was quite nice because um obviously she's not me around to share any of the um the fun and excitement of it all that this is my way of keeping her sort of close to it all and i guess we better we better have a look at it what what kind of ring is it are you an expert on what i'm not an expert on at all i've been reliably informed it's the sapphires and diamonds but i'm sure everyone recognizes it from uh from previous times so okay you're going to be an envy of many well i just hope i look after it it's very very special uh has to be said you both look incredibly happy and relaxed we are we are we're we're like sort of ducks it's very calm on the surface but the little feet going under the water but uh no it's been really exciting 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 to tell everybody because especially the last two or three weeks have been quite difficult not telling anyone keeping it to ourselves for reasons we had to and uh it's really nice to finally got to share with everyone and you obviously have kept it a secret so when did you did you ask kate's dad and what did you say and if you what did your respective parents say when you told them well i was i was torn between asking kate's dad first and then the realization that he might actually say no torn upon me so i thought if i asked kate first then he can't really say no so i i did that with rounds and uh i managed to speak to uh to mike um sort of soon after it happened really um and then it sort of happened from there okay what did your mom say well i think any mother would be she was absolutely over the moon and actually had quite an awkward situation because i knew and i knew that william had asked my father but i didn't know if my mother knew so i came back from scotland and um you know my my mother made it sort of didn't make it clear to me whether she knew or not so both of us were there sort of looking at each other and feeling quite awkward about it but um it was amazing to tell her and obviously she was very happy for us i mean one of the things that's been clear actually for a long time is you very evidently have a you know a close close-knit family and family is very important to you yeah no it's very important to me and you know i i hope we'll you know be able to have a happy family ourselves because it's been you know they've been great over the years helping me with you know difficult difficult times and um you know we see a lot of each other um and they're very very dear to me people are bound to ask you know it's a bit of an obvious question but children do you want lots of children is you know see what comes what's your i think we'll take it one step at a time we'll sort of get over the marriage thing first and then maybe look at the kids but uh obviously you know we we want a family so um you know we'll have to start thinking about that going back going back to the stocks i i think people as i say will be very curious about the totality of your relationship when did you first set eyes on each other and what did you think well it's a long time ago now tom i'm trying to rack my brain about at all but uh we were obviously we met at university at andrews and uh we were friends for over a year first um and it just sort of blossomed from then on um we just spent more time with each other and had a good giggle had lots of fun and realized we shared the same interests and just you know had a really good time she's got a really nice sense of humor which kind of helps me because i've got a very dear sense humor so it was good fun we had it we had a really good laugh and then things happened okay what did you think of william i mean it's clearly not quite the same as meeting your average you know universities or maybe it was i don't know but uh what was your first impression well i actually i think when when you said i actually went bright red when i met you and sort of scuttled off feeling very shy about about meeting you but um and actually wasn't there for for quite a bit of the time initially he wasn't there for fresh as we can and so it did take a bit of time for us to get to know each other um but we did become you know very close friends from from quite early on there's a story that goes around that you had a picture of him on your wall as a child just one that was like he wishes no um no i had the levi's levi's guy on my not a picture of william sorry it was me and levi's honestly so you lived you ended up sort of in the same flat was that if you don't mind me asking before you were going out or we no we we moved in together as friends and then because we were living together we lived with other a couple of others as well um and it just sort of it sort of blossomed from there really we just saw more of each other you know hung out a bit more and did stuff so um yeah you like my cooking well your cooking was all right it's got better does william ever cook or indeed do anything useful around them to find useful tom let's not go there he does actually he did cook for me quite a bit at university and it would always come with a bit of angst and a bit of anger if something had gone wrong and i'd have to wander in and save save something that was going so being honest is that a skill that's declining over time or improving i would i would say i'm getting better cooking um kate would say i'm getting a lot worse i didn't give you enough chance to practice though no that is true i get quite quite lazy about cooking because you know when i come back from work and stuff it's the last thing i want to do really is spend lose time cooking but when i was um trying to impress kate um i was trying to cut these amazing fancy dinners and all that would happen was i'd burn something something would over spill something will catch on fire and she'd be sitting in the background just trying to help and basically take control of the whole situation so i was quite glad she was there at the time slightly awkward for the other flatmates or okay no to be honest they were they were happy they were used to it watching me sort of catching things far and you know they were they found it very amusing but i mean having the two of you going out in the flat or did they just knock about an eyelid um i think at first they were they were sort of a bit surprised that it was what happened and then they realized it was it was really nice and it was good fun and we got on really well they were good friends of ours as well and so we we had a good we had a good giggle with them as well now i suppose a lot of people are going to wonder the first meeting with the families again not necessarily your average meeting kate what was your first impression of the family well i was i was quite nervous about meeting william's father but um but no he's very very welcoming and you know very friendly so yeah i couldn't have it couldn't have gone easier really for me but um but i'm meeting the grandmother the queen not again like your average meeting with a grandmother was that you know nervous about that too well i've i first met her at peter and autumn's wedding um and again it was in amongst a lot of other i guess and she was very friendly and no it was it was yeah it was fine she's very welcoming she knew it was um it was a you know it was a big day and everything was going on peter and autumn were there earnings and she's uh she wanted to meet kate and for a while so it was very nice of her to come over and say hello and had a little chat and got on really well you're clearly tremendously fond of each other's families and i'm guessing that is a bit going to be well obviously transparently it's going to be a big part of your life going forward both your lives yeah definitely as you know kate's kate's family she's got very very close family um and i get on really well with them and i'm very lucky they've been so supportive uh mike and carol have only been you know really sort of loving and caring and really fun um and have been really welcoming towards me so i felt really part of the family and i hope kate's felt the same with my family people are bound to ask you leave university you've been going out a bit and you split up famously all over the papers what was all that about i mean people are bound to want to know well i think to be honest i wouldn't read ever i would believe everything you read in the paper but uh you know in that particular instance um we did we did split up for a bet but that was just you know we were both very young it was at university and we were we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being you know different characters and stuff it was very much trying to find our own way and when we were growing up and so it was just sort of you know a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it soon worked out for the better and i think i at the time wasn't very happy about it but actually it made me a stronger person you find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn't realized or i think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you're younger and you know i really i really valued that time for me as well although i didn't think at the time looking back on it i had a chance to re-center yourself yeah definitely yeah this is normally bad did you kind of always have at the back of your mind that you wanted to marry each other did that come slowly did you suddenly decide a couple of weeks ago i mean people have assumed you're going to be married for a long time how did you both come to it in your head well from my point of view i you know when i first met kate i knew there was something very special about him and that i knew that there was there was possibly something that i wanted to explore there uh but we ended up being friends for a while and and that just sort of was a good sort of foundation um because i do generally believe now especially that um you know being friends with you know one another is a massive uh advantage um and it just went from there and over the years um i knew things were getting better and better and we went through a few stumbling blocks as every relationship does uh but we we put ourselves up and carried on and we you know from where you had you know the odd problem when you were first getting to know each other those have all gone and it's just really easy with being with each other and it's really fun and uh um i'm obviously extremely funny and she loves that so um it's uh it's really good okay so yourself okay you are you know you're obviously upset when you split up all your friends uh both of your friends talk about you know this is there's a very substantial love that's built up over a very long period of time you know that's part friendship and obviously more than that well i think if you when you go out with someone for quite a long time you do get to know each other very very well you go you go through the good times you go through the bad times you know both both personally but also within a relationship as well and you know i think if you can come out of that stronger and you know learn as i said things about yourself and you know it's certainly it's suddenly um yeah being a good good for how many years i lost he did take his time did you ever want him to come on well no we do we've had our we've had our conversations but i think you know it was um we've talked about it today for a while haven't we we've talked about this happening for a day so kate wasn't in the in the dark over at all we've been planning it for you know for at least a year and if not longer um it was just finding the right time and that was what you know as most people people say with couples it's all about timing and i had my you know my military career and i really wanted to concentrate on my flying and i couldn't have done this if i was still doing my training so i've got that out of the way and kate's you know in a good place with in terms of work and where she wants to be and stuff and we just both decided was a really good time you're obviously going to enter this family the most famous you know royal family in in in the world william's mother was this massive iconic figure the most famous figure of our age is that worrying is that is that intimidating does that does that do you think about that a lot both of you you particularly kate obviously well obviously it'd be um i would love to have met her um and and she's obviously she's an inspirational woman to to look up to um obviously on the to this day and you know going forward and things you know it is you know it's a wonderful family the members who i've i've met have achieved a lot and you know very inspirational so um yeah i do there's no pressure though because there's no pressure because like um kate said you know it's about carving your own future um no one's gonna try and you know no one's trying to fill my mother's shoes and she what she did is fantastic um it's about making your own future and your own destiny and and kate will do um will do a very good job of that this is a life you know in the public domain to a degree that you can't escape you both know that you're obviously very pretty you know you know it better than kate does you're obviously very protective of that massively so of course you know her and her family i really want to make sure they they have the best um sort of guidance and chance to see what life's been like or what life is like in the family and that's kind of almost why i have been waiting this long as i wanted to give her a chance to see and to back out if she needed to um before it all got too much because you know it's i'm trying to learn from lessons done in the past and i just wanted to give her the best chance to to settle in and see what you know what happens the other side and i'm i'm also glad that i've i've had the time to sort of to grow and understand myself more as well so hopefully does that mean hopefully it took it off yes so you've you know there's been a conscious i mean part of the reason it's taken you this long is that you've both spent a long time contemplating the future being calm about it pondering it thinking about it is that right it is yeah we've talked about it a lot haven't we so it's always been something we've had a good chat about and and you know like we said both of us we've come to the decision you know pretty much together i just chose you know when to do it and obviously being a real romantic i did it extremely well okay just coming to the close people have put you know placed some criticisms of you you know about about your work and so on does does that hurt how do you how do you respond to people who say those things well i think i i know i've been working very hard for the family business um sometimes those days are long days and and you know i think if i know i'm working hard and i'm you know pulling my weight both work and then playing hard at the same time you know i i think you know everyone who i work with i think can see that i'm there pulling my weight and that's really what matters to me and you know your family as you've said you're very close does it hurt some of what said or do you let it run run off your all your collective backs on the grounds that that's just what you have to live with well again i think if you the people around home are very supportive to us and you know those are the people that really matter to us our close friends and close family and i think if sort of they feel that you're doing the right thing you can only be sort of true to yourself and you sort of have to ignore a lot of what's said obviously take it on board but you know you have to be yourself really and that's how i've stopped by it really it's a massive thing you're going into now you know i mean obviously marriage is a big thing for everyone but it's you know in such a public way excited a little bit terrified massively excited quite happy when the interview's over but no we're hugely excited and uh it's you know we're looking forward to spending the rest of our times in the best of our lives together um and seeing what the future holds okay for you do you you've had a long time to sort of contemplate this moment to you that's not let's not over egg them no it it is it's obviously nerve-wracking because i don't know what i'm um um sort of i don't know the ropes really william i was obviously used to it but um but now i'm i'm willing to learn quickly and and work hard and i should do really well yeah a lot of opportunities obviously within the family you know this huge ability to change people's lives for the better i guess that's something you must have contemplated as well yes well i really hope i can i can make a difference you know even in the smallest way um yeah i'm looking forward to helping as much as i can well thank you very much for talking us you look as i said at the start very relaxed very happy good luck thank you

Channel: ITV News

Views: 1,245,474

Rating: 4.8129377 out of 5

Keywords: Duke of Cambridge, Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Family, The Queen, The Crown

Id: 2hPi38x90ks

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020