Catherine, Princess of Wales
Catherine, Princess of Wales, is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne.
Born in Reading, Catherine grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire. She was educated at St Andrew's School and Marlborough College before earning a degree in art history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she met Prince William in 2001 and graduated in 2005. She held several jobs and pursued charity work before their engagement was announced in November 2010. She became Duchess of Cambridge by her marriage on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. The couple have three children: George, Charlotte, and Louis. On 9 September 2022, she became Princess of Wales when William was created Prince of Wales by his father, King Charles III. In early 2024, she was diagnosed with cancer, underwent chemotherapy, and resumed duties later that year.
Following her marriage, Catherine has undertaken royal duties and commitments in support of the British monarch. She has represented the royal family on official overseas tours. Catherine has also played a significant role in various charitable activities by undertaking projects through the Royal Foundation, with her work primarily focusing on issues surrounding early childhood care, addiction, and art. She is patron of multiple charitable and military organisations including the Anna Freud Centre, Action for Children, SportsAid, and the National Portrait Gallery. To encourage people to discuss their mental health problems, Catherine envisioned the mental health awareness campaign Heads Together, which she launched with William and her brother-in-law Harry in April 2016.
Catherine's relationship with the media has been closely scrutinised, particularly her efforts to maintain privacy amid significant media attention and public interest. The media have referred to her impact on British and American fashion as the "Kate Middleton effect". Time listed her as one of the most influential people in the world in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Early life and education
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on 9 January 1982 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, the eldest child of Michael Middleton and Carole Middleton. Her parents worked for British Airways as a flight dispatcher and flight attendant, respectively. She was baptised at St Andrew's Bradfield, a local parish church, on 20 June. Catherine has two younger siblings, Philippa and James. Her paternal family benefited financially from trust funds and were upper-middle-class with ties to the landed gentry; her great-grandparents Noël and Olive Middleton played host to members of the British royal family in the 1920s through to the 1940s. Her maternal family are descended from coal miners and have been described as working-class.Middleton's family moved from Bradfield Southend, Berkshire, to Amman, Jordan, in May 1984, where Catherine attended an English-language nursery school. When her family returned to Berkshire in September 1986, she was enrolled aged four at St Andrew's School, a private school near Pangbourne in Berkshire. She boarded part-weekly at St Andrew's in her later years. In 1987 her mother founded Party Pieces, a privately held mail order company that sold party supplies and decorations. In 1995 the family moved to the village of Bucklebury where Catherine studied at Downe House School. She was a boarder at Marlborough College, a co-educational boarding school in Wiltshire, where she showed talent in sport and was captain of the girls' field hockey team. While attending the school, she was awarded a gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. She also underwent an operation on the left side of her head, reportedly to remove a lump, during the same period.
Despite being offered a place at the University of Edinburgh, Middleton took a gap year, studying at the British Institute of Florence in Italy and travelling to Chile to participate in a Raleigh International programme. She worked as a deckhand at the Port of Southampton in the summer preceding university. She subsequently enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, where she initially studied psychology before focusing solely on art history. She worked part-time as a waitress during her studies. Middleton was an active member of The Lumsden Club, which held fundraisers and community projects each year. In 2005 she graduated from the University of St Andrews with an undergraduate Master of Arts in art history.
Personal life
Relationship with Prince William
In 2001 Middleton met Prince William while they were students in residence at St Salvator's Hall. She reportedly caught William's eye at a charity fashion show at the university in 2002. The couple began dating in 2003. During their second year, Middleton shared a flat with William and two friends. From 2003 until 2005, they both resided at Balgove House on the Strathtyrum estate with two roommates. They began staying at a cottage on the Balmoral estate known as Tam-Na-Ghar, which was a gift from Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to William shortly before her death. The property has remained a private retreat for the couple in subsequent years. In 2004 the couple briefly split but later rekindled their relationship.In November 2006, Middleton commenced part-time work for twelve months as an accessories buyer with the clothing chain Jigsaw. She also worked as a project manager in the family business, where she was responsible for the website and catalogue.
Middleton attended William's Passing Out Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in December 2006. In April 2007, they ended their relationship. It was subsequently reported that the couple had reconciled. In May 2008, Middleton attended the wedding of William's cousin Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly in place of William, where she met Queen Elizabeth II for the first time.
Middleton also attended the Order of the Garter procession at Windsor Castle in June 2008, where William was made a Royal Knight of the Garter. In July 2008, she was a guest at the wedding of Lady Rose Windsor and George Gilman while William was away on military operations in the Caribbean, serving aboard HMS Iron Duke. In June 2010, the couple moved into a cottage on the Bodorgan Estate in Anglesey, Wales, where William resided during his RAF search and rescue training and subsequent career. Before her marriage, Middleton lived with her sister Pippa in an apartment owned by their parents in Chelsea, London.
Marriage and children
Middleton and William became engaged in October 2010, at a remote alpine cabin on Mount Kenya during a ten-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Clarence House announced the engagement on 16 November that year. William gave her the engagement ring that had belonged to his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Middleton was confirmed into the Church of England on 10 March at St James's Palace by the Bishop of London, with her family and William in attendance, preceding her wedding.The couple married on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey on St Catherine's Day. The day was declared a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the global audience for the wedding ranged around 300 million or more, whilst 26 million watched the event live in Britain alone. Her wedding dress was designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen. Catherine was styled as "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge". The couple were given the country home Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham House estate, as a wedding gift from the Queen.
In December 2012, St James's Palace announced that Catherine was pregnant with her first child. The announcement was made earlier than is usual as she had been admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness. She gave birth to Prince George at St Mary's Hospital, London, in July 2013. The severe morning sickness returned with the subsequent pregnancies, forcing Catherine to cancel her official engagements. She gave birth to Princess Charlotte in May 2015 and to Prince Louis in April 2018. George, Charlotte and Louis were respectively third, fourth and fifth in the line of succession to the British throne at the times of their births. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, they became second, third, and fourth in line to the throne. They have owned two English Cocker Spaniels, named Lupo and Orla.
Following their marriage, she and William continued to reside in Anglesey in a rented four-bedroom farmhouse on the Bodorgan Home Farm estate, while William worked as an RAF search and rescue pilot. They also used Nottingham Cottage as their London residence. In 2013 they moved into the 20-room Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, renovated over 18 months at a cost of £4.5 million. It became their main residence in 2017. In September 2022, the family moved to Adelaide Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle, where they lived until October 2025. Forest Lodge is their current residence.
Health
In January 2024, Kensington Palace announced that Catherine had undergone planned abdominal surgery at the London Clinic for an undisclosed condition. She postponed engagements through March, prompting public speculation and conspiracy theories.On 22 March, in a video message, Catherine revealed that post-operative tests had found cancer and that she had begun chemotherapy in late February. Her leave was extended as treatment continued.
Catherine returned to public view at Trooping the Colour in June. In September, she announced the end of chemotherapy and her intention to resume duties. In October, she met families of the victims of the 2024 Southport stabbings in her first official engagement since treatment. In January 2025, following a visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital, where she had received treatment, Catherine confirmed she was in remission.