She caught his eye shortly after he arrived in the small and windswept Scottish town of Fife.
The Prince paid £200 for a front seat at a charity student fashion show where she strode confidently down the catwalk in a see-through lace dress which revealed her black underwear.
Miss Middleton had a schoolgirl crush on the Prince and was dubbed ''Princess-in-Waiting'' for having a poster of him in his polo gear on her wall.
The teenage dream became a reality when they got together at university, staying together after they graduated.
The couple briefly split in April 2007, but within weeks they were secretly back together.
When the rekindled romance became public, speculation about an engagement soon grew with many observers saying it was just a matter of time.
Born on January 9, 1982, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton is the eldest child of businessman Michael and former air hostess Carole Middleton.
The self-made millionaires live in a modern five-bedroom detached house in Bucklebury, a small village near Newbury, Berkshire, and run a mail-order business called Party Pieces which sells toys and party paraphernalia.
Miss Middleton has two younger siblings, sister Pippa and brother James.
She was privately educated at the £15,000-a-year Marlborough College, where she was captain of the school hockey team, a keen netball player and played in the first pair at tennis.
Former classmate Charlie Leslie called her "level-headed and down-to-earth"
She said: ''Kate is an absolutely phenomenal girl - really popular, talented, creative and sporty.''
One college master described her as an A-grade pupil and an all rounder who was popular throughout the school.
''You might imagine someone like her would attract a degree of jealousy and bitchiness from other students,'' the master said.
''Not so. She was universally liked and to top it all she was a joy to teach. Quite sickening, really.''
She was not entirely a goody-two-shoes though.
According to her then ''best friend'' Jessica Hay, she used to bare her bottom and moon at the boys' boarding houses regularly from her dorm window.
She is said to have blossomed at Marlborough, arriving as Catherine and leaving as Kate.
Miss Middleton first came into the public attention in 2002, when she was identified as one of three friends with whom William was to share a house while studying at St Andrews.
In the first year, they had lived a few doors apart at St Salvators hall of residence and became friendly, socialising together and playing tennis.
They began sharing an elegant four-bedroom Edwardian townhouse in Fife at the start of their second year.
At the time Miss Middleton was dating another student, Rupert Finch.
Miss Middleton and the Prince were joined by two friends, one of them Fergus Boyd, who was at Eton with the Prince.
The group were often seen out on the town, drinking at their favourite haunts, Ma Bells and the West Port.
The following year the four students moved into a secluded rented cottage outside the town.
Miss Middleton was one of a close coterie of friends invited to William's 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle.
But in an interview given at the time to mark his birthday the Prince insisted he did not have a steady girlfriend.
''There's been a lot of speculation about every single girl I'm with and it actually does quite irritate me after a while, more so because it's a complete pain for the girls,'' he declared.
The pair share a love of sport and the outdoor life and she is said to be amused by William's public school boy sense of humour.
It is not known exactly when the couple became an item but it is rumoured to be around Christmas 2003.
There had been previous suggestions that the flatmates were romantically linked, but the first confirmation appeared to be when they were pictured on the slopes of the posh Swiss ski resort Klosters in March 2004.
Royal aides were furious after The Sun used images, under the headline ''Wills gets a girl'', of the pair sitting side-by-side on a T-bar ski lift together.
Miss Middleton's acceptance as the Prince's girlfriend by "The Firm" was seen as complete a year later when she was pictured again at Klosters happily alongside William and the Prince of Wales.
But Prince William, ever guarded over his privacy, was irritated they had been snapped together on a private break.
He later declared: "I'm only 22 for God's sake. I am too young to marry at my age. I don't want to get married until I'm at least 28 or maybe 30."
Their relationship apparently flourished during romantic weekends alone on the Queen's Balmoral estate, at an outlying and isolated cottage given to the Prince and his younger brother as a bolt hole.
The couple also holidayed abroad together, spending the summer of 2005 at the Lewa Downs wildlife ranch, a private game reserve in Kenya owned since 1924 by the parents of Jecca Craig, who is rumoured to have dated the Prince.
Miss Middleton kept her distance from major royal events throughout most of the romance, although the royals only tend to invite those who have married into the family to official engagements.
There was no sign of her at Prince Charles's marriage to his former mistress Camilla Parker Bowles in April 2005, nor at official engagements such as Trooping the Colour.
But she did attend the wedding of Prince William's close friend Hugh van Cutsem in June the same year.
The couple were cautious. They were said to avoid acting affectionately in front of friends, both keenly aware of the media interest in their relationship.
But their tenderness was clear to see at their graduation ceremony.
As Miss Middleton waited to be shown to her seat inside the hall, the Prince stayed protectively at her side, making sure she was all right.
A perfectly groomed Miss Middleton appeared confident in front of the cameras - although the couple were not pictured together and carefully avoided each other outside.
Her striking short skirt left some wondering whether she actually enjoyed the attention that comes with dating such a high profile senior royal.
An article in The Spectator in August 2005 reported how it had been suggested that Mrs Middleton had persuaded her daughter to reject her first university choice on hearing the news that William was going to St Andrews and take up the offer there instead.
Her daughter, though, has though clearly found the media attention that comes with being Prince William's girlfriend too much at times.
In October 2005, her legal team wrote to newspaper editors appealing to the press to leave her and her family alone.
They claimed she was being followed by photographers on an almost daily basis since leaving university.
She used media lawyers from Harbottle & Lewis, who represent the Prince of Wales and were no doubt recommended by Clarence House.
The problem grew worse in early 2007 and there were reports her lawyers were considering taking legal action to stop the paparazzi harassing her.
On her 25th birthday, she was greeted outside her home by a media scrum.
There were reports in 2005 that the couple's relationship had cooled off, but in the November of that year, it seemed to be going from strength to strength.
They were said to be planning to cohabit and it was also believed that Miss Middleton had been introduced to the Queen.
Meeting the New Zealand rugby team at a Palace reception, Prince William told All Black forward Ali Williams that everything was great when the sports star enquired about his girlfriend.
The player revealed: ''He said it was going well, going steady. He seemed very content.''
In the year after the pair finished their studies, Miss Middleton looked as if she was being prepared for life as an HRH.
Her appearance became more chic and groomed and she continued to maintain her distance from the media.
But she was canny enough to realise that she needed to keep the photographers sweet by flashing the odd smile if a future in the spotlight beckoned.
After leaving university, Miss Middleton was said to have been keen to forge ahead with her own career and was reported to be setting up a children's clothes firm.
The couple holidayed together in Ibiza and were pictured returning from night clubs in the early hours - the Prince looking tired, his girlfriend bright eyed and composed.
Nothing appeared to come of her business venture, with Miss Middleton perhaps committing herself to the royal way of life.
In November 2006, she joined fashion chain Jigsaw, owned by friends of her family Belle and John Robinson, as an accessories buyer.
But a year later she left her job to work for her parents' business.
In December 2006, she turned up to watch her boyfriend graduate as an Army officer at Sandhurst.
It was the first time she had been at a high-profile public event attended by the monarch and senior royals as the Prince's guest and it intensified speculation the pair would walk up the aisle.
A lip reading expert revealed that Miss Middleton had declared as she spotted the Prince in military dress: ''I love the uniform. It's so so sexy.''
Her mother Carole was criticised in the press for chewing nicotine gum during the ceremony.
Yet within months the Prince was drawn away to his life in the Army and the pair had split - but only briefly.
Miss Middleton was spotted out and about, looking happy and relaxed. Far from shying away from the cameras, she even turned up at a book launch PR event and was accompanied to Badminton horse trials by one of Prince William's close friends.
In July 2007, she was a VIP guest in the royal box for the princes' Concert for Diana in memory of their mother. The couple were seen canoodling at the after show party and it was clear that the royal romance was most definitely back on.
Their rekindled relationship went from strength to strength with Miss Middleton appearing at a number of high profile official events including the Prince's RAF 'wings' presentation ceremony in April 2008 and later at the wedding of the Queen's grandson Peter Phillips, mingling with guests who included the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales.
In June 2008, Miss Middleton attended an official Royal public occasion for the first time when she went to the Order of the Garter service at Windsor Castle to watch Prince William taking part.
The same year, however, Miss Middleton - wearing yellow hotpants - was photographed rather unroyally lying flat on her back after taking a tumble during a charity Day-Glo Midnight Roller Disco which she co-organised.
She seemed to have stayed out of the limelight in the first half of 2009. In May 2009, the couple were photographed at a polo match - the first time they had been pictured together in five months.
This low profile continued throughout much of 2010 with the royal girlfriend seen publicly at only a few events.
She appeared at the Prince's side in January when the royal attended a ceremony to mark his completion of an advanced flying course on his way to becoming an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter co-pilot.
At social occasions she was also there - on the slopes in the French Alps with her partner in March and at a wedding in October.
William seemed in no rush to wed. He committed to a number of years in the RAF, keen to pursue his military career, while Miss Middleton's attempts to forge a career seemed to dissipate.
''Waity Katie'' took a back seat and sat patiently in the wings.
With the announcement of their engagement, her future is now set, entrenched in history. She will one day be Queen.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario