How did Prince William go from a diligent schoolboy to a father of a family with many secrets?

In 2022, the probable future king of Great Britain turns 40 years old. Over the past years, he has been a diligent student, sex symbol, helicopter pilot, and father of a large family. In the Robb Report material, we tell the story of the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William: biography, interesting facts, and details of his personal life. Where did he study, who did he meet before Kate Middleton and why was he suspected of cheating

Birth of Prince William

The marriage of Prince William's parents was largely a concession to the dynastic needs of the British royal family. His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, always put the state necessity first and demanded the same from all members of her family - from her sister, Princess Margaret, whom she did not allow to dissolve an unsuccessful marriage and end with her own son. In his youth, Prince Charles fell seriously in love - with a noblewoman of not the most impressive origin, Camilla Rosemary Shand.

The girl was not of the most strict morals - and which of the young could boast of the severity of morals in London in the late 1960s - early 1970s? The couple openly cohabited, and this fact, along with Camilla's low nobility and her age (a year older than the heir), led Queen Elizabeth to impose a ban on the marriage of Charles and Camilla. Realizing that nothing could make the monarch change her mind, and not wanting to waste her years of youth on fruitless waiting, Camilla got married in 1973, and on July 29, 1981, Charles married Countess Diana Spencer, who was 13 years younger and did not have time "ruin your reputation." It is she who in the future will become the mother of Prince William.

The very birth of Prince William marked the "democratization" of the dynasty: he was born not in the palace, like all the children of the heirs before him, but in St. Mary's Hospital. However, William's christening nevertheless took place at Buckingham Palace: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Rancy, christened the baby on August 4, 1982, on the 82nd birthday of his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother.

Prince William's childhood

The boy was not brought up at home with governesses but was taken to kindergarten and primary school: first Jane Mynors (Mrs. Mynors School), then Wetherby (Wetherby School) in London, and from eight to 13 years old, William lived in a closed boarding school Ludgrove (Ludgrove School) in Berkshire. Moreover, the prince did not have a separate room: he shared a bedroom with three classmates. William was popular with classmates: they chose him as the captain of the hockey and rugby teams. In addition, the prince ran cross-country and played football and basketball.

 

After Ludgrove, William was waiting for the most prestigious Eton College. Having barely completed his first year there, the 14-year-old prince faced a difficult test: in 1996, his parents, who had officially lived apart since 1992, finally filed for divorce. This added to the hype surrounding the personal life of Princes Harry and William's mother, Princess Diana. A year later, the excessive interest of the press in her person became one of the reasons for the car accident in which Diana died. Since then, William, who loved his mother and believed that she did a lot of good to people, does not like journalists too much.

After graduating from Eton, the prince decided to take the traditional gap year. He worked on a dairy farm in England and traveled extensively in Africa and South America, volunteering for Raleigh International in Chile, for example. Subsequently, when William chose his master's program, these trips apparently influenced his preferences: he received a degree in geography. In 2000, the heir's first serious romance came with Rose Farquar, whom he met while hunting foxes.

William made a not entirely obvious choice of university: he did not go to one of the two most famous universities in the UK - Oxford or Cambridge (his father, Prince Charles graduated from the latter), but preferred the Scottish University of St. Andrews. On the eve of admission, the young man started a relationship with Arabella Musgrave, a PR woman at Gucci. However, the affair with Arabella turned out to be as fleeting as with Rose: as soon as he arrived at the university's student campus, he changed PR woman to a student. His first chosen one in St.

However, she was not destined to long occupy the thoughts of the prince (who, as you can easily imagine, was very popular with classmates). Somehow, the couple went together to a charity fashion show, where the young man saw a spectacular brunette in a translucent dress on the catwalk. But at that time he was not yet going to officially get engaged: at the same time as Kate, he met with other girls - both at the university and after graduation. Among them, the yellow press mentioned the aristocratic Isabella Anstruther-Goch-Kalsorp (she eventually married a very rich representative of the "golden youth") and a friend of William's youth, Jessica Craig. In 2015, she gave birth to an illegitimate child - then rumors spread about the betrayal of Prince William and that he might be the father of the child.

"Work" as a prince and a series of girlfriends

From the representative of the royal family, especially in the status of the so-called "obvious heir", they expect active participation in public life and state affairs. Having reached the age of majority under British law (21 years old), Prince William not only threw an African-themed party (marked, by the way, by the trick of the famous "freak" Aaron Barshak, who dressed up as Osama bin Laden and entered the event without an invitation) but also became a state an adviser entitled to speak on behalf of the monarch. In 2005, he represented the Queen in this status in New Zealand at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

While still at university, William and Prince Harry were involved in charity work: for example, William helped victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004. In 2005, he followed the example of his late mother and accepted the honorary title of patron of Centrepoint, a homeless charity. To understand what it was like for his wards (and to attract donations to the organization), the prince spent the night right on the street in a sleeping bag.

In 2006, following the tradition of the royal family, William decided to get a military education and spent a year at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Sandhurst), left it with the rank of second lieutenant, and took a vacancy in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Royal Horse Guards. However, the cavalry was not enough for the prince: in 2009 he trained as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, received a captain's rank, and until 2013 served in Wales on the island of Anglesey as a pilot of the Sea King rescue helicopter. The prince saved more than one life: in particular, he helped to remove sailors from the Swanland ship in distress. This was written about in the Russian press since there were also Russian sailors on board.

The prince's flying career continued in 2015, with William flying helicopters for the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity for another two years before announcing that family and government obligations made it impossible for him to continue flying.

Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton

Mindful of the unsuccessful marriage of his parents and taking advantage of the fact that since their wedding, morals had become much more liberal, the prince was in no hurry to marry. His constant girlfriend since his university days was Kate Middleton, but Prince William also dated other girls. In 2007, the couple announced a break in relations: one of the reasons was the obsessive interest of journalists in Kate after the rumor about the upcoming official engagement.

However, the girl's heart is compliant: within a few months, Kate Middleton and Prince William were together again. The girl came with the prince to a concert in memory of his mother, Princess Diana. But the engagement was never announced at that time. Middleton remained "the prince's girlfriend", and William said that he was not going to marry until the age of 29 (and met with other women). The caustic journalists gave Kate Middleton the nickname Waity Katie ("Waiting for Katie"). But Middleton either loved the prince very much or really wanted to become a princess - or both - but she did not give up.

As a result, the Queen of Great Britain intervened, and persistently recommended her grandson finally decide on a bride and start procreation.

Down the aisle, the future Countess of Cambridge (Kate received such a title after the wedding) went to the Cartier tiara, loaned to her by the Queen, and a lace dress with a long train, created by Sarah Burton, designer of the British (according to patriotic tradition) fashion house Alexander McQueen. There was no traditional exchange of rings: Prince William does not wear a wedding ring, but a special Welsh gold wedding ring was still made for the newlywed. It complemented the famous engagement ring with a large oval Sri Lankan sapphire from the house of Garrard, which Prince William presented to Kate when he officially asked for her hand. The ring originally belonged to Princess Diana (she received it for her engagement to Prince Charles); after her death, the jewel passed to Prince Harry, who gave way to her brother when he was about to marry.

Children of Kate Middleton and Prince William

William fulfilled and even exceeded the will of his grandmother: in 10 years of marriage, Kate Middleton and Prince William had three children. On July 22, 2013, son George was born, on May 2, 2015, the baby got a sister named Charlotte, and three years later, on April 23, 2018, baby Louis was born. Unlike his father, for whom the name of the unfortunate Duke Mountbatten of Burma is just one of the "intermediate" baptismal names, everyone calls Louis that.

Prince William can be called a good father. He often appears with his children not only at official events but also takes them, for example, to school. However, the yellow press often hints at Prince William's infidelities. So, in 2017, the marriage of the Dukes of Cambridge was in jeopardy: William ignored official Commonwealth Day events and flew off with friends and some suspicious blonde to the Alps to ski and dance in bars. Divorce, however, was avoided: after the scandal, it became known about Kate's third pregnancy. But journalists do not let up: in 2019, they wrote about William's possible romance with Marchioness Rose Chumley, a neighbor of the Dukes of Cambridge on the estate. However, this - real or fictional - affair did not lead to the divorce of Kate and William. According to the latest news

As a member of the royal family, the prince wears the traditional insignia. On April 23, 2008, the Queen made her grandson a knight of the British Order of the Garter (the thousandth in a row). On his 30th birthday, he became a knight of the Scottish Order of the Thistle. Since his school days, Prince William has been fluent in French and Spanish; he studied Latin at the university. Prince William is still fond of sports in 2021, he is a fan of the Birmingham football club Aston Villa. In May 2006, William took over from his uncle, the Duke of York, the presidency of the Football Association of England.