The course of true love never did run smooth, and Prince William and Kate Middleton definitely endured some very choppy waters in their younger years. Although the Prince and Princess of Wales have been the picture of a perfectly happy married couple since they tied the knot in 2011, things weren’t always so simple for them, with the dramatic twists and turns of Wills and Kate’s courtship now returning to the spotlight.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, from author Robert Jobson, recently hit shelves, and its most fascinating chapters concern the ups and downs of the early days of the Waleses’ relationship. Jobson’s book makes clear that, despite hitting it off with Kate while they were students at St. Andrews University in 2001, William was extremely reluctant to settle down with his future wife for a long while, with the couple having an on/off-again romance across the 2000s.
Things reached a particularly low point in 2007, when William broke up with Kate over the phone — while he was at a club with his friends. Although the prince allegedly “celebrated” dumping her by doing the robot dance and buying a round of drinks, Kate was devastated by the development and believed this was the final end of their relationship. But, whether intentional or not, she ended up getting the perfect revenge.
What happened between Kate Middleton and ex-boyfriend Sir Henry Ropner?
The reason William was so keen to cut ties with Kate at this time was because he was eager to woo banking heiress Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe (who nonetheless repeatedly rebuffed his advances and ultimately married Richard Branson’s son instead). Knowing William was seeing — or, at least, attempting to see — other people, Kate decided to do the same.
As per Jobson’s book and various other sources, Kate embarked on a wild summer, which saw her jet off to Ibiza with her sister, Pippa, and make a splash on the London social scene upon her return home. This led her to start dating Sir Henry Ropner, the son of a shipping magnate and heir to a £33.7 million fortune. Ironically, Roper and William knew each other of old, as the pair went to school together at Eton. So Kate couldn’t have chosen a more perfect choice of rebound guy if she had tried.
As it happens, Kate’s relationship with Ropner didn’t last too long as, against her expectations, William came crawling back to her just a few months later. With the prince said to have realized his mistake and “how much he missed her,” the pair accidentally crossed paths while at a mutual friends’ “Freakin’ Naughty” party. Kate’s costume for the evening immediately caught William’s eye, and by the end of the shindig, they were back to being an item.
“She’d arrived dressed as a nurse and William had made a beeline for her,” writes Jobson in his book. “They then spent the first part of the evening deep in conversation before hitting the dance floor, where they ended up kissing. When friends joked they should get a room, they sloped off together.”
In hindsight, however, the dramatic breakup the couple endured was probably for the best, as Kate was able to expand her horizons for a time and work out who she was outside of her relationship with William. “I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you’re younger,” Kate has previously recalled about her split from the prince (via The Mirror). “I really valued that time for me.”
Sir Henry likely doesn’t regret that he wasn’t able to steal Kate away from William long-term, either. Shortly after Catherine walked down the aisle in 2011, Ropner tied the knot, too, marrying businessman’s daughter Natasha Sinclair. The Ropners reside in the family’s 1000-acre estate in Yorkshire with their children. Not quite Buckingham Palace, but still, not too shabby.
