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Chapter 2 - A Schoolgirl Crush

Carole and Michael Middleton were utterly determined to give Kate, Pippa and James the best possible start in life. The burgeoning success of Party Pieces provided them with the necessary funds to invest in a private education for their children. From the age of 4 to 12, Kate was sent to St Andrew’s prep school in Pangbourne, Berkshire. This £10,000-a-year institution was just a few miles from the family home in Bucklebury, and, as far as her development was concerned, it wasn’t long before the hefty fees seemed to pay off.

She immersed herself in school life. Kate was one of the most popular and successful pupils at St Andrew’s. In the school magazine, The Chronicle, her achievements were splashed across most pages. She was a tennis champion and the captain of the rounders, netball, cross-country and swimming teams. The sports master showered her with praise when he wrote of her hockey skills:

She is a quick and talented player, although at times she can be erratic...

And in athletics, she held both the long and high jump school records. A former St Andrew’s pupil recalls:‘Kate was so sporty. In many ways she was a real tomboy and the teachers loved her.’

Her talents stretched beyond the sports field and into amateur dramatics. In 1993, The Chronicle records her appearance as a Junior Rat in a school production of Ratz. Later that year, she took the lead part of Eliza Doolittle in the classic My Fair Lady. According to The Chronicle of June 1994, Kate ‘glided about the stage looking stylish and serene’. It was not surprising that she was rewarded for all her work, winning that year’s prize for ‘all-round effort and pleasantness’. Her friend added: ‘She was a model pupil. In fact she was from a model family. Her parents were really supportive of all three children. They regularly got involved with the school and a lot of the girls even had a bit of a crush on Kate’s dad Michael. They were really down to earth, a normal happy family, and the stability undoubtedly rubbed off on Kate. She was very mature for her age and things just didn’t seem to bother her in the way that they did everyone else.’

Kate left St Andrew’s at 11 to attend Downe House in Newbury, where she spent two apparently unhappy years. She then transferred to the exclusive £26,000-a-year Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where she boarded in Elmhurst House.

In February 1998, a rumour bounced off the mixed public school’ s corridors the day before a hockey match. The excited chattering was loudest amongst the female students. ‘He’s coming here - he’s actually coming here,’ they shrieked. ‘And better still, he’ll be wearing shorts!’ By the time ‘he’ finally arrived, the banks around Marlborough’s hockey pitches were packed with pupils determined to catch their first glimpse of Prince William.

The young Prince had attended the pre-prep Wetherby School in Notting Hill, West London, followed by Ludgrove School in Wokingham, Berkshire. From there, he passed the entrance exams for the world-renowned Eton College - an achievement that delighted his father, who saw it as infinitely preferable to his old school, Gordonstoun. And it was the hockey team from Eton that was due to take on Marlborough for the annual inter-school fixture.

Former pupils at Marlborough are unlikely to remember the final score. But few of those who watched the game will ever forget the day they saw William up close. Yet not a single person crammed onto the rain-sodden sidelines realised what they were actually witnessing. That muddy match produced one of the most important moments in modern Royal history. Hidden amongst the hordes of admiring young girls was, of course, the 16-year-old Kate Middleton.

It was the first time William’s bride-to-be had clapped eyes on the man she would one day marry.

A fellow schoolmate recalled the air of anticipation surrounding the game. She said: ‘Like all of us Kate was excited. She wasn’t a shy girl at school but at the same time she was far more level-headed than most of her classmates. Several of them were almost hysterical about seeing Prince William in the flesh. Everyone wanted to catch his eye or, better still, get to talk to him. A few of the girls even put on make-up and made a special effort with their hair in the hope of making an impression. But Kate was above all that. As ever, she just played it cool and came with us to watch.’

‘She was a model pupil...Her parents were really supportive of all three children.’

Sadly, the heavens opened and the day didn’t quite play out as many of the Marlborough girls had hoped. The school chum remembered: ‘In the end, we all got soaked and none of us got to speak to William. Looking back, it seems amazing that William and Kate would eventually end up together.’

Seeing the second-in-line to the throne in the flesh apparently confirmed the schoolgirl crush Kate had harboured for some time.

Another former school friend, Jessica Hay, who knew Kate as Catherine, said: ‘Another girl predicted Catherine would fall in love with a prince. She would tell Catherine that one day she would be the Queen of England - and she would shriek in disbelief.’

Jessica said that Kate was jokingly known to pals as ‘princess-in-waiting’ and insisted that William would be her first serious boyfriend. Racy Kate also occasionally joined in with wilder spirits by mooning out of the window as goggle-eyed lads strolled past. Jessica said: ‘One night I told her to just do it and she did. She would have been 14 at the time.’

Kate is now known to the public by her trademark glossy chestnut hair, stylish dress sense and confident manner. But this was not always the case. In fact Kate - known to some at school as ‘Middi’- was the most unlikely of girls to catch a prince’s eye. Plain but popular, she continued to excel at sport and was ‘solid’ academically but did not tick the boxes of a potential princess-in-waiting.

Other more suitable candidates were growing up in stately homes, polishing their nails along with their manners. But while they were learning how to behave within the upper classes, Kate was different.

It was only in her last year at Marlborough that Kate finally began blossoming into a confident young woman. She also hit her academic stride, following her high-grade passes in 11 GCSEs with three good A-levels. The friend said: ‘She went to a party just a few weeks before her A-levels and she was the one girl all the guys wanted to chat up. She was tanned, had an athletic body and lovely legs - basically they all lusted after her. Even the way she talked had changed. Her accent had become more posh and it was as though she was trying to shake off those middle-class roots.’

William, meanwhile, gained A-levels in geography, history of art and biology, respectively scoring A, B and C grades. Then - just like Kate and thousands of other well-heeled students - he embarked on a gap year. He would enjoy many memorable experiences, including a safari in Africa, volunteer work in Chile and grafting as a farm labourer in England.

He had no doubt long since forgotten about the hockey match against Marlborough. But while he may not have spotted Kate that day, he would get to see a whole lot more of her at his next educational waypoint.

‘Her accent had become more posh and it was as though she was trying to shake off those middle-class roots.’

GIRL ON THE BUS

Kate endeared herself to the public after she was spotted travelling on a bus. She took the number 19 from Chelsea into the West End on a shopping trip in October 2005. Six months later she was snapped waiting for the number 137 in Sloane Square after enjoying a lunch with her mum.

One onlooker said: ‘At the bus stop she completely blended in and certainly did not stand out from the crowd.’ She wore sunglasses for the second outing and wasn’t disturbed by other passengers.

Her lawyers Harbottle & Lewis were unhappy about the pictures and complained that her privacy was being invaded. But the British people were charmed – a possible future Queen free from airs and graces, and using public transport.

Maybe she should have stuck to buses for a little while longer. In October 2008, she was snapped talking on her mobile phone while driving – but wasn’t prosecuted.