So here we are, settling in for the final few episodes of the final series of The Crown, with a new generation of the royal family here to play us out.
While it’s been well documented that Peter Morgan wasn't going anywhere near Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship and family-fall out (probably for the best, really), there is a lot to see of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s meet-cute at St Andrew’s university and their resulting marriage.
Here’s a full deep dive into their relationship – and why two break-ups meant they nearly didn’t make it down the aisle.
The backstory
The couple were both studying at St Andrew’s University in Scotland in 2001 – the uni famously had a rush on female applicants, especially Americans, when it was revealed that Prince William would be attending – where they had met and enjoyed a friendship for about a year before they first started dating.
In a 2010 engagement interview ITV News, Prince William explained: “When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her, and then I knew there was possibly something I wanted to explore there, but we ended up being friends for a while. That was a good sort of foundation. I do genuinely believe now that being friends with [each other] is a massive advantage.”
In the same interview, Middleton revealed that she was a little less composed when she first met him: “I think I went bright red when I met you, and then just scuttled off, feeling very shy about meeting you. He wasn’t there for freshers’ week, so it did take a bit of time to get to know each other.”
As for rumours as to whether Middleton had a picture of Prince William up on her wall as a child, she clarified: “He wishes! No, I had the Levi’s guy on the wall, sorry!”
They lived in the same flat during their second year at uni in 2002, moving in together with some other friends. In the same year, Middleton famously walked in a charity fashion show in a sheer dress, and "it blossomed from there really”, said William.
The first break up
The pair dated for a year, but broke up for the first time in 2004. “We did split up for a bit,” William confirmed to ITV News. “But we were both very young, it was at university and we were both finding ourselves as such, and being different characters. It was very much finding our own way and we were growing up. It was just a bit of space, and things like that.”
Middleton, understandably, wasn’t as enthused about the break. She told Tom Bradby: “I at the time wasn't very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn't realised — I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you're younger — and I really valued that time for me, as well.”
In Katie Nicholl’s 2010 book, William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls, it's suggested that Prince William had apparently started to feel “claustrophobic” as he approached graduation. By Christmas of 2004, they had patched things up and reconciled.
The second split
They split for a second time in April 2007. In Christopher Andersen’s book William and Kate: A Royal Love Story, Prince William allegedly broke up with Middleton over the phone, while she was at work as a buyer at Jigsaw. According to Andersen, William was having doubts about their relationship and told her: “I can't... It just isn't going to work. It isn't fair to you.” The intense media spotlight on Middleton and William was also another reported factor for their split.
Three months later, when Middleton and her family attended a Concert For Diana, they rekindled their romance. The couple became engaged in October 2010 while on holiday in Kenya, and then married in 2011. They share three children together; Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
