06 January 2024 , 12:04
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Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, was once landed "bombshell" news in a carpark that could have "changed her life forever."
Then 25 years old and working as a fashion buyer for Jigsaw, Katherine's world blew up one spring day in a car park, according to author Tina Brown. She had met Prince William in 2001 at the University of St Andrews, but by 2007 they were spending more time apart as he was in the military.
Brown wrote in her best-selling book The Palace Papers that there was an 'let's get it over with' phone call in April to Kate while she was at the Jigsaw office, he dropped the 'break-up bomb'. She continued: "She had to excuse herself from a meeting and pace around the parking lot for an hour-long heart-to-heart that left her in pieces." Jigsaw gave her compassionate leave and Kate fled back home to Bucklebury.
"It was clear it was William—and definitely a tiff", Kate’s former colleague said of the 2007 breakup. They continued: "Around the middle of the day, she was pacing the car park outside the office on her mobile. A few people noticed, because it’s a pretty unusual thing to do. She’d deliberately gone outside to take the call because she didn’t want to be overheard."
The unnamed person added: "Kate was walking up and down and looking upset as if she was having an argument. But she didn’t cry. Word went ‘round that it was William, and they were having problems. Now it’s clear what it was all about. When she came back to the office, she didn’t say a thing and disappeared for the rest of the day. We didn’t think anything about it at the time. But looking back, the call was definitely a girlfriend-boyfriend tiff."
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During this short-lived breakup, she joined a rowing team and was caught by paparazzi on numerous nights out. Brown wrote: "Beautiful, self-assured and embossed now with a royal sheen, Kate could have become the wife of a duke or a billionaire in a Highgrove minute."
Two months later reports surfaced at the time that William had reconnected with Kate at Sam Waley-Cohen's 25th birthday party at his family’s Oxford mansion, during which they reportedly rekindled the romance. Kate was also spotted at the memorial concert for his mother, Princess Diana, at Wembley Stadium the following week.
Young William and Kate in 2007, just before their breakup (AFP/Getty Images)During their 2010 engagement interview, William reflected on his and Kate’s brief time apart, saying: "We were both very young, it was at university, and we were both sort of defining ourselves as such and being different characters." Kate added: "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."