25 January 2024 , 10:28
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After eight years of dating (and endless speculation), Prince William and Kate announced their engagement on 16 November, 2010.
A statement from Kensington Palace read, in part, "The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.
"Prince William and Miss Middleton became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya. Prince William has informed The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince William has also sought the permission of Miss Middleton’s father."
A short time after the happy news was announced, William and Kate sat down for their first-ever joint interview - and it was incredibly revealing.
The couple spoke about the origins of their relationship, their brief split, and her sapphire engagement ring, inherited from William's late mother, Princess Diana. They also discussed meeting each other's parents.
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Asked by interviewer Tom Bradby about her first interactions with the royals, Kate admitted she had felt a little anxious about meeting the then-Prince Charles. "I was quite nervous about meeting William's father, but he was very, very welcoming, very friendly, it couldn't have gone easier really for me."
"Meeting the grandmother, the Queen, again not your average meeting with a grandmother, were you nervous about that too?" Tom enquired.
"I first met her at Peter and Autumn's wedding and again it was amongst a lot of other guests and she was very friendly," Kate replied, with William adding: "She was very welcoming. She knew it was a big day and everything was going on with Peter and Autumn. She wanted to meet Kate for a while, so it was very nice for her to come over and say hello."
Similarly, Kate's relatives - mum Carole, dad Michael, sister Pippa and brother James - embraced William as part of the family early on.
"Mike and Carole have been really sort of loving and caring and really fun," William said. "They have been really welcoming towards me, so I've felt really a part of the family."
The couple also spoke about the proposal, with the Prince confirming it had taken place three weeks earlier in Kenya. "We had a little private time away together with some friends and I just decided that it was the right time really," he shared,
"We had been talking about marriage for a while so it wasn't a massively big surprise. I took her up somewhere nice in Kenya and I proposed."
He added: "I'd been planning it for a while but as any guy out there will know it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going. I was planning it and then it just felt really right out in Africa. It was beautiful at the time. I had done a little bit of planning to show my romantic side."
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