10 YEARS IN PICTURES
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s ten years together in pitctures from Sun legend Arthur Edwards
HAPPY anniversary, Wills & Kate! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrate 10 years of marriage today.
In this special souvenir, The Sun’s royal photographer Arthur Edwards chooses his favourite pictures from the decade – and tells a few of the stories behind them.
58
58
HEIR RAISING
WHEN Prince William was a little boy, I remember him saying to one of his policemen: “I hate ’tographers!”
I was one of the people who turned up and took pictures at the milestones in the lives of him and Prince Harry.
58
58
58
William, who was very shy back then, didn’t want that for his children so Catherine, has become a superb photographer to record all those magical moments.
The photo she took of William and the kids on a swing was absolutely brilliant and I challenge any professional to do better.
It’s a mother photographing everything she loves in the world – her husband and their three children. Those kids are becoming little characters who are a delight for everyone.
Charlotte is Daddy’s girl and on the swing you can see her hugging William.
George has a hell of a responsibility ahead as King but at the moment his parents just want him to enjoy his childhood.
And little Louis is already such a star. The picture of him with a rainbow on his hands in support of the NHS was a stroke of genius by his mum.
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
GOOD SPORTS
BEFORE the start of a dragon-boat race on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 2012, I said to Catherine: “William says he is going to beat you.” To which she replied: “In his dreams.”
Catherine is fiercely competitive and good at all sports. In Ireland in March last year they tried traditional Gaelic games including hurling.
58
58
To pick up the stick and hit the ball first time is an art. But to everyone’s amazement, they both hit the ball out of the ground. I had the chance to come back and photograph Harry and Meghan at London’s Guildhall but I chose to stay with Kate and William.
I never regretted that because it was great to see them embrace the culture of Ireland and carry on the goodwill generated by the Queen in 2011 on her first state visit to the republic.
Catherine is a superb role model, encouraging young women into sport.
In lockdown she and William became Zoom stars via a series of events, joined the NHS clap with the kids then later ventured out to thank volunteers personally. Good sports indeed!
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
OUT ON THE GOWN
KATHERINE has been a picture of elegance for the past ten years.
Her considered dress sense is always appropriate, whether she’s at a family dinner or a glittering state banquet with William.
58
58
As these ten looks from ten years show, the delectable Duchess hits the fashion high notes every time.
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
OUR WORLD
WILLIAM and Kate are first-class ambassadors for Queen and country when they travel abroad. Nothing is too much for them.
They have to do many seemingly dull engagements, but perform them with great enthusiasm. In Pakistan in 2019, they both looked wonderful in national dress. But what everyone who was there remembers is their plane being hit by a severe thunderstorm.
58
58
Totally calm amid the terrible turbulence as we were tossed all over the sky, Prince William came to the back of the plane and asked the media on board: “Does anyone need a change of underwear?”
On the Pacific island of Tuvalu in 2012, he and Catherine wore grass skirts and floral head-dresses to dance to the drums and sing along with locals. It was magical.
But afterwards William pleaded with me not to use the pictures because his RAF Valley rescue crew back home in Anglesey would take the mickey. Like all royals, they get to see wonderful places – but just for a short while.
Sadly, at Uluru in the Australian Outback in 2014, they were not allowed to walk up the famous rock formation like Diana did on the 1983 tour when William was a baby.
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
REARLY BELOVED
THE nation enjoyed a bonus Bank Holiday when Prince William married his bride on Friday, April 29, 2011 – St Catherine’s Day. I watched the wedding on TV in a tea room at Buckingham Palace, waiting for the couple to return for their balcony kiss.
Along with nearly a million people thronging the streets, we were not disappointed as the newlyweds gave us not one kiss but two. As I was packing up to leave, a press officer whispered in my ear: “Don’t go yet.”
58
58
Prince Charles had given best man Harry permission to borrow his treasured vintage Aston Martin and cover it with balloons and a Just Married sign.
As William drove it out of the Palace gates later that day, the 1970 DB6 kept stopping and starting. Charles later told me William was so nervous he had forgotten to take off the handbrake.
It was a wonderful wedding and, for me, the potted trees brought in to line the aisle in Westminster Abbey were unforgettable.
But for many, one of the things they will remember most about that day is Kate’s sister Pippa’s shapely bottom, which almost stole the show.
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
REMEMBERING
SOME royal jobs call for solemnity. William and Catherine always strike the right note.
In 2012, they paid their respects at the beautifully tended Kranji Cemetery in Singapore, where 4,525 Commonwealth casualties from both world wars lie buried or commemorated.
58
Just under ten years later, the couple were in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, for the farewell to another Far East veteran, the Duke of Edinburgh.
Seeing the Queen sitting all alone at Philip’s funeral broke my heart and reminded us all that the future of the monarchy rests on this young couple.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
One day, Catherine will be our Queen.
I cannot think of a better person to take on that role and support her husband as King, as she already does every day of her life. William, you are a lucky man.
58
Most read in News
58
Will and Kate's timeline
- 2001: THEY meet at St Andrews University, with nearby rooms in St Salvator’s halls of residence. Both study history of art degrees but William switches to geography after struggling to adapt to uni life.
- 2002: IN their second year they leave their halls of residence to go into a flat with two other friends. William later said: “We moved in as friends and it just sort of blossomed from there really.”
- APRIL 2004: SKIING at Klosters in the Swiss Alps, they are pictured together for the first time. Kate instantly becomes one of the most watched and talked-about women in the world.
- JUNE 23, 2005: BOTH graduate from St Andrews. Prince Charles, Camilla, the Queen and Prince Philip beam with pride as “William Wales” is called up to receive his 2:1 degree in geography.
- DECEMBER 15, 2006: KATE goes to William’s passing out parade at Sandhurst as he formally completes his army training. The Queen inspects the cadets and William – now “Lieutenant Wales” – stifles a grin.
- APRIL 11, 2007: IN an hour-long phone call, they decide to take a relationship break. William says later: “We were both very young, we were both finding ourselves. It was just a bit of space and it worked out for the better.”
- JUNE 2007: THE couple reconcile. Kate goes to a party at William’s training barracks where the fancy dress theme is “Freakin’ Naughty”. Wills wears hot pants, while Kate puts on a nurse’s outfit.
- JULY 1, 2007: KATE is a guest at the Prince’s Concert for Diana at Wembley. They sit two rows apart, William with Prince Harry and then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, Kate two rows back with brother James.
- APRIL 11, 2008: WILLIAM’S RAF graduation ceremony at Cranwell, Lincs. Kate watches Prince Charles present William with his helicopter pilot wings then joins them and other graduates for a celebration lunch.
- OCTOBER 23, 2010: THEY attend the wedding of their friends Harry Meade, a showjumper, and Rosie Bradford, a primary school teacher, at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Cheltenham, Gloucs.
- NOVEMBER 16, 2010: ST JAMES’S Palace announces their engagement. Kate wears Princess Diana’s engagement ring and William reveals he proposed on a trip to Kenya. He says: “We’d been talking about it for some time.”
- APRIL 29, 2011: THE couple become the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they marry at Westminster Abbey with a domestic TV audience of 36million. Kate wears an Alexander McQueen dress.
- MAY 24, 2011: AFTER honeymooning in the Seychelles, the newlyweds have another sparkling engagement at home: Hosting US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle at Buckingham Palace.
- JUNE 30, 2011: THEIR first overseas tour together. The couple’s 14,000-mile trip takes in nine cities across the US and Canada, where they sport matching stetsons to watch Calgary’s Stampede parade.
- JANUARY 2012: WILLIAM works as an RAF air sea rescue pilot and the couple live in a rented cottage on Anglesey. On a beach on the Welsh island, they show off an addition to the family – cocker spaniel pup Lupo.
- AUGUST 2, 2012: AS Olympic fever grips the nation, Kate and William watch track cycling in the velodrome at East London’s Olympic Park. They throw their arms around each other in joy as Team GB wins.
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2012: AS part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, they embark on an eight-day tour of Asia – where they join in a dance with locals on the Pacific island of Tuvalu.
- DECEMBER 3, 2012: KATE goes to London’s King Edward VII Hospital with severe morning sickness – and the couple announce they are expecting their first child, 20 months after getting married.
- JULY 22, 2013: A FUTURE king arrives. Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge is born, weighing 8lb 6oz at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, London.
- OCTOBER 23, 2013: JUST three months old, George’s christening is a private affair, with the family choosing the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace over the grandeur of Westminster Abbey.
- APRIL 7, 2014: PRINCE George embarks on his first tour, a visit to Australia and New Zealand. It includes a trip to a zoo to meet George the bilby, named after him. Kate beats William in a sailing race.
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2014: JUST weeks after celebrating George’s first birthday, the couple announce he has a sibling on the way. Kate suffers acute morning sickness, as she did during her first pregnancy.
- MAY 2, 2015: A PRINCESS is born. The couple welcome baby Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, weighing 8lb 3oz. At just ten hours old, she is photographed outside the Lindo Wing with Mum and Dad.
- JULY 5, 2015: PRINCESS Charlotte is christened, with brother George, almost two, stealing the show in red shorts. Photographer Mario Testino takes the first official photo of the family of four.
- OCTOBER 10, 2015: PARENTAL leave over, Kate and William mark World Mental Health Day at Harrow College in London, meeting volunteers from the charity Mind and the Time to Change campaign.
- OCTOBER 26, 2015: THE royal couple attend the world premiere of new Bond movie Spectre at the Royal Albert Hall. Kate appears on the red carpet in a stunning backless Jenny Packham dress.
- DECEMBER 2015: WILLS and Kate release their first Christmas card as a family of four. The photograph for the front shows the happy family among autumn leaves at Kensington Palace in October.
- JUNE 11, 2016: PRINCESS CHARLOTTE takes part in her first royal engagement, the Trooping Of The Colour – and she steals the show, waving from the Buckingham Palace balcony during the fly-past.
- SEPTEMBER 24, 2016: THE family make their first overseas official trip as a foursome with an eight-day tour of Canada. William says his children are beginning their own “lifetime of friendship” with the country.
- MARCH 17, 2017: WILLIAM and Kate make their first official visit to Paris. The occasion marks William’s first time on duty as a serving royal in the French capital since his mother Princess Diana died there in 1997.
- SEPTEMBER 4, 2017: THE couple announce they are expecting their third child. They reveal Kate is suffering from the same morning sickness as in earlier pregnancies and is being cared for at Kensington Palace.
- SEPTEMBER 7, 2017: FOUR-year-old Prince George starts his first day at Thomas’s Battersea prep school. Wills does the school run without Kate as she is unwell with morning sickness.
- DECEMBER 25, 2017: THE birth of the short-lived “Fab Four” as William, Kate, Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle are pictured together for the first time, going to church at Sandringham, Norfolk.
- APRIL 23, 2018: Prince Louis Arthur Charles is born at St Mary’s Hospital, London weighing 8lb 7oz – making him the heaviest of their three children. He is named after Prince Philip’s uncle, Louis Mountbatten.
- MAY 19, 2018: THE family attend Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. George is page boy and Charlotte a bridesmaid, while William is his brother’s best man.
- JULY 9, 2018: THE christening of baby Louis is the first time the family of five are pictured together. The service takes place at the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace, with George and Charlotte both in blue.
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2019: FOLLOWING in her brother’s footsteps, Charlotte attends her first day of prep school at Thomas’s Battersea. The Duke insists she is “very excited” to start as he and Kate drop her off.
- OCTOBER 5, 2019: LIFELONG Aston Villa fan Prince William takes Kate, George and Charlotte to watch his team play Norwich City at Carrow Road. Villa win 5-1 and George jumps around excitedly in the stands.
- MARCH 9, 2020: KATE and William attend the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey with Prince Harry and Meghan – their final appearance as working Royals before stepping down.
- DECEMBER 6, 2020: WILLIAM and Kate borrow the Queen’s Royal Train for a three-day tour of England, Scotland and Wales to thank communities for their resilience and hard work during the pandemic.
- APRIL 17, 2021: THE couple are among the mourners at Prince Philip’s funeral, sitting together opposite Prince Harry at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. The trio are seen talking as they walk away from the service.
Kate Middleton and Prince William celebrate ten year wedding anniversary
Topics