The Surprising Way Queen Camilla “Was Behind” Kate Middleton and Prince William’s Breakup

Kate Middleton and Prince William’s relationship timeline is pretty straightforward: They met in college, fell in love, and got married. But somewhere between love and marriage (in 2011, specifically), these two had a brief breakup—and apparently, Prince William’s stepmother Queen Camilla was vaguely behind it?

The Express just dusted off a quote from royal author Christopher Anderson, who once told the Daily Beast that Camilla encouraged William to break things off.

“I was in London when the breakup occurred,” Anderson said. “I was shocked, completely stunned. Everyone thought it was only a matter of time before William was going to ask Kate to marry him. And then people started telling me that Camilla was behind it.”

trooping the colour
Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images

Anderson went on to note that “Camilla is a bit of a snob,” adding, “She’s an aristocrat; she has always been moving in royal circles. She had always thought of herself as the heiress to Alice Keppel, her great-grandmother, who was the mistress of Edward VII. She was very proud of that connection; she boasted about that as a child and as an adult and that’s what she intended to be—part of the royal circle in the role of mistress to the future king and then the king.”

When it came to William’s dating life, Camilla “did not look at Kate as someone who was worthy of joining the royal family. Kate is the first working-class woman to be accepted into the royal family. She is descended from coal miners and her mother was a flight attendant. So for all those reasons, Camilla never really felt that Kate Middleton as an individual and the Middleton family as a whole were going to be worthy of entering into the royal family.”

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Kate Middleton, Queen Camilla, and Prince Harry back in 2008, when Kate and Prince William were dating.Pool/Tim Graham Royal Photos - Getty Images

Anyway, apparently, Camilla told Charles it was time to “force” William to make a decision about Kate: “It has been since confirmed publicly that Charles did suggest to William that he either make a commitment to Kate or basically set her free, as it were. Now, his motives for doing that may have been pure, but Camilla’s…not so much. She was the instigator of this.”

Obviously, the breakup didn’t last, and nowadays, it seems like Camilla and Kate get along fine? Meanwhile, Wills and Kate spoke about their split during their engagement interview, when Kate simply said, “We were both finding ourselves and such and being different characters and such.” Kay!

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