The Prince and Princess of Wales recently marked their 15th wedding anniversary, celebrating the occasion by releasing a new family portrait. The Royal couple famously tied the knot in a fairytale ceremony at Westminster Abbey, London, in front of the world’s cameras in April 2011. But there was a moment three years earlier when Kate’s father first thought his daughter’s relationship with the future King was getting “serious”. In his father of the bride speech at the wedding, Michael Middleton is said to have shared an anecdote about William — then an RAF pilot — landing a helicopter in his garden.
“I knew things were getting serious when I found a helicopter in my garden,” he reportedly told guests. “I thought gosh, he must like my daughter,” he said, according to The Times. “I did wonder then how he was going to top this.” Prince William’s landing of the RAF Chinook helicopter in the Middletons’ Berkshire garden in 2008 sparked controversy at the time.
William, who celebrates his 44th birthday on Sunday, and Kate, 44, met when they were students at the University of St Andrews, Fife.
She was a guest of the King and Queen in the royal box last year but pulled out at the last minute, as William attended solo.
At the time it was understood the princess was trying to find the right balance as she made a full return to public-facing engagements following her cancer treatment.
On Wednesday, William and Kate rode in a carriage behind Charles and Camilla along the race course — a tradition dating back 200 years to the reign of George IV who made that first journey with the Duke of Wellington.