Catherine, Princess of Wales (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; 9 January 1982) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne.
Born in Reading, Catherine grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire. She was educated at St Andrew's School and Marlborough College before earning a degree in art history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, where she met Prince William in 2001 and graduated in 2005. She held several jobs and undertook charity work before their engagement was announced in November 2010. She became Duchess of Cambridge on their marriage at Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011. The couple have three children: George, Charlotte, and Louis. She became Princess of Wales on 9 September 2022, when William was created Prince of Wales by his father, King Charles III. In early 2024, she was diagnosed with cancer, underwent chemotherapy, and resumed duties later that year.
Following her marriage, Catherine has undertaken royal duties and engagements in support of the monarch and has represented the royal family on official overseas tours. Her charitable work, largely through the Royal Foundation, focuses on early childhood, addiction, and the arts. She is patron of several charitable and military organisations, including the Anna Freud Centre, Action for Children, SportsAid, and the National Portrait Gallery. To encourage public discussion of mental health, she helped develop the Heads Together campaign, launched with William and her brother-in-law Harry in April 2016.
Catherine's relationship with the media has attracted sustained attention, particularly her efforts to maintain privacy amid significant public interest. Her influence on fashion has been described as the "Kate Middleton effect". Catherine was named one of Time's most influential people in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born on 9 January 1982 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, the eldest child of Michael Middleton and Carole Middleton (née Goldsmith). Her parents were employed by British Airways; her father as a flight dispatcher and her mother as a flight attendant. She was baptised on 20 June at St Andrew's Bradfield, the local parish church. Catherine has two younger siblings, Philippa ("Pippa") (born 1983) and James (born 1987). Her paternal relatives benefited from family trust funds and were regarded as upper-middle-class with connections to the landed gentry; her great-grandparents Noël and Olive Middleton hosted members of the British royal family from the 1920s to the 1940s. Her maternal family, descended from coal miners, have been described as working-class.
In 1984, the Middletons moved from Bradfield Southend, Berkshire, to Amman, Jordan, where Catherine attended an English-language nursery school. Following the family's return to Berkshire in September 1986, she was enrolled at St Andrew's School near Pangbourne, a private school, where she later boarded part-weekly. In 1987, her mother founded Party Pieces, a privately owned mail-order company supplying party goods. The family relocated to Bucklebury in 1995, and Catherine continued her education at Downe House School, before becoming a boarder at Marlborough College in Wiltshire. At Marlborough, she played several sports and captained the girls' field hockey team. She earned a gold Duke of Edinburgh Award and underwent an operation on the left side of her head, reportedly to remove a lump, during this period.
Although offered a place at the University of Edinburgh, Middleton took a gap year, studying at the British Institute of Florence and travelling to Chile to join a Raleigh International programme. She worked as a deckhand at the Port of Southampton during the summer preceding university. She subsequently enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Fife, initially studying psychology before focusing solely on art history. While at university, she worked part-time as a waitress and was an active member of The Lumsden Club, which organised fundraising events and community projects. She graduated in 2005 with an undergraduate Master of Arts (2:1 Hons) in art history.
Relationship with Prince William
In 2001, Middleton met Prince William while they were students in residence at St Salvator's Hall. She reportedly caught William's attention at a charity fashion show at the university in 2002. The couple began dating in 2003. During their second year, Middleton shared a flat with William and two friends. From 2003 until 2005, they lived at Balgove House on the Strathtyrum estate with two roommates. They also began staying at Tam-Na-Ghar, a cottage on the Balmoral estate that had been given to William by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother shortly before her death. The property has remained a private retreat for the couple in subsequent years. In 2004, the couple briefly separated before later resuming their relationship.
In November 2006, Middleton commenced part-time work for 12 months as an accessories buyer with the clothing chain Jigsaw. She also worked as a project manager in the family business, where she was responsible for the website and catalogue.
Middleton attended William's Passing Out Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in December 2006. In April 2007, they ended their relationship. It was subsequently reported that the couple had reconciled. In May 2008, Middleton attended the wedding of William's cousin Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly in William's place, meeting Queen Elizabeth II for the first time.
Middleton attended the Order of the Garter procession at Windsor Castle in June 2008, where William was made a Royal Knight of the Garter. In July 2008, she was a guest at the wedding of Lady Rose Windsor and George Gilman while William was serving in the Caribbean aboard HMS Iron Duke. In June 2010, the couple moved into a cottage on the Bodorgan Estate in Anglesey, Wales, where William lived during his RAF search and rescue training and subsequent career. Before her marriage, Middleton lived with her sister Pippa in an apartment owned by their parents in Chelsea, London.
Middleton and William became engaged in October 2010 at a remote alpine cabin on Mount Kenya during a ten-day visit to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Clarence House announced the engagement on 16 November that year. William gave her the engagement ring that had belonged to his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Middleton was confirmed into the Church of England on 10 March at St James's Palace by the Bishop of London, with her family and William in attendance, ahead of the wedding.
The couple married on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey on St Catherine's Day. The day was declared a bank holiday in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the global audience for the wedding reached around 300 million, whilst 26 million watched the event live in Britain. Her wedding dress was designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen. Catherine was styled as "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge". The couple were given Anmer Hall, a country home on the Sandringham estate, as a wedding gift from the Queen.
In December 2012, St James's Palace announced that Catherine was pregnant with her first child. The announcement was made earlier than usual as she had been admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness. She gave birth to Prince George at St Mary's Hospital, London, in July 2013. The condition recurred during her subsequent pregnancies, leading Catherine to cancel official engagements. She gave birth to Princess Charlotte in May 2015 and to Prince Louis in April 2018. George, Charlotte, and Louis were respectively third, fourth, and fifth in the line of succession to the British throne at the times of their births. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, they became second, third, and fourth in line to the throne. They owned an English Cocker Spaniel, Lupo, who died in 2020, and now have Orla and one of her puppies, Otto, both of the same breed.