Kate (6 page)

Kate was consistently well behaved and got along well with her teachers. When Dr. and Mrs. Acheson left the school, Kate presented them with a teddy bear that everyone in the family had signed. She had carefully inscribed it with the words that Dr. Acheson had instilled in her: “I'll always keep smiling.” “She had the most fabulous smile, and I always told her, whatever happens in life, keep smiling,” he recalled.

She was also extremely fond of the Allfords, to whom she gave a framed print of a Picasso painting when she left. She had two other favorites: David Gee, who taught her physical
education and math, and Jim Boyd, who headed up the English and drama departments. For a shy girl, Kate was surprisingly extroverted on the stage. The school put on two productions every year, and during her time there, she was in almost every play. It didn't matter whether she had a lead or supporting role; Kate simply relished being part of a team and a production and loved the opportunity to dive into the costume wardrobe. The school had an impressive drama department, with performances staged in the sports hall, known as the New Hall. The teachers and pupils made sets, and rehearsals often took place after class. “Catherine was in most of the school plays I produced, and she was a real joy to direct,” said Jim Boyd. “She always remembered her lines, and she was very reliable when it came to rehearsals, which is why she always got good parts. She had a great voice and would often do solos, and she was very confident. If she didn't get a big part, she was never bothered, which was very endearing. She was also up for anything, especially if it involved her dressing up. For one of the parts she played, I had to draw a birthmark on her leg in red lipstick, and she was always happy getting dressed up for something like Comic Relief [the charitable organization].”

One of Kate's greatest achievements was playing the protagonist in
Dick Whittington
, which required her to wear a green bodysuit and green tights. Pippa scurried along the floor as King Rat in the production, along with their brother, James. “They learned their lines while sitting around the kitchen table at home because it was one of the plays we did in the school holidays,” explained Mr. Boyd. “Catherine was brilliant as Dick and managed to carry off playing a total buffoon very professionally. She had to be pretty stupid and gormless,
and she executed her lines with great comic timing. I remember there was one line she had to say that went, ‘I'm such a prat with a stupid cat,' which really made everyone laugh.”

All three children loved being in school plays so much that during the summer holidays, they attended Mr. Boyd's drama camp. “[Rehearsals] would take place from 9:00
A.M
. until 4:00
P.M
. every day. We would always do a pantomime at Christmas and a play in the summer,” recalled Mr. Boyd. Kate was given leading roles in
Snow White
and in
Cinderella
, in which she played Prince Charming opposite her best friend, Emily Bevan, who would later become a successful actress. Kate also played a gypsy queen in a play written by Jim Boyd called
Strange Happenings at Spittlebury Manor
, and she had a key role in
Murder in the Red Barn
alongside Barnaby Rodgers, the son of screen legend Anton Rodgers, that rather eerily entailed her falling in love with a boy named William who took her to London. When footage of the play was posted on YouTube years later, it caused a sensation. The grainy home video captured a thirteen-year-old Kate speaking to a soothsayer wearing a scarf and gold hoop earring. “Will he fall in love with me?” inquires Kate when she is told she will meet a rich landowner named William. “Indeed he will,” responds the fortuneteller. “And marry me?” asks Kate. “And marry you,” he confirms, after reading her palm. “It is all I ever dreamed of,” she confides to the audience, adding to much laughter, “Oh how my heart flutters.” Prophetically, a young man named William then proposes to Kate on bended knee.

As one of the school's best singers, Kate was also chosen to narrate a production of
Joseph
, in which she mostly sang. Both she and Pippa were in the school choir, but when it came to singing, Kate was better than Pippa and wore a dark blue
ribbon—to indicate her higher rank—over her chorister robes. Both girls attended choir every Sunday night in the school's chapel. Kate would often be chosen to sing with the head chorister, Andrew de Perlaky, who also starred alongside her in
My Fair Lady
. Early in Year 5 (fourth grade), she had been picked to play Eliza Doolittle, which was quite a coup as she was just ten. Now a successful West End stage star known as Andrew Alexander, he recalled how Kate successfully mastered a cockney accent, “We worked a lot together on stage, and I remember she was very good at pulling off a cockney accent.” Andrew played the role of Freddie, who falls for Eliza, but she rebuffs him. There was a twist of irony to the tale, for in real life Kate had quietly fallen for Andrew, the blond-haired blue-eyed chorister with the voice of an angel. He was the best-looking boy in her year, and Kate had gotten to know him well as they were both in the school choir, but sadly for her, Andrew was already “dating” her friend Fiona Beacroft. “It was funny because it was passed on to me, as happens at school, that Catherine liked me. She never told me that herself, she didn't have the confidence,” said Mr. Alexander. “One of her friends, Fiona Beacroft, was my girlfriend at the time. She was more of a chatterbox and a bubblier character, but these were very innocent relationships, and very fleeting—sometimes they lasted a matter of days. I do remember we would go off to the woods to play spin the bottle, and we even staged pretend marriages and had a quick kiss, but Catherine was never a part of that. She was on the outskirts and much shier than the other girls.”

Pippa was far more likely to get involved in such hijinks, and when it came to the end-of-year school disco dance, she
had to bat the boys away. Fellow pupils and teachers recalled how she was the more gregarious and extroverted of the two sisters, and the prettier of the two. Kate was tall for her age, lanky, and still wearing braces, and Pippa was more popular with boys. “I remember Pippa was more outgoing out of the two of them,” said Mr. Alexander. “Catherine was very sweet, but quite shy and retiring, more than most. She wasn't one of the most popular girls in the school. I don't think she had a best friend as such; she had lots of friends. We all got along together and were best friends. No one was left out and there was no bullying. She was friends with everyone and everyone was friends with her.”

Although she wasn't especially interested in boys, the arrival of one particular young man had caught her attention. Nearby Ludgrove Prep school would often play matches against St. Andrew's Prep, and there was much excitement when Prince William, a left back on Ludgrove's Colts team, came to St. Andrew's to play a hockey match when he was nine years old. William, like Kate, loved sports and was one of the best hockey and rugby players in his year. Of course, the arrival of the prince generated a flurry of excitement. “I remember when William came to play hockey. The boys wanted to know why so many cars had stopped on the way in because it was unusual,” remembered Mr. Allford. “It was William's protection officers and bodyguards, and it caused quite a stir. It went round the school like wildfire.” It was the first time Kate had set her eyes on the young prince, but certainly not the last.

CHAPTER 3

A Model Pupil

L
IKE MANY PUPILS
, Kate bade farewell to the secure and happy environment of St. Andrew's Prep in 1995 with apprehension. Not only was she leaving what had become a second home, but she was on the brink of beginning the next chapter of her life, and she was understandably daunted.

Kate's hard work and diligence in the classroom paid off, and she had gained a place at the prestigious independent all-girls school Downe House. She had visited it with her parents, who considered it the perfect choice. Set within 110 acres of wooded parkland on the outskirts of Newbury in the pretty area of Cold Ash, the school was a convenient ten-minute drive from the Middletons' new home. The family had spent the summer packing up West View, and they were moving to a beautiful detached house in the nearby hamlet of Chapel Row in the village of Bucklebury, which was three miles from Bradfield. Oak Acre was a serious jump up the property ladder and meant a bigger mortgage, but Mike and Carole could well
afford it. Party Pieces was bringing in a handsome income, and West View had proved a wise purchase; after buying the property in 1979 for $52,000, they sold it for a substantial profit.

Chapel Row, with its wide tree-lined avenues, is more picturesque and wealthier than Bradfield. Most of the houses cost more than $1 million, and many belong to celebrities and millionaires who want to be in the countryside yet close to the M4 so they can commute to the capital. The village comprises an old part by the River Pang, a large common where the annual summer village fete is held, and Upper Bucklebury, which affords beautiful views of endless green farmland. Compared to West View, Oak Acre, with its five bedrooms, open-plan kitchen, and spacious reception rooms, was like a mansion. Set off a small country lane, the house had purple wisteria climbing up the walls, its own front gate, a gravel driveway, and well-tended front and rear gardens with panoramic views of the countryside. Much to the children's delight, there was also a tennis court.

Pippa's teacher Mrs. Allford recalled that she could not stop talking about “the big house,” and the family hosted a housewarming party as soon as they moved in: “You could tell they came into money when they moved into the new house. Their place in Bradfield was tiny compared to Oak Acre, and they were all so excited, Catherine and Pippa especially because it had a tennis court.” According to Mr. Singleton, who oversaw the sale of West View, Oak Acre had great potential: “It was a good stock country house; they bought more land because they had the money and they made it really nice. They bought a good few acres, because it was only sold with about three-quarters of an acre. Carole called in designers to help
her do it up. She would go off to London to Sloane Square to get ideas and fabrics. The house had very nice soft furnishings—I remember Carole having a thing for tassels at one time, but it wasn't over the top or pretentious. She had a real vista for Oak Acre and she and Michael did a fair bit of work.”

By now Party Pieces had been relocated from a rented warehouse in Yattendon to a more spacious converted barn house in Ashampstead Common, a mile down the road from the Middletons' new home. Carole and Michael employed a staff, although Carole was determined the enterprise should retain the feel of a family business. The new office space had a number of outbuildings spaced around a central courtyard and plenty of room for expansion. Now that the business was online, orders were coming in from all over the country, and the warehouses were stacked to the rafters with boxes of party toys.

The Middletons were no longer solely reliant on Michael's trust fund for the education of their children, and Party Pieces' profits helped with the $45,000-a-year fees at Downe House. The school had a good sports record, but above all else, it was known for being academic and getting its pupils into some of the country's best universities. According to the website, it has “strong educational traditions, a firm Christian foundation and a reputation for excellence that goes back over 100 years.” Some of the pupils have been daughters of wealthy aristocrats, including Prince and Princess Michael of Kent's daughter Lady Gabriella Windsor—a notable former alumna who was suspended for being caught with cigarettes.

With its impressive position in sports ranking, Michael and Carole were confident going to the school was the right move for their daughter, but Kate had reservations from the outset. Possibly intimidated by the scale of the school, she opted to
be a day girl rather than a boarder. Her parents agreed, but it was to prove a terrible mistake as most of the girls in her year were boarders and many had been there from the age of eleven. When Kate arrived at age thirteen, class friendships had already been formed and she struggled to find her place. Being especially slender and a head taller than her peers, she stood out for the wrong reasons and was teased for being gangly and lanky.

According to former pupil Emma Sayle, who was four classes ahead of Kate, “Part of the problem was that Kate was a day girl. Most of the girls were boarders and all of the bonding and friendship-making happened in dorms. Kate missed out on all of that and because she joined when she was thirteen rather than eleven, she had to try and make friends with girls who had been there for two years and had already formed friendships. . . . It is a very cliquey school and there was a lot of pressure. The girls were all high achievers, and there were lots of girls with eating disorders. Everyone wanted to be the best, the fittest, the prettiest. I think Kate was miserable from the start.”

Former pupil Taffeta Gray recalled in an article she wrote for the
Spectator
that Kate was “quiet and square with brown hair. She was a day girl, which is always difficult. In the cliquey atmosphere of a girls' boarding school, to be a day girl makes you an oddity. The day girls tended to keep to themselves, and we boarders looked at them with suspicion.” Georgina Rylance, another former pupil, agreed that Kate was at a disadvantage. “I was there from eleven till sixteen and I was four years above Catherine. It does make a difference going from eleven. You have two years of bonding, your first time away all
together,” she told the
Sunday Times
. “Even some of the most popular girls in my school had a hard time when they came in at thirteen. And of course she was a day pupil. In boarding schools a lot of the bonding takes place late at night, or at the weekends, going to the local sweetshop.”