Here are some photos of Prince William and Kate in 2012, when they were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Their wedding was the year before, and in 2012, we were told endlessly that Kate would “hit the ground running” AND that she was taking her time to learn the job. In the second half of 2012, William and Kate skipped the Paralympics to go on vacation in France, and a paparazzo got shots of them cavorting in various stages of undress. William was furious, he sued, he won. By the end of the year, the Cambridges announced that they were expecting their first child (Prince George would be born in July 2013).
All of this is me setting the scene – W&K were still sort of living in Wales, but QEII had given them Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace, a lavish 21-room mini-mansion within a palace, which was being renovated and decorated in 2012. Kate was still spending a lot of time in Bucklebury with her parents, and William still behaved like a bachelor at times. Apparently, even when Kate was pregnant (and sick as a dog), William was still having “bachelor weekends” at house parties with his mates.
Prince William has proved himself to be a man of many talents over the years – but his mastery of a popular party game will surprise even the most dedicated royal fans. With a ‘great aim’, the Prince of Wales was ‘really good’ at US-born drinking game beer pong, The Mail on Sunday’s Editor-at-Large, Charlotte Griffiths, has recalled. In fact, he was once such a skilled competitor that, 13 years ago, he successfully taught Charlotte how to play.
The former Diary Editor, who has been reporting on royals for 15 years, met William at a country house party in 2012. Charlotte told Femail: ‘I was staying at a friend’s house for the weekend and, surprise, surprise, Prince William was there. All the lads started playing beer pong and I didn’t actually know the rules, so I was looking around, not knowing what to do, and there comes my knight in shining armour, Prince William, and he offered to teach me how to play.’
Charlotte said that ‘charming’ William set her up for success by explaining the rules of the game, which challenges players to bounce a ping pong ball into a beer-filled cup.
‘It was when Catherine was expecting Prince George,’ she added. ‘He was so charming and nice.’
Unfazed by the fact that she was a journalist, Charlotte remembers William not only as ‘unfailingly polite and warm’ but also ‘fun’.
I actually love this sub-genre of royal reporting, it’s so unfailingly sycophantic and they always tell on themselves. “I saw William at the hospital when he was visiting Kate!” No you didn’t, but your lie is fascinating. “I spoke to Carole Middleton at the races!” I bet you did, and I bet she’s sloshed her way to you many times over the years. And now this: Kate was in her first trimester and barfing her guts out, and William was going solo to house parties where he taught the rules of beer pong to a royal reporter. William was 30 years old at the time. What an interesting moment to tell this story.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- 79035, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Sunday June 3, 2012. Prince William and Catherine, Duchess Of Cambridge seen attending the Jubilee River Pageant on the River Thames to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. **FEE MUST BE AGREED PRIOR TO USAGE** **E-TABLET/IPAD & MOBILE PHONE APP PUBLISHING REQUIRES ADDITIONAL FEES**,Image: 527642786, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS, DIRECT SALES ONLY UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE IN CAPTION – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: PacificCoastNews.com/Avalon
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- BURTON-UPON-TRENT, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 09: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge look on during the official launch of The Football Association’s National Football Centre at St George’s Park on October 9, 2012 in Burton-upon-Trent, England.,Image: 538067107, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 646 717 6785 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: /Avalon
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- The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Cambridge and The City Hospital in Peterborough on Wednesday November 28, 2012.,Image: 544043853, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 646 717 6785 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: Pete Mariner/Avalon
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- CAMBRIDGE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE – NOVEMBER 28: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Dukem of Cambridge watch a performace as they visit Manor School as she pays an official visit to Cambridge with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on November 28, 2012 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.,Image: 544047520, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 917 704 9816 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: /Avalon
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- The 2012 SkillForce Princes Award Ceremony is held at St James’s Palace October 11th, 2012. HRH The Duke of Cambridge delivered a short speech watched here by Mimi Drake the Chairman of 100 Women in Hedge Funds who sponsor the awards ceremony.,Image: 544709328, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 646 717 6785 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: /Avalon
Wow! Kkkhate was all jazz hands even back then.
But not the crazy facial expressions yet.
It’s still her 2.0 face after the wedding. We are at least two versions later now.
I think she gestures a lot because she’s not really well spoken. I have a theory that people gesture a lot because they’re not that intelligent.
She was probably told that the hand gestures looks better and more engaging at photos. You can see her freezing at some videos because she is giving time to the press to take the right pictures.
On behalf of Italy: that’s not a very good theory.
@Sevenblue, I wish I still had it, but I used to have a link to a tweet that was a clip of Getty footage of W,K and Harry at Tour de France. And it remains the wildest thing I’ve ever seen, the entire crowd is looking left, Kate turns well before the crowd does to her right, strikes a pose, and freezes. And the rest of the crowd then turns to face the same direction, facing the cameras. Maybe this is what you’re referring to, but it’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, and completely changed how I saw Kate. I thought she was too dim/uninterested for scheming, but it showed an interest in manipulating her image in a very small, low stakes situation. What would she do for her image on a large scale?
@Lucy, there is also a video of Kate laughing maniacally at the tennis event she attended with Meghan while Meghan was talking to the women behind her and nobody else was interacting with Kate. It was obvious she felt self-conscious because people were talking to Meghan instead of her and she was laughing at nothing, so the photos would look like she was part of the convo 😭😭 The other women looked at Kate surprisingly because of how weird it was.
@Sevenblue i have not seen that! Fascinating. A quick google says they attended Tour de France in 2014, the tennis event was 2016? 2017? Truly bizarre.
I saw reference to Kate freeze posing but honestly didn’t believe until I saw that Tour De France clip. It is so insanely fake. William and Harry were watching the race like the others but Kate was freeze posing a shocked face looking away from the cyclists.
There is nothing genuine about Kate.
That was my first thought, the jazz hands.
Even more interesting the crossed legs. Against Protocol!!!! Wasn’t Meghan supposed to learn the proper “Duchess slant” from Kate, after she scandalously crossed her legs, breaking protocol and showing she’s not fit for being a royal?
Don’t get me started on a man of 30 playing beer pong with his mates while his pregnant wife if barfing at home. So charming!
These journalists really want to be friends with the royals.
He looks miserable with her.
Sure does. That ‘I’m uninterested’ body language has been there forever.
He never loved her, did he? Not even in the beginning.
I almost feel sorry for her.
She knew exactly what she was getting into, Beverly. She went into that marriage with her eyes wide open because Willy has always been as he was when they married (a cheater who settled for her when no one else wanted him, a bully with a temper, racist, lazy, cheap, in bed with the tabloids). And she clung on to that POS with both hands.
Absolutely! She’s reaping what she sowed.
I wasn’t a royal watcher until Meghan came along, so these old stories and photos about W & K are usually new to me, and seeing that he’s always looked miserable and she’s always been visibly uncomfortable…it’s something. I know they’re both awful people, so I won’t go so far as to say that I pity them, but their relationship is just objectively really sad. FFS, cut your losses and get a divorce already!
He was told to marry her by dad. He would have been happy being a bachelor for the rest of his life but an heir and spare was needed. She stuck around and put up with the shit because Mom and her wanted to catch and marry a prince and a crown. That’s the real fairytale story. Not a pretty story then and the story doesn’t appear to have a HAPPY ending.
Does she seem have enough awareness to understand that she was proposed to only because she was his last choice when all others took a pass and opted out.? Also, the Middletons were putting the pressure on him as well as the Queen and his own father saying “marry her, her reputation is ruined if you drop her after ten years of waiting.
Whats with the Princes of Wales not wanting to marry? Neither Edward VIII nor Charles were wanting to go to the altar. The one waited until his 40s and married someone “unsuitable “ after he abdicated and Chuck was in his mid 30s and went for a defacto arranged marriage with someone he really wasn’t into. William strung Kate along as long as he could.
@Libra: I dont think she or her mother cared that she was his only choice due to others not wanting him. They knew he was a useless person but they wanted that crown. Well it’s the age old adage “be careful what you wish for.
L4frimaire dian a never got the memo she was in an arranged marriage. She fell for Charles line and assumed he loved her when he proposed. Both Diana and Charles were free to walk away before the wedding. Some women like Amanda knatchbull said no to his proposal and he was willing to marry her. Edward was avid to marry Wallis. Charles was at fault for using Diana to get heirs and layer he told his biographer he never loved Diana. Charles was 32 when he married Diana. And she 20. Diana never got the memo the marriage was arranged. There were no betrothal contracts drawn up
The way these fools freaked out over Harry’s Vegas partying is hilarious when his married brother was out in the STREETS. But I guess having a pregnant wife at home isn’t a reason not to be out playing beer pong and teaching single women the rules of the game.
Will is so gross and so is the rota.
Years ago someone commented that Charles was for the streets, meaning he was out there with more women than just Camilla. And this comments just took me back. Cuz William was really out there in the streets too.
He was probably doing more than beer pong…what an immature idiot.
Seems to still be doing that and probably more judging by that investiture he did while swaying.
So which royal reporter did he teach how to play “I Never”?
Dong pong.
What’s with the recollection series this year? I don’t remember them ever printing so many stories about, remember when…..? Is it because they don’t have any leaks on the Sussexes, and the Wales are giving them less and less every year that they have to go back into the vault? Or is this an implicit threat, of how much they haven’t printed, but they’ve witnessed over the years?
Because he sounds like he was married, but to him he was ” married”, and that this story had a different ending a few more times with other people.
Also I really thought that Kate’s over exaggerated face, and weird hand jiggling was something that was recent but she’s been doing that from the start. I wonder if she worked with someone that told her that the over exaggerated facial expressions and hand movement would make her look like she was always engaged on camera, and she just took it to 150%?
Kate also has RBF. She can’t stand to have an unflattering shot in the tabloids, so bring on the manic grins.
They’re printing a lot of stories that put their marriage in an…..interesting…..light, aren’t they? remember that random story a few months ago about all of William’s other girlfriends before Kate? and there have been a few others.
Married people can and do enjoy time with their friends without their partners. My husband went to a music festival this past fall with his HS friends and I stayed home with the kids. NBD. But I feel like in the first year or two its different – especially when kids aren’t in the picture yet. And depending on when this was, Kate might not have been pregnant yet – I know this RR says that she was, but her pregnancy was announced very late in 2012 so to me it makes more sense that this was before? which then begs the question – why was Kate not at this house party?
and her pregnancy made her so sick she couldn’t work and had to be hospitalized but William went to a house party for the weekend and played beer pong with reporters?
At the time I took them at their word that Kate was really sick and couldn’t work during her pregnancies, but having seen their work ethic in the last decade or so I’m beginning to think if the lying about her medical condition to get out of work didn’t start then?
I’m mean we’ve all seen how they have no trouble lying, so what make us believe they were truthful?
@my3cents i dont think she had HG – at least not with all three. her HG always mysteriously cleared up at 3 months which is pretty consistent with “morning sickness” and not HG. It always felt like a convenient way to garner sympathy and simultaneously avoid work (which sounds familiar at this point.)
But even if she wasnt sick at all – we were told she was so ill she had to be hospitalized. and william was going to house parties and playing beer pong with reporters? thats….not a good look for him. at all.
@Becks1 I doubt her HG as well, and now I see it as an early experience that taught her how to use medical excuses.
My sister in law had HG, with her first she was sick until 8 months along (also is tall with a long torso like Kate and didn’t look pregnant until 9 months). For her second, she was on a pump dispenser for zofran (? I think, an anti nausea med). If Kate had been on a pump it would’ve been noticeable. And, she’s never been involved in any HG causes. No discussions with other folks affected, no raising awareness.
Going to a weekend party is where the cheating happens. There is no credible way that a married guy goes to a weekend party without his wife and isn’t cavorting with other women. Charlotte knows this and yet says nothing.
And kate likely had morning sickness which makes William taking off for a whole weekend even worse. It doesn’t need to be HG for his absence when she is ill with his child to look like a dog shit husband.
I never actually believed the HG stories about Kate (I guess making up health stories has been something she’s always done), especially since she went on some long vacation after being hospitalized. I think it was the norovirus which was going around at the time she drove herself to the hospital. I think she publicized her “illness” for this reason right here – Willy was still running around partying like an unmarried man and she was trying to make him look bad and bring him back to her side. It’s something she and MaMidds have always done when he’s not doing what they want – do something very publicly that gets her into the papers and makes him look bad.
Yes, this! She caught the norovirus from that school she went to the week before she was hospitalized with George.
Also, they diagnosed her right away with HG, when it was at best morning sickness. She probably felt nauseas, and I get not wanting to be “on” when you feel like puking, but it was never HG. HG is a clinical term/diagnosis for when you are so sick throughout your pregnancy that you lose something like 10% of your pre pregnancy body weight. This was NOT Kate. Another lie to feed the public so they could say “how dare you question us, she has HG!”
That William, so talented. Is a story about being good at a frat-boy party game supposed to make him look good? And, leaving pregnant Kate at home, even better.
Yes, I had to laugh at that. So far, he’s a failure at diplomacy, solving homelessness, protecting the environment, working for more than 2 months a year and generally supporting the king. But, when it comes to football and drinking games, he’s a star!!
And beer pong has to be taught? 🤨
I had to do the math in my head but Charlotte Griffith would have been a royal reporter for at least 2 years back then. What was William thinking?
“Hey a single woman!”
I don’t think fidelity (on his side) has ever been a part of their relationship.
Well one of his best friends as reported back then is Drummon Money-Coutts whose sister or cousin Sophia Money-Coutts is also a journalist. It was probably their house party.
That first photo of W is the first time I’ve seen him look like Chuck – just the eyes, nose and pursed mouth (ignore the rest) is pure Windsor.
Yeah, he looks so much like Chuck in that photo, but dumber. He doesn’t know what his purpose in life is except to leech.
Fascinating that Bulliam isn’t just going out for an evening without his pregnant wife. He’s spending a whole-ass weekend at a friend’s house party.
I have to imagine that they live very shallow, sad lives. But the fact is, they have loads of money at their fingertips, adorable kids, and very shallow, sad people around them that accept it as fact that they are special because of their birth. Maybe they have a nagging feeling in the back of their heads that they are missing part of the picture? Maybe – but I think they are selfishly shallow and feel justified in whatever they do.
That requires self-awareness and neither have it. They are both tone-deaf and content to live in their privileged bubble. Eg yacht freebie. A certain amount of self-awareness would mean politely refusing the foreign minister but they doubled down and included the in laws to the trip.
Just cut off their public funding and they can be idle to their heart’s content.
Right! They have no shame and 100% feel righteous and justified in their perspective. And that their performative work (eg. homelessness) is equal to, if not more important than people who study and really work their whole lives to make things better.
Nothing to be proud of Willy .
Why on earth would this be made public.
The timing is curious but the media drops these little tidbits to reflect to the public that they truly are close to the royal circle.
You know what? If William actually showed up and was diligent and serious about his advocacy and his role as an advocate for less lucky people, for society insofar as society is sociable, insofar as we care for others, if he were not such an insufferably self-righteous, self-absorbed petty man bitch, like a queen on the rag, i wouldn’t really care about his marriage. But it’s obvious he treats marriage the same way he treats all of his other “obligations” — with the same half-assed disdain and distaste and insipid entitlement blended with laughable arrogance that he brings to the table, on all fronts. JFC. I have a feeling this guy is not going to last long in this job. He’s all ego. It’s always all about William. And the job is the life, so, if you’re not for this job…. You’re not for this life. They must be panicking about his influence on George. I mean. Charles had a messy personal life, but it was clear he always cared about *something* more than his image. William? He’s a cipher. Really. What a waste of life. So sad for his mother, it’s actually better she’s not here to witness it.
Nah, Willy’s not a cipher. You give too much credit to him.
He’s an angry man trapped in the institution. Diana clocked his personality earlier on. Had she lived, he may not have become the disaster that he is today but he turned to Mama Middleton and she contributed to his catastrophic grooming and failure to launch.
He’s been protected all his life by the tabloids – except for the time he misused the military chopper to land at the Middletons and a duke told him off for trespassing on his lands.
He thought Harry would be the fall guy and cover for everything he did that didn’t fit the image of the perfect heir. Willy’s failure to take accountability for his own failings in life are coming home to roost. And it ain’t a pretty sight.
I’d feel more sympathetic for him if he said “I didn’t want to be a stud for the Windsor stable so I married and reproduced with this unaccomplished social climbing middle class broodmare to fulfill my obligation to the Crown. But other than that, don’t expect anything more from me.”
And the minions could have planned accordingly. Instead we get embiggening after embiggening article about two Lazy taxpayer funded people who do fuck all to receive millions of public money each year.
If you go back to the daily mail around the time that she was pregnant with George and after having him, and then when she was expecting Charlotte, there are lots of columns about William attending weddings and the like without her. Lots of innuendo about Kate being home with mummy and William cracking a tooth in a moat. Etc. It is one of the origins of “she knows when to let him have his head and blow off some steam.”
When the rose story came out, there was a lot of speculation that there would be a make-up baby since the story came out in 2019 and louis was a year old. My theory at the time (one of my theories okay lol I had like a dozen) was that Louis was the makeup baby – that he cheated rampantly for the first part of their marriage, including both pregnancies, and after the dad-dancing in switzerland she was like, you know what if you’re going to embarrass me by cheating on me, i’m at least getting a third child out of it. enter Louis. And that’s why she seemed so happy after he was born – she thought he was a band-aid that would fix the marriage – and then why within the year she looked miserable and tense (or overly medicated.) because he didn’t fix anything, since that’s not how it works.
Having Louis also meant she didn’t have to work so she could use the children as an excuse. Hence, she wanted another baby so she could continue not to work 😂
Oh my Becks you are certainly into something with that!
Kate seemed to want a fourth and on appearances she brought William to look at the babies and hinted about their having another one. William said no.
Louis was the baby to make up for the Verbier skiing photos when he was caught with other women.
He wasn’t going to do a number four.
So this is where the beer pong story at Harry and Meghan’s wedding came from😏
I mean, it’s OK for married people to do things separately. But there is a difference between going to an event, dinner or even a short trip with an old friend or two and being at a house party solo playing college drinking games. Teaching a random woman how to play beer pong just seems like weird behavior for a married man over 30 whose wife is pregnant.
William would do the whole world, himself, and all his now and future heirs, a big favor if on the day of his coronation, he ripped off the crown right as they set it upon his large, shiny head, threw it to the floor–sending all the stolen jewels scattering everywhere–and then gave a very short, but impassioned speech claiming to the entire world, “The monarchy is all terrible bullshit that ruins everyone’s lives. It Ends Here.” And then, as the shocked crowd parts, he walks out of the cathedral into a waiting car and is whisked up forever, never to be seen again.
Five bucks says he lies awake at night fantasizing about doing something exactly like this.
I think he used to feel that way and now deeply desires the power and ability to mold it in his own image
I think you’re both right. From 1997 to 2011, it certainly seemed like William hated the monarchy and would give it all up. Then he married Kate, and he seemed to be able to fake it fairly well as a newlywed and what not. When you look at them during the Olympics and during that era, he still looks pretty good and he doesn’t seem miserable. But after Meghan arrived on the scene, he seemed both miserable and power hungry? It’s weird. He still hates his job/destiny, but he likes the trappings. All of that, plus a defiance disorder…you know, I was a total Wills girl back in the day. I can’t quite understand how the charismatic and photogenic teen from that Chilean gapyear wound up painting himself into this weird little corner of bitterness and rage. He’s a definite avatar for a certain kind of middle-aged man.
Or maybe he thought “well at least i have it better than harry, and people think that too,” and then— he didn’t anymore.
Given the research that we now have access to about women’s pregnancy symptoms being directly linked to their male partners, Kate’s extreme morning sickness is even more of a ding of William than ever before.
Wow, really!?! Yipes. No wonder a lot of women don’t want to marry and have kids now…