William and Kate’s relationship became a focus of increased public fascination at the beginning of 2024 as the princess stepped out of the public eye to undergo abdominal surgery. After the surgery was announced, the prince canceled his immediate royal duties to care for his wife and their three children.
On March 22, Kate made an announcement explaining her prolonged absence from public life, revealing that following her surgery, she was diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing preventative chemotherapy. William has resumed a reduced schedule of working events and activities while his wife continues to focus on her health.
In the absence of new photos of Kate during this time, the princess’ fans have taken to social media to highlight moments from her royal career, resulting in a number of images and video compilations going viral. One of the latest of these has focused on the princess’ response when asked about a persistent rumor that as a teenager she had posters of her future husband on her bedroom walls.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @milfssb, the video, which also features a number of clips from Kate’s public engagements in recent years, has received more than 400,000 views and 90,000 likes.
Kate was asked about the poster rumor during her first official interview, given jointly with William after their engagement was announced in November 2010.
“There’s a story that goes around that you had a picture of him on your wall,” Tom Bradby, an ITV journalist, told the future royal, to which William interjected: “There wasn’t just one. There was about 20.”
Kate instantly dismissed the rumor, saying: “He wishes. No, I had the Levi’s guy on my wall, not a picture of William, sorry.”
@milfssb HE WISHES 🤣🫵 It was actually MY picture(I was not born.) #katemiddletonedit #catherinemiddleton #royalfamily #princewilliam #katemiddleton #fyp
In the video’s comments section, many TikTok users praised the princess and her response.
“She’s so iconic,” one user wrote.
“If I was William I would never recover from that,” another said.
A commenter added, “Yeah, he wishes.”
The couple met in 2001 while studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and they married at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011. Together, they have three children: Prince George, born in 2013; Princess Charlotte, born in 2015; and Prince Louis, born in 2018.
To commemorate their 13th wedding anniversary last month, William and Kate released a previously unseen portrait from their wedding day, taken at Buckingham Palace by photographer Millie Pilkington.
The black-and-white image showed the princess in her Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding gown, accessorized with an antique tiara loaned by Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince William in his uniform as a member of the Household Cavalry.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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