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Every new dawn is an opportunity to celebrate Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge. Take, for instance, her otherworldly, shampoo-commercial hair (and its every trim); her ability to make brooches look fierce; and, of course, the impeccable styling of her children. Today, however, is an official occasion to fete Kate: it’s her birthday. Marking the occasion, here, five things you may not have known about Kate Middleton.
1. Kate has long had the makings of an international superstar: Between the ages of 2 and 4, she, sister Pippa, and parents Carole and Michael Middleton lived in Amman, Jordan. At the time, Michael was a manager at British Airways and Carole, formerly a flight attendant, was on extended maternity leave. Before Kate began university at St. Andrews, where she’d meet a humble bloke by the name of Will Wales, she did a gap year in Florence, studying Renaissance culture, and embarked on a charity trip to Chile.
2. Like most Tiger Beat–loving girls of the ’90s, Kate had a massive crush on Prince William, reportedly hanging a picture of him on her bedroom wall in pastoral Bucklebury, England. In Andrew Morton’s William & Catherine: Their Story, her friend Jessica Hay said, “We would sit around talking about all the boys at school we fancied, but Catherine would always say: ‘I don’t like any of them. They’re all a bit rough.’ Then she would joke: ‘There’s no one quite like Prince William.’ ” Kate did have a high school boyfriend: Willem Marx, now a journalist, and, pre-William, she dated law student Rupert Finch. Once Kate and Will shared a house with friends in their second year at St. Andrews, the rest was history.
3. Before becoming a professional princess, Kate held—gasp—a civilian job. After graduating from St. Andrews in 2005, she became an assistant buyer at London retailer Jigsaw. She was even said to have fetched coffees on photo shoots before leaving the position in 2007.
4. Kate’s signature scent is Jo Malone Orange Blossom. At her request, candles burned the scent in Westminster Abbey (beneath maple trees that had also been hauled in) on the royal wedding day, April 29, 2011 (as if one could forget). But it wasn’t the only special aroma of the day: As a nod to her future husband, Kate carried the flower Sweet William in her bouquet.
5. As they say in the U.K., Kate is a “keen” photographer: She snapped the first official photo of Princess Charlotte (a dumpling in the lap of brother Prince George) at their Norfolk country house, Anmer Hall, as well as the photos of Prince George attending his first day of preschool at Westacre Montessori in Norfolk, plus Charlotte's most recent first-day-of-school pics. Kate also took photos for her parents’ British party-planning chain, Party Pieces. If only she'd start her own Instagram in 2018.
