Kate Middleton: From happy childhood to royal romance

Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William has grown from a commoner who captivated the future monarch to the beating heart of the British royal family.

Kate was born on January 9, 1982, in Berkshire, to the west of London. Her father Michael worked as a pilot and her mother Carole as an airline flight attendant before they set up a mail order business selling party supplies.

When she was aged two, she lived with her family in Amman in Jordan for a couple of years before they returned to Britain, growing up in the small village of Bucklebury.

She went to Marlborough College, an exclusive private school in western England, where she played a lot of sport.

"I had a very happy childhood," she said. "It was great fun — I'm very lucky, I've come from a very strong family — my parents were hugely dedicated to us."

In 2001, Kate began studying History of Art at St Andrews University on the east coast of Scotland, and it was there that she met William.

"We were friends for over a year first and it just sort of blossomed from them on. We just spent more time with each other, had a good giggle, had lots of fun and realised we shared the same interests and just had a really good time," William said.

Their relationship was not always plain sailing, and they briefly split in 2007.

"At the time I wasn't very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person," Kate said.

They wed in a ceremony of royal pomp and pageantry in April 2011, watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. On their wedding day, the Queen gave the newlyweds the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.