wedding dress

How they met

Prince William said that after meeting at St Andrews University, where they were both studying history of art, “we just spent more time together, we had a good giggle and realised we shared some interests.

“She has a normal sense of humour which is really good for me because I’ve got a dead sense of humour, and things happened.”

Miss Middleton said she “went bright red and scuttled off, feeling very shy,” when she was first introduced to the Prince, and denied stories that she had a picture of him on her wall as a child. “I had the Levi’s guy, not a picture of William, sorry,” she said. “It was me in Levi’s,” the Prince joked.

Living together

The couple were sharing a house at St Andrews when they fell in love.

“We moved in together as friends, we lived with a couple of others as well, and it just sort of blossomed from there, really,” said the Prince. “We just saw more of each other, hung out a bit more and did stuff.”

Asked if he ever cooked or did anything useful around the house, the Prince joked: “Define useful, Tom.”

“He did cook for me quite a bit at university, and he would always come with a bit of angst and a bit of anger if something had gone wrong and I would have to wander in and save something,” Miss Middleton confided.

“I would say I’m getting better at cooking. Kate would say I’m getting a lot worse,” the Prince laughed.

“I don’t give him enough chance to practice,” his fiancée admitted.

The Prince said: “I get quite lazy about cooking because when I come back from work it is the last thing I want to do, really. When I was trying to impress Kate, I was trying to cook these amazing fancy dinners and what would happen was I would burn something, something would overspill, something would catch on fire and she would be sitting in the background trying to help, and basically taking control of the whole situation, so I was quite glad she was there at the time.”

The temporary split

The couple spoke openly for the first time about splitting up for several months in 2007.

Miss Middleton admitted that she had been angry about it at the time but said she now looked back on it as a positive experience and admitted she had been “consumed” with the relationship.

The Prince said they had needed “space” at the time but he had always known Miss Middleton was “very special”.

“I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the paper but in that particular instance we did split up for a bit,” he said.

“We were both very young … and we were both defining ourselves as such and being different characters. It was very much trying to find our way and we were growing up. It was just a bit of space, things like that, and things worked out for the better.”

Miss Middleton added: “I, at the time, wasn’t very happy about it but actually it made me a stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realised. You can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger.

“I really valued that time, for me as well … looking back on it.”

Asked if he had always known that they would get married, the Prince said: “When I first met Kate I knew there was something very special about her and I knew there was possibly something that I wanted to explore there. But we ended up being friends for a while and that was a good foundation because I do genuinely believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage. It just went from there and over the years I knew things were getting better and better.

“We went through a few stumbling blocks as every relationship does but we picked ourselves up and carried on. From where you have the odd problem when you are first getting to know each other those have all gone and it’s just really easy just being with each other, it’s really fun and I’m obviously extremely funny and she loves that …”

Miss Middleton went on: “I think if you go out with someone for quite a long time you do get to know each other very well, you go through the good times, you go through the bad times both personally but also within our relationship as well.”

Meeting the Royal family

Miss Middleton admitted to being “quite nervous” when she first met the Prince of Wales, but he was “very welcoming, very friendly and it couldn’t have gone easier”. When she met the Queen at the wedding of Peter Phillips, the son of the Princess Royal, in 2008, “she was very friendly and it was fine”.

The proposal

Prince William described how he decided to propose to his girlfriend of seven years during a holiday in Kenya with friends last month. “I just decided it was the right time really,” he said. “We had been talking about marriage for a while, it wasn’t a massive surprise, I took her out somewhere nice in Kenya and proposed.”

Miss Middleton added: “It was very romantic, there is a true romantic in there.”

“There is, yes,” smiled the Prince. “I had been planning it for a while but as every guy out there knows it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going, so I was planning it, it just felt really right in Africa.”

Miss Middleton said she “wasn’t expecting it at all” because they were with friends. “It was a total shock when it came so I was very excited.”

The ring

The Prince decided to give Miss Middleton his late mother’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring, which had been kept in a safe since her death. He took it out for the trip.

“I had been carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks,” he said. “I literally wouldn’t let it go. Everywhere we went I kept hold of it because I knew if it disappeared I would be in a lot of trouble.

“You hear a lot of horror stories about proposing and things going horribly wrong, but I proposed and she said yes, so I’m really pleased.

“I thought it was quite nice because [my mother] is not going to be around for the fun and excitement so it’s my way of keeping her close to it all. I’m no expert on rings but I’ve been reliably informed it’s a sapphire with some diamonds but I’m sure everyone recognises it from previous times.”

Miss Middleton, who had given the ring back for safekeeping until yesterday, said: “I just hope I look after it. It’s very, very special.”

Keeping the secret

“The last two or three weeks have been very difficult, keeping it to ourselves,” said the Prince, “so it’s really nice to be able to share it with everyone.

“I was torn between asking Kate’s dad first and the realisation that he might say no actually dawned on me so I thought if I asked Kate first he couldn’t say no.”

Miss Middleton said she was unsure if even her mother knew about the engagement before yesterday, and there had been an “awkward” silence when she could not discuss it with her.

Learning the lesson

The Prince said he waited so long to propose because he wanted to give Miss Middleton the opportunity to “back out” if she found the pressures of royal life too daunting a prospect.

Asked if he felt protective of the Middletons as they joined the world’s most famous family, the Prince replied: “Massively so, of course. I just want to make sure they have the best guidance and chance to see what life is like in the family.

“And that’s kind of almost why I have been waiting this long. I wanted to give her a chance to see and to back out if she needed to before it all got too much.

“Because I’m trying to learn from lessons done in the past, and I just wanted to give her the best chance to settle in and see what happens on the other side.”

The Prince’s talk of lessons learnt appeared to be a reference to his parents’ marriage and the attention thrust upon the young Lady Diana Spencer when she agreed to marry the Prince of Wales.

He added that the couple had spent a long time contemplating their future lives as royal husband and wife. “We’ve talked about it lots, it’s always been something we’ve had a good chat about.”

Starting a family

Miss Middleton paid tribute to the support her own family have given her, and added: “I hope we will be able to have a happy family ourselves.” The Prince added: “We will take it one step at a time. We will get over the marriage thing first and then maybe look at the kids, but we want to have a family so we will have to talk about that.”

Diana

Prince William insisted that there was “no pressure” for Miss Middleton to step into the shoes of his late mother, the Princess of Wales.

Asked whether she found the Princess of Wales’s legacy intimidating, she said: “Obviously I would love to have met her and she is obviously an inspirational woman to look up to on this day.

“It is a wonderful family. The members I have met have achieved a lot, very inspirational. So, yeah, I do.”

The Prince added: “There’s no pressure because, like Kate said, you know it’s about carving your own future. No one is trying to fill my mother’s shoes.

“What she did is fantastic. It’s about making your own future and your own destiny and Kate will do a very good job of that.”

Asked whether she was excited about the prospect of a future within the Royal family, Miss Middleton said: “It’s obviously nerve-racking because I don’t know the ropes really and William’s obviously used to it but, no, I am willing to learn quickly and work hard.”

William chipped in, adding: “She will do really well. You will do really well.” Miss Middleton said she was looking forward to having the opportunity to change lives for the better.

She said: “I really hope I can make a difference, you know, even in the smallest way.”

On her work

Miss Middleton defended herself against criticisms that she did not work but admitted that she “took on board” some of the comments.

“I know I have been working very hard for the family business,” she said of the Middleton’s party mail order firm. “Sometimes those days are long days.

“I think the people around home are supportive to us and those are the people that really matter to us, our close friends and our close family.

“I think if they felt that we are doing the right thing, you can only be true to yourself and you sort of have to ignore a lot of what is said, obviously take it on board, but you have to be yourself. And that is how I have stuck by it.”