Diksha Sundriyal
In almost every season of Netflix’s ‘The Crown,’ the audience is made privy to the romance of a royal or two. The sixth and final season of the series focuses on the love life of Prince William, which is mostly about his meeting Kate Middleton, whom he eventually married. Even after knowing each other for a while in the university, the couple takes some time before they come around to each other. At one point, they even rented a place together. Considering that the Netflix series is known to have fictionalized certain aspects to fit the narrative of the show, the viewers might wonder if Kate and William really lived together before they got married.
Kate and William Shared a Couple of Houses Before Settling Down
In telling the story of Kate and William, ‘The Crown’ tinkers with the timeline a little bit. So, by the time Kate and William start living together, they are already in a relationship. In real life, things happened a little differently. The Netflix series tweaks the timeline a little bit, but considering the many steps that the couple took in real life, it makes sense that the show would want to keep it as concise as possible while presenting important milestones of their relationship to the audience.
William and Kate first shared a place together when they were in their second year of university. At this time, they were still friends and shared the four-bedroom apartment with their friends, Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale. The house was located at 13A Hope Street near the university and cost £ 100 a week.
William and Kate living in the same house at the time was not seen as a big deal at the time, as they were considered friends to each other just like their other friends. Prince William later revealed that while living in Hope Street, they just “saw more of each other, hung out a bit more and did stuff” as friends, and their relationship “blossomed” from there. Eventually, William and Kate got together and moved into a place of their own in 2003.
During their third and fourth years in university, they moved to Balgove House at Strathtyrum, owned by Henry Cheape, Prince William’s distant cousin. To ensure the safety of the couple, the house is said to have had a large wall to keep it from public view, along with bomb-proof doors and windows, with unmarked police cards regularly patrolling the area. During their time together, Kate revealed that William used to cook “all sorts of meals” to impress her. However, Prince William claims that he is not a very good cook and would often end up burning and spilling things, and Kate would later have to take control of the entire situation.
The Couple Shared a House Shortly Before Their Wedding
Apart from the time they spent with each other at the university, Kate and William made a historic move in British royalty by being the first royal couple to live together before their wedding. At that time, Prince William was in Anglesey for his Royal Air Force training and was joined by Kate there, with whom he shared a four-bedroom farmhouse on the Bodorgan Estate, owned by Lord and Lady Meyrick. Costing about £750 per month, the house had its own private beach and splendid view of Newborough Forest. It remained a home for the couple in the early years of their marriage.
While the idea of living together before marriage wasn’t new to British society at the time, it was certainly the first time a royal couple had done it. For the masses, this wasn’t a cause for much concern, but some backlash was accepted from the Church, which bars sex before marriage. However, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, came out in the couple’s favor, saying that it was better for their future to live together for a while before marriage and basically take a test drive of what they were signing up for.
However, Anglican traditionalists criticized his comment, saying that it did not fall in line with Christian teachings. No matter the views of the Church or the masses, William and Kate did what they thought best for their relationship, and it shows in the way their marriage has persevered through the years.
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