Princess Kate appearing to say she loves Prince William “in uniform” because “he’s so, so sexy” went viral on TikTok.
A lip reader attempted to decode Kate’s remarks after they were filmed during Prince William’s passing out parade at Sandhurst Military Academy in 2006.
The couple were both 24 years old at the time and were still five years away from the wedding that would make Kate a future queen.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
During the parade, cameras captured Kate making off the cuff comments which were later decoded by a lipreader on documentary Royal Wives, broadcast by True Royalty TV.
Kate, according to the lipreader, said: “I love him in uniform, he’s so, so sexy.”
Newsweek approached Kensington Palace for comment.
A clip of Kate’s comments went viral on TikTok where it was liked 74k times and viewed 506k times.
One reply read: “She’s so real for that, I feel you giiirl😔 while another wrote: “With you Catherine!! Damn fine!!!”
Kate’s attendance, alongside her parents Carole and Michael Middleton, was a key moment in their relationship as it demonstrated how official her status was becoming.
Rebecca English, the Daily Mail‘s royal editor, told Channel 5’s documentary William & Kate: Too Good To Be True: “We hadn’t expected Kate and her family to turn up, and myself and a number of photographers and journalists were all standing on a press stand together.
“Suddenly out of the corner of her eye we saw Kate and her mother and father being ushered down to the front of the seating.
“I remember turning to the person next to me and saying that’s it, it’s a done deal. This woman is going to be our future Queen.”
However, Kate and William were not out of the woods yet as they broke up briefly at the end of that year.
Robert Jobson wrote in his 2024 biography Catherine, the Princess of Wales: “As Catherine approached her 25th birthday in January 2007, he [William] unexpectedly cancelled plans to attend a New Year gathering in Dundee, arranged by the Middletons.
“She sensed something was wrong. It certainly wasn’t helping that newspapers were confidently predicting a royal engagement. Soon afterwards, seemingly out of the blue, William—now a 2nd Lieutenant in the Blues and Royals—telephoned her to suggest that they split up.
“He told her they both needed ‘a bit of space’ to ‘find our own way’, and he was unable to promise her marriage. In an emotionally charged 30-minute conversation, they both acknowledged they were on ‘different pages’.
“It was a devastating blow to Catherine, who felt doubly let down at being dumped over the phone. Though it wasn’t the first time William had called time on their relationship, it felt final.”
It was, of course, not final. The couple got back together and went on to marry at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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