♪♪ -So, where is Princess Kate?

The Internet is full of speculation about her whereabouts.

-I was convinced that something very serious was wrong with her.

-I don't understand how she hasn't been seen since Christmas.

-What was really going on with Kate?

-It sounds ridiculous, but it's sort of like we need proof of life.

It doesn't make sense.

-Where is Kate Middleton?

-Kate is still nowhere to be seen.

-Wo ist Kate Middleton?

-The last time anyone saw Kate Middleton... -They haven't seen her, either.

-Where is Kate Middleton?

-This had never happened before.

These were very dangerous times for the monarchy.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] -Thank you so much.

That's very sweet of you to come and say hello to us.

Yeah, well, very happy Christmas.

-In 2024, Catherine, Princess of Wales, was diagnosed with cancer.

-At 6:00, the Princess of Wales has just announced that she is undergoing treatment for cancer.

-Kate has risen from the girl next door to become one of the most influential women in the world and the cornerstone of the British royal family.

-The Princess of Wales is one of the most globally recognized icons in the world.

But what do we really know about her?

-Kate's unconventional path to becoming a princess began 42 years ago.

♪♪ -It is a phenomenon, the biggest thing ever to hit the cinema.

[ Bell rings ] -Oyez, oyez, oyez!

-It's a prince, a 7-pound, 1 1/2-ounce boy born late today to Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales, Lady Diana.

-In 1982, William, the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, is born.

That same year, Michael and Carole Middleton welcomed their first child -- Catherine Elizabeth.

-Catherine comes from a modest, middle-class family background.

Her parents, Carole and Michael, are the bedrock of her resolve.

Michael is a mild-mannered former British Airways flight dispatcher, and her mother, Carole, is more of a dynamo.

She came from a working-class background, grew up in a council flat.

-There's nothing common about Kate, but she certainly is a commoner.

She's a class act, but the reality is, you know, her granddad was a painter and decorator.

They knew what a mortgage was.

-The Middletons are a very stable family.

They're a very together family.

If you look at the sort of humble beginnings of Carole Middleton, she comes from a family of coal miners.

-There's something quite romantic, I think, about this fairy tale of this real life, "commoner," you know, becoming a princess.

-But the Cinderella fairy tale narrative of rags to riches isn't the whole story.

-Michael Middleton comes way back, sort of aristocratic roots.

-Kate's great grandmother, Olive, was a renowned society beauty and mingled with members of the royal family.

-It was trust funds inherited by Michael from his aristocratic grandmother, Olive, that helped give Kate a privileged start.

-Michael and Carole were sort of hugely committed to their children and giving them the best education that they could, the best upbringing that they could.

I mean, in that respect, I suppose just very regular, ordinary parents.

Until of course, Carole's sort of kitchen table business idea really took off and ended up making them actually a huge amount of money.

-She had done incredibly well.

She lifted her family.

-They became self-made millionaires through party pieces.

So of course that then sort of enabled them to go into a different stratosphere in terms of their wealth, the schools that they were able to afford.

-As Carole's business thrives, 14-year-old Kate is moved from St.

Andrew's prep school to the prestigious Downe House, where the fees are almost double.

Parents these days pay more than £40,000 a year.

-They learnt to ride.

They played lacrosse, all these kind of upper-middle-class pursuits.

-I think the only downtime when she was a child was when she went to Downe House, and she was sort of the outsider.

-She'd had a really rough time.

She'd been quite badly bullied.

She didn't really fit in.

She wasn't part of the sort of fast set.

And I think at Downe House, she was sort of looked down on for that and given a bit of a hard time.

When she went back after her first term and told her parents how unhappy she was, Carole and Michael were adamant that they weren't going to make her suffer any more, that they would pull her out.

I think undoubtedly her own experience as someone who did suffer to a degree at the hands of bullies and who did have a bit of a miserable experience at school, it makes sense when you look at her work today, promoting mental health awareness, really being very proactive when it comes to anti-bullying and campaigns around that genre.

-In 1996, halfway through the school year, Carole and Michael take decisive action and move Kate into one of the country's most renowned schools.

-So, Catherine's moved to Marlborough.

So, at 14, she became a really popular, charismatic, energetic girl.

So she really found her footing in Marlborough.

And actually it produces a lot of alpha consorts, in a way, Samantha Cameron being one of them.

-The reality is that she grew up in the Home Counties, as William did.

They went to very similar public schools which played sport against each other.

They socialized together.

They had friends in common way before they went up to university.

-Now at Marlborough, Kate is in an elite group of schools that includes Harrow and Eton.

-She had actually met Prince William through Emilia d'Erlanger, and that Wiltshire set was quite a close set.

-Eton boys had gone to Marlborough parties.

They were in that kind of upper-middle class milieu.

And so she knew of William.

-Soon you shall meet a handsome man, a rich gentleman.

-It is all I had ever hoped for!

Will he fall in love with me?

-Indeed he will.

-And marry me?

-And marry you.

Did I not say this is your lucky hand?

-When you look back on that footage of her in the school play being told by a fortune teller that she's going to marry a prince and he'll be called William and you see Kate sort of saying, "Oh, my," it is quite remarkable.

I mean, of course, pure coincidence.

-It's a new millennium and a new chapter for Kate as she finishes at Marlborough and decides on her next steps.

-Kate and two of her best friends had determined that Edinburgh was the destination for them to do their university degree.

Certainly had a very high reputation in art history.

And when they secured places, they were all excitedly looking forward to going there.

Except at the last minute, Kate appeared to change her mind and she decided to have a gap year.

-I think that Catherine, she thought, "Hang on a second.

I want a bit of a break from academia."

So she went to Raleigh International.

-In Chile, in the mountains of Patagonia, the very same place that William went to, albeit at different times.

-Whilst on her gap year, there's an update from Kensington Palace.

-William announced he was going to St.

Andrews University.

Cue hysteria from the female population of the UK.

Many people have seen "The Crown."

There's been some suggestion that Carole Middleton had schemed her way to put her daughter, Kate, in the path of William Wales so that she could make her daughter a princess.

It's kind of a stupid scene in "The Crown."

-Come on.

You've always loved the idea of me and William together.

I was all set to go to Edinburgh University straight after school with all my friends.

Then you suggested I change it to St.

Andrew's after a gap year with none of my friends.

That was no coincidence.

-Yes, it was.

-Someone that I spoke to claimed they were actually in the Middleton kitchen when Carole was on the phone to Kate abroad in Chile, and she changed the UCAS application to St.

Andrew's.

Kate had the place at Edinburgh, but she reapplied that autumn through UCAS with her A-level grades to go to St.

Andrews to read history of art.

And because Kate was away, Carole organized all of that.

I think it's a bit far-fetched to say that Carole wanted Kate to marry William.

-Why not?

Maybe she knew that William was gonna be going to St.

Andrews and she wanted to meet him.

Majority of people say, "And what's wrong with that?"

-Kate's decision to reject her place in Edinburgh and apply and be accepted to study at St.

Andrews was really one of the most momentous decisions.

It has changed, potentially, the face and future of the British monarchy.

[ Cheers and applause ] -The small university town of St.

Andrews had never seen anything like it.

-Prince William greeted... -In Scotland, Prince William is starting his first year at university alongside fellow fresher Kate Middleton.

-Admissions to St.

Andrews had soared by 44%, mostly from wealthy female Americans wanting to come over to the UK and bag their prince.

So there was no guarantee that Kate was going to get in and onto that course.

Very luckily for her, she did.

But there is this sort of extraordinary pattern of these two, almost -- it's like it's destined for them to be together.

There's the chance meeting at school and then being on gap years, but a sort of "Sliding Doors" moment where they're actually not in the same place at the same time, and then finally they end up meeting in the corridor on the way down to the canteen for breakfast one morning at St.

Salvator's at St.

Andrews.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -Because it's a small town and students really have nowhere to go, they have to make their own entertainment.

-And Kate did just that when she discovered an injustice on the student social scene.

-When she found out there was a male-only anything, or in this case drinking society, she thought, "Oh, well, why should that be the case?

We'll start a women's one."

And that just shows you that she's not -- It gives you a bit of an insight into her character, actually.

-During their first year, William and Kate are just good friends, but that all changes when she makes a daring decision.

-It's fascinating to think that a future Queen of England walked down the catwalk in her lingerie, effectively.

-I understand it was originally a skirt, but she wanted to wear it as a dress.

It was quite provocative, quite an out-there look, shall we say.

[ Up-tempo music playing ] [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ This shows she has that more playful side and is quite daring.

I mean, you know, walking out into a room full of people wearing a very sheer dress is not the work of a shy woman.

-You know, she's not a shrinking violet by any shape of imagination.

No, she's got a bit of chutzpah about her, without a doubt.

-Now, she was dating someone at the time.

She was dating a student called Rupert Finch.

And William was sitting with a friend who he turned to and said, "Wow, Kate's hot."

And it's like, in that moment, suddenly he realized this sort of lovely, loyal friend of his who'd been dutifully taking notes for him at lectures and hanging out in the canteen was actually really gorgeous.

That night, there was an after party at someone's house in Hope Street, and I was told that William actually made a move on Kate.

He made a pass at her.

But because she was dating Rupert, she rebutted his advances.

William and Kate were able to enjoy a really normal university life, and after the first year, they moved into an apartment together in Hope Street, which is actually when they started dating.

But they were living with two other friends who kept the cover.

-Catherine and William actually dated effectively in secret.

Their friends formed an immensely close protective bubble around them, much like her family still does.

So, for around about two years, they were able to conduct a fairly "normal" relationship at university and just being out of the sort of global spotlight.

-Knowing, as I do, how journalists work, I'm sure journalists knew who he was dating.

They were not going to print anything.

-William and Harry were guaranteed privacy for the remainder of their full-time education, school, and then onto university.

And in return, the media would get, from time to time, some set piece, interviews and photographs.

-All came about as a result of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

-In August 1997, the world awoke to news that rocked the foundations of the royal family.

-We have reports from Paris that Diana, Princess of Wales, has been killed in a car accident and that her partner, Dodi Fayed, has also been killed.

They were apparently being pursued by paparazzi on two motorcycles.

-And as a result of that, while the British press weren't there, they did feel an element of responsibility.

That was the lever by which Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace were able to make these arrangements.

"We'll give you a facility, after which you leave them alone."

-As Kate and William try to keep their relationship under wraps, this press agreement is put to the test.

-People were very keen to get in touch with newspapers.

Students wanted to sell stories and pictures about him.

I have to say that the media didn't print paparazzi pictures.

The paparazzos didn't really go away throughout much of the time he was there.

Their problem was they couldn't find a market to sell their wares.

-After over a year of dating, William is on his family ski trip.

But what the press don't know is that he's secretly joined by Kate.

-Hey!

-There was a tradition that, on the first day, they would pose up for a photograph for the media, and then the media would leave and allow the royal family to have an uninterrupted holiday.

-And, William, are you here with some good friends?

-Yeah, with some friends, definitely.

Having a good laugh.

-The following day, William unveiled his companion on this holiday, and one of the photographers who remained behind, one of the paparazzos, got a picture.

-The Sun had wind of it for several weeks, and it took them all of that time to finally get them.

There was a media embargo around William protecting his time at St.

Andrews, but this technically wasn't at Saint Andrew's.

This was a place where previously official royal photo calls have taken place.

-You're in a very public area.

You're in a foreign country.

Very difficult to enforce those rules.

-The Sun would have thought, "This is too big a story.

This is too great a photograph not to publish."

And there's always the risk that someone else may have taken the photograph or got the story and published before The Sun if they'd held on to it.

-And of course, the dam broke, if you like.

-The headlines just went berserk.

-The unassuming middle-class girl from Berkshire was thrust into the public spotlight.

-So The Sun ran a headline.

It was quite a legitimate headline.

William and Catherine would know perfectly well that they were being photographed.

-It caused such an upset.

I don't think Kate was very happy.

I don't think her family were very happy.

Suddenly she's been outed.

-I remember briefings from the palace at that time that, yes, this was his girlfriend, and, yes, they lived together, but they didn't share a bedroom.

They were just boyfriend and girlfriend, but they were sharing a house with some other friends.

We then became obsessed with finding out all we could about this young woman.

-You know, her parents were door-knocked.

Her sister was door-knocked.

Her brother was door-knocked.

You know, journalists going up and knocking on their door.

And everybody wanting to know what's her mum do, what's her dad do, what their grandparents do, family trees.

"Who are her previous boyfriends?

Let's go and talk to those."

-Very soon, Kate Middleton could be one of the most famous women in the world, and yet she must try to forge a career on her own terms.

-Back at St.

Andrew's, Kate is protected from the press, but her student days are coming to an end.

-Catherine Middleton.

[ Applause ] -She graduated with a very commendable 2:1 in art history... [ Applause ] ...as, indeed, did William.

-William Wales.

[ Applause ] -Certainly far better than his father had done in his university career.

-Once Kate left university, she was considered fair game.

-After the graduation, it was like open season.

-Given that they'd been so cushioned and protected at St.

Andrew's, when they graduated, that bubble was popped quite fiercely.

-I really felt sorry for Kate 'cause I think it was a bit of a shock.

And, remember, she's not entitled to royal protection at that point.

-In 2005, Kate leaves St.

Andrews and, with it, the press deal that covers William, leaving her vulnerable.

-Kate moved to London, where her parents had a flat just off the King's Road.

And, you know, she was photographed sitting on the top deck of a London bus, looking wistfully out.

She was photographed going about her chores, her grocery shopping.

-You know, she could have been knocked over.

She could have been harmed in a physical way.

-I don't think anything really prepares you for what ultimately happens when this media storm breaks.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -Kate Middleton has finished university and moves to London, into the full glare of the media spotlight.

-For a young girl who'd always lived a pretty sheltered and protected life, it was a pretty tricky time for Kate to navigate.

-Being in the eye of that storm must be extremely intimidating.

-Well, Kate is tough, and she's savvy.

So she must have known that at some point this would happen.

But I think you can forgive her for thinking that it wasn't gonna happen quite that soon.

-She was invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham with the Queen, which was a very coveted invitation, which she declined because they were not engaged.

-And there was fevered speculation in the press that there was going to be an engagement any day.

You know, Kate had just had a birthday.

The paps were camped outside her flat, you know, in anticipation of this engagement announcement.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -Happy birthday, Kate.

-It got to an absolute frenzy, where you had like 50, 60 people outside her flat.

-There were hordes of media, and you could see Catherine being pursued relentlessly.

-And this poor girl is having to sort of run the gauntlet to get to the bus.

-Photographers hounding Prince William's girlfriend, Kate Middleton, on her way to work, like Princess Diana before her, media camped out on the doorstep.

-She didn't have security.

She didn't have anyone literally holding her hand, getting people out of the way.

You can tell she's finding it difficult.

She's got her lips pursed.

She's looking down.

She doesn't want the photographers there.

They're getting in her face.

She just wants to get to her car.

-If you're not used to it, it's quite scary.

You know, it's really scary.

-She was finding it a struggle.

I think privately she confided in Prince William that it was a struggle.

-The scrutiny was pretty intense for her.

Those images were absolutely brutal, in my view.

-I have no doubt that this was almost becoming like what had happened with his mother, and obviously that ended in her death.

-Princess Diana was followed in a similar way.

Many senior royals still blame photographers for her death.

Now they're demanding more privacy as they go about their everyday lives.

-This girl was being harassed in exactly the same way that Princess Diana was.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] -At the time, both the former press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, and even Diana's bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, warned very much that we needed to do something about this.

-William made a statement asking the media to kind of give Kate some space, so to kind of back off a little bit.

-And legal letters started going between Kensington Palace and the newspapers.

-The press backed off in a big way, the paparazzi less so.

-At the time, William went, and the Queen and his father sat him down and sort of said, "She has been subject to all this press attention and intrusion, and if you aren't planning on proposing any time soon, then it's potentially a bit unfair."

♪♪ And I think William took this to heart.

-I just noted a change with William.

I'd noted something had changed.

Um... And that's when I knew something wasn't right.

[ Sighs ] -The couple were really on the rocks, and they'd been photographed at the Cheltenham races back to back, sort of looking away from each other.

You know, and actually, that picture was very, very telling.

-I just noticed that Kate wasn't in conversation.

She wasn't around.

I noted that she wasn't -- She used always be around, and suddenly she wasn't around.

It was things like that I noticed.

-Kate was working at the time, and she took a phone call from William while she was in a meeting and went off to a private room to take this call, which lasted nearly an hour.

And when she came out, her and William had broken up.

-He's young, eligible, red- and blue-blooded, and isn't quite ready, it seems, to settle down.

-Kate had gone home to her parents' house and, you know, spent a few days obviously being very upset.

-Catherine, stoic as ever, wasn't going to let that little blip interfere with her life.

She was going to carry on.

She's gonna have to hang on to her inner anger.

-She decided that she wasn't going to show any vulnerability.

-She would go out to nightclubs with her sister, Pippa.

-She went out on dates.

She went to parties.

-She went out with the guy that she'd known at school.

-Her skirts got shorter.

Her tan got more bronze.

She looked fantastic.

-Definitely there was a bit of a shift in her style.

It was a little sexier, a little more daring, I think a little bit of "Hey, look what you're missing" revenge dressing, and dressing for a good time.

-She just got on with her own life, and I think William saw very quickly what he was missing.

-William, who then, you know, may have gone out and drunk the menu, as he said, but once you've drunk the menu, you start to then probably wake up and smell the roses and think, "Well, what have I done that for?"

-I felt he was quite sad at that time.

I just felt he was a little bit -- also a little bit lonely.

Everybody loved Kate being around.

Everybody enjoyed it when she used to be there.

And it was always fun, and it was always jokey.

We used to sit with William and Kate in the kitchen, and it was always really good fun kind of hanging out with them.

And suddenly all that changed.

And it wasn't just us.

Other members of the household said, "Oh, miss Kate."

-Probably hurting inside, but she wasn't going to let it show.

That shows the stature and the nature of the upbringing and the stature of the person.

-Two months after the split, Kate and William are seen socializing.

-They went to Sam Waley-Cohen birthday party, where they sat and discussed their future.

Kate obviously wanted some reassurances, I think.

She wasn't going to go back out with William and break up with him again.

-With speculation rife, William and Kate might be heading for a reconciliation.

How does William feel about Kate coming?

-Uh, well, uh, I have a lots of friends coming.

-You can clearly comment on this one.

-Wow!

-I've got lots of friends coming, so, you know, everyone's gonna be there on the night, and it's gonna be a great night, basically.

-That's very well avoided, William.

-Very diplomatic.

♪♪ -She was there at Wembley for a concert tribute to William's mother, albeit sitting two rows behind, but it did give a good indication that all was not lost when it came to that relationship.

And it wasn't long after that that they got back together again.

-It was always a question, I think, that hung over Catherine's head at the beginning -- How can a woman, a girl from a middle-class family, transition into the royal family and, you know, take on that huge responsibility, that global spotlight and everything that comes with it, all the complications that come with it?

And I think in that moment, in the breakup, she really came into her own in the way of proving herself to be able to handle that attention, that level of scrutiny.

And I think the royal family saw that.

-She understood what the role was.

She considered, in that period, possibly, when she was out of the relationship with William, "What are the price of playing a gig?

I love this guy.

Do I want to make my life with him?

What are the pressures?

What are the --" And I think she went away, she thought about it, and she bought into it.

-With the romance back on, their relationship enters a more serious stage.

-All the media were really interested about when Catherine was going to meet the Queen.

I was involved in the communications plan for the wedding of Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly.

Peter told me Catherine Middleton was going to be one of the guests there.

-William was in Africa at the time, so Kate went to this wedding on her own, which was quite a big thing for her to do and have that sort of first official meeting with the Queen.

-It would have been obviously very nerve-wracking for her.

-It must have been terrifying.

How do you curtsy?

How do you address her?

-And I think the Queen very much warmed to Kate.

There was a curiosity about her.

-In an ITV interview, Kate talks about her big moment meeting the Queen for the first time.

-And it was in amongst a lot of other guests, and she was very friendly.

And it was -- It was -- Yeah, it was fine.

-She's very welcoming.

She knew it was -- it was a -- you know, it was a big day and everything was going on.

Peter and Autumn were there and things, and she'd she wanted to meet Kate, you know, for a while, so it was very nice of her to come over and say hello.

-Doing it on her own, going solo without Prince William being there, demonstrates the mettle of the girl.

She is very confident.

-With Kate now a serious prospect for William, she comes under greater scrutiny from the palace.

-Background checks would have been done not just on Catherine, but on the family, as well.

-They have to be careful about who's around them all the time, so they have to be pretty certain that you're safe to be around them.

Even with me, my parents had background checks done and my grandparents, who are no longer alive.

They check everything.

-After five years of dating Prince William, Kate is invited on holiday with the entire royal family.

She now faces the so-called "Balmoral test."

[ Dramatic music playing ] -So, the Balmoral test, as it's nicknamed, is when you go up to Balmoral, which is a very sacred kind of place for the late Queen.

-It was such a big deal because it's Queen Elizabeth's private home.

-It's very, very informal compared to Buckingham Palace.

I remember someone saying to me, "The Queen leaves her crown on the gates as she enters Balmoral."

It's really when they can relax, be themselves, take their crowns off, and put their headscarves on.

♪♪ -There's fine-dining experiences.

There's shooting.

There's fishing.

There's walking.

Can you imagine how much you've got to take for that?

And if you don't have it, you've got to buy it.

So, you need your shooting gear, your fishing gear, your walking gear.

Have you got the right wellies?

You know, you want to make sure that you're getting the ones that have got the royal warrant, you know?

You don't want to get any kind of -- You're not gonna go and get them from Amazon, are you?

There's also protocol about what time you arrive, getting shown to your room, who you take, who you can't take, when you have dinner parties who you sit next to, what you talk about, what you don't talk about.

If you get invited to do something with the king and the royal family, you can't say no, so you have to -- you're obviously going to go.

The whole point of it is to see how you fit in.

-After a weekend with all the royals, Kate clearly impresses.

-Well, Kate's been many, many times, so I think it's safe to say that she passed the test.

-Having won over the family, speculation about an engagement is rife.

-This girl's gonna get a ring on her finger soon.

And of course, the press knew.

-But a proposal isn't forthcoming.

-And Kate -- she dated William for the best part of 10 years.

-I'm sure he wanted to give her enough time to make sure that -- almost that she, you know -- if she wants to get out, she can.

-She'd met William in 2001, and here we were well into the noughties, but there was no sign of William popping the question.

"Why are you hanging around?

There lots of guys that would want to marry you.

Why are you hanging around for Prince William?

He can't make up his mind, and you've already had one breakup.

What's to say there isn't going to be another one?"

[ Indistinct shouting ] -Three years after Kate and William got back together, she is still waiting for her prince to propose.

-Hence, you know, those slightly, I think, unfair comments about "Waity Katie."

-It was a bit insulting, really, to say, "Well, why are you hanging around?"

But she was patient.

She knew what the relationship was all about.

We didn't, but she knew what it was all about.

♪♪ -He and Kate went on holiday together to Kenya.

They were high in the mountains in Kenya.

They were on the side of this beautiful lake in a hut.

Had no electricity, no mobile phone signal, nothing.

It's just the two of them.

And he went down on one knee and proposed with Diana's ring.

-Now, let me just bring you some breaking news.

-Prince William and his longtime love, Kate Middleton, are official.

-After an eight-year on-again, off-again relationship... -Finally, Prince William has announced that he and Kate Middleton are engaged.

-In an interview with ITV, William opens up about popping the question.

-I'd been planning it for a while, but as every guy out there will know, it, uh -- it takes a certain amount of motivation to get yourself going, so I was planning it, and then it just felt really right out in Africa.

It was beautiful at the time, and I just -- I had done a little bit of planning to obviously show my romantic side.

-She probably knew deep down inside that, yes, it was going to end up in marriage, but it was when he was ready.

-I really didn't expect it at all.

I thought he might have sort of maybe thought about it, but, no, it was a total shock when it came and -- Very excited.

[ Laughs ] -And he produced the ring?

-Yes.

-There and then?

-William asked Granny's permission to get it out of the jewelry vaults at Buckingham Palace.

-I'd been carrying it around with me in my rucksack for about three weeks before that, and I literally would not let it go.

Everywhere I went, I was keeping hold of it 'cause I knew this thing -- if it disappeared, I'd be in a lot of trouble.

-Kate's engagement ring is originally based on a brooch given by Prince Albert to Queen Victoria, and Princess Diana chose it from a tray that Garrards brought round to the palace.

It was the most expensive, at £47,000.

-And he put it at the bottom of his rucksack.

-It is a family ring, yes.

It's my mother's engagement ring.

So I thought it was quite nice 'cause obviously she's not gonna be around to share any of the fun and excitement of it all.

This was my way of keeping her sort of close to it all.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] -The way that she wears it, it feels like Kate's ring.

It doesn't feel like Diana's ring.

It feels like Kate's ring.

-They came back to the UK.

There's one person he had told before they went, and that was her father, Mike Middleton.

Mike says he didn't even tell Carole.

I mean, come on.

-And actually we had quite an awkward situation because I knew and I knew that William had asked my father, but I didn't know if my mother knew.

So I came back from Scotland and, um, you know, my mother made it sort of -- didn't make it clear to me whether she knew or not.

So both of us were there sort of looking at each other and feeling quite awkward about it.

But, um, it was amazing to tell her, and obviously she was very happy for us both.

♪♪ -The mood was electric.

It was exciting.

It was joyous, thrilling.

It's always wonderful to know something before everyone else, as well.

We had to prepare a statement on behalf of the Queen, obviously welcoming the news of the engagement.

-Obviously thrilled.

Thank you very much.

-It's the most brilliant news.

-There was so much excitement when the engagement was announced.

-There was a great cheer went up and a great banging of the table.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] -Facing the cameras and a thousand exploding flashlights, a young couple who will one day be king and queen.

[ Camera shutters clicking ] -It's quite a daunting prospect, but, you know, hopefully I'll take it in my stride.

William's a great teacher, so he'll be able to help me along the way.

-Traditionally, the royal family haven't been very good at welcoming in outsiders, in particular their in-laws.

-They make a lovely couple, they're great fun to be with, and we've had a lot of laughs together.

We wish them every happiness for the future.

-The fact they picked Westminster Abbey, which is where kings and queens have been crowned, I thought was a wow factor, you know, because you don't often have royal weddings in there.

-The palace machinery produced a list of people they thought should be invited to the palace, and that included politicians, peers.

-When William was first given the sort of proposed guest list and he went to the Queen and said, "You know, Granny, we don't know half of these people," to which the Queen said, "Well, tear it up and start again."

-And they did.

-William made it absolutely clear from the outset that he wanted her family to be part of this unique unit.

So we saw the Middletons brought into the royal family in a way that had never happened before.

-For the planning of the wedding, absolutely no stone was left unturned.

-There's lots of rehearsals.

It's got to be perfect.

There's no room for mistake.

I remember they were going on late at night, midnight, 1:00, 2:00 in the morning, which was unbelievable.

-You've got the people in the campsite, many of whom set up tents a couple of nights ago just so they'd be in the right position, which they are, right outside the Abbey.

[ Cheers and applause ] -The night before the wedding, I was staying at Buckingham Palace, and I had a room right at the front of the palace, overlooking them all.

And I remember about 3:00 in the morning, and I just couldn't sleep because the crowds were just chanting and laughing and partying and celebrating and just feeling that genuine warmth and enthusiasm by the public for the couple getting married.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ -Tens of thousands of people had lined the streets.

-A completely international event with the world's press, networks from all around the world coming over.

-As soon as she stepped out wearing that dress... [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ...you just thought, "Wow, she's a princess."

[ Cheers and applause continue ] -The dress was certainly something that she could take full control of.

And in fact, her parents paid for that dress, a quarter of £1 million.

It was designed by Sarah Burton.

-Sarah Burton was a woman at the helm of a big fashion house, which rarely happens.

And so there was a little bit of a feminist statement in there, I think.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Did her own wedding makeup, which I think is the first time a royal bride has ever done such a thing.

It was really unusual.

And that was, I suppose, a way of her sort of taking control and having things on her terms.

♪♪ -It was Kate's idea to fill the nave with these young saplings, and it felt like you were entering a kind of sun-dappled forest.

It was a spectacular idea.

-Amongst those pews of dignitaries and VIPs were just people that they'd gone to university with.

So it felt like a family wedding.

-You were front and center and part of something really, really historical.

-Catherine Elizabeth, wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband?

-I will.

-This is the moment.

She is the future queen.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Catherine was almost unflappable.

So, the way she presented herself, the way she transitioned into the Duchess of Cambridge, that was just an incredible thing to see.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -A million people had crowded from Buckingham Palace back to Trafalgar Square to watch that kiss on the balcony.

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -I think it was just this moment of this new generation coming in and, of course, you know the future heir to the throne, the future king, finding his bride.

And everyone was so excited.

[ Cheers and applause ] It was an immense positive for them after quite a difficult, tumultuous period following Diana's death.

[ Cheers and applause ] -It was the most watched wedding ever.

Billions had watched it, which speaks volumes.

[ Cheers and applause ] -It really was the greatest show on Earth.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Next time... -It was the Kate and William show, and then suddenly this force of nature takes over.

-...Kate's world is turned upside down with the arrival of Meghan.

-It's an upset that had happened between Meghan and Kate over this issue.

-There was definitely some friction there.

You could see.

-Do you ever have disagreements about things?

-[ Laughs ] Oh, yes.

-This is a very volatile situation.

-And she faces the fallout from the explosive Oprah interview.

-So, the rumors about you making Kate Middleton cry?

-No, the reverse happened.

-She wasn't just going to sit and take this lying down.

-She comes across as such an easygoing sort of person that one would mess with her at your peril.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪