Here's Everything We Know About Princess Catherine's Inner Circle

Life as a royal can't be easy. Not only does the role involve an endless stream of events, appearances and duties, it also involves living and breathing in the public eye. Naturally, the royals need to have a strong support system to fall back on. 

For Princess Catherine, having loyal, dependable friends has always been vital to her success. From her school to her university days to her days as a royal, her friends have supported her, grounded her and stood by her side. In fact, over the years, she has built up a pretty impressive troop of confidantes. 

From school friends like Trini Foyle and Hannah Carter to university roommates like Olivia Bleasdale to new friends like Lucy Lanigan-O'Keefe, Catherine's inner circle is filled with a wide variety of fascinating figures. Curious to learn a little more about the people who have always stood by Catherine throughout her royal career? Here is a look at the princess's inner circle.

We all have that old school friend who has been there through it all — through the first love, the high school graduation, the first break up, the first day at university, the wedding, the baby and so on. For Princess Catherine, that friend is Trini Foyle. Catherine and Foyle first met at the age of 14 at Marlborough College, a boarding school in Wiltshire (via MyLondon). By the looks of things, they've been inseparable ever since.

Foyle has been on hand through it all. When Catherine and William broke up in 2007, she was there to support her. She also attended their wedding and the christenings of their children (via Daily Mail).

Foyle studied politics at Edinburgh University — not far from where Catherine ended up in St. Andrews — before working as an assistant for Tory member Jeremy Hunt and settling down with Ted Foyle, a lawyer, with whom she has a son named Alexander (via The Sun). According to Cambridge News, she and Catherine even get together with their children in Kensington Gardens. In 2013, the pair were spotted in Hyde Park going for a walk.

Hannah Carter, née Gillingham, is another best friend of Princess Catherine who has been around since the princess' Marlborough College boarding school days. According to the Daily Mail, Hannah and Catherine both played on the school's hockey team. 

Hannah was present at Catherine's wedding and, one year later in 2012, Catherine and William attended Hannah's wedding to a Norfolk landowner, Robert Carter. After the wedding, the royal couple reportedly drank at a local pub with Hannah, Robert, and other friends until one in the morning. As the staff of the pub told Hello! Magazine, the royals had asked to be "treated like everyone else" for their friend's wedding. Carter is now one of Prince Louis' six godparents (via The Sun). According to the Eastern Daily Press, she and her husband run a construction business called R G Carter in Norfolk. 

Emilia Jardine-Paterson, née D'Erlanger, is another old school friend who has been part of Princess Catherine's inner circle for decades. According to The Sun and Grazia, Jardine-Paterson met Catherine at Marlborough College when they were just 13 years old. She's perhaps best known as the friend who took Catherine on a rebound holiday in Ibiza after she briefly broke up with Prince William in 2007 (via Express). 

According to the New Zealand Herald, Jardine-Paterson was also close friends with Prince William and his brother Prince Harry as a child, and even went on holiday with the royal family in Greece as a teen. Apparently, Jardine-Paterson introduced Catherine and William at a house party before either had started university.

Jardine-Paterson went on to marry David Jardine-Paterson in 2010, with whom she has three children (via Tatler). She owns an interior design company called d'Erlanger and Sloan, and reportedly helped Catherine redesign Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall, where she now lives in Norfolk. "Emilia has kept to the same ethos when advising Kate on interior decor. Kate had wanted it all muted beiges and neutrals, but Emilia has encouraged more colour," a source told Grazia. She is now the godmother of Catherine's first son, George.

Alicia Fox-Pitt is yet another school friend who met Princess Catherine as a teenager while boarding at Marlborough College. Fox-Pitt comes from a well-known family from Kent — her brother, William, is a former Olympian, while her father was a famous equestrian and banker. According to Hello! Magazine, Fox-Pitt bonded with Catherine when the pair both joined the Sisterhood rowing team. "[Kate's] been training with us," she once said. "All being well she will be in the boat. She is a very gifted sportswoman and we played a lot of sport together at school." 

Rumor has it, Fox-Pitt and Catherine also did their fair share of partying when they were younger. According to the New Zealand Herald, Catherine once threw up on a train home after staying up all night and drinking champagne at her friend's house. Fox-Pitt was also in attendance at Catherine's karaoke bachelorette party.

Fox-Pitt went on to marry Sebastian Stoddart in 2013, and she now works as a vet in South London. 

Also in Princess Catherine's inner circle is Zoe Warren. Warren is the daughter of the Earl of Galloway and is also a close friend of Prince Harry's — in fact, her daughter is his goddaughter and was a bridesmaid at his wedding. She has been spotted chatting with both Harry and Catherine at the Royal Ascot on numerous occasions (via The Sun).

When Warren isn't hanging out with her royal friends, she spends her time at her home in Berkshire where she lives with her husband Jake Warren (he was one of Princess Diana's godchildren) and their three children. 

You may recognize Warren from her work during the COVID lockdown, when she helped to raise money for the healthcare service by holding weekly online yoga classes. "I'm a worrier, I can overthink things a lot. Yoga and self-awareness have really helped me to keep a check on it," she told The Times.

Sophie Snuggs (née Carter) is an old friend of Princess Catherine who has been part of her circle for years. She and the princess frequently spend time together. According to The Sun, she has attended several official royal events and even went on a ski trip with Catherine and her family in 2016. 

It seems that Snuggs has been part of the royal circle for years. As Cambridge News reported, her family is one of the elite farming families of England who are known as the "Turnip Toffs." Her brother, Thomas, is married to Catherine's friend, Hannah Carter. Snuggs also once dated Thomas van Staubenzee, one of William's close friends. Snuggs and van Staubenzee are now both godparents of William and Catherine's daughter, Charlotte.

In 2018, Snuggs married Robert Snuggs. Prince George and Princess Charlotte served as page boy and flower girl (via Marie Claire). The Snuggses had their first daughter, Amalia Rose Charlotte, in 2019 (via Yahoo!). 

Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley is a former model and seems to be one of Catherine's close friends. She, her husband David and their three children live at Houghton Hall, close to Catherine in Norfolk, and have been spotted having playdates, going for dinner and attending weddings (via The Sun).

While the pair were certainly once close, according to The Sun, Hanbury and Catherine may have had a "falling out." "It is well known that Kate and Rose have had a terrible falling out," a source said. "They used to be close but that is not the case any more." Apparently, Catherine even asked Prince William to "phase out" Hanbury and her husband. However, the Daily Mail reported that this rumored rivarly was false — in fact, it seems that both Catherine and Hanubry considered taking legal action against the report. It sounds like Catherine and Hanbury are probably as close as ever.

The longest-running member of Princess Catherine's inner circle? It's safe to say that title belongs to her sister, Pippa Matthews. Like all sisters, Catherine and Pippa have had their ups and downs, but they have remained close throughout it all. With only two years between them, Catherine and Pippa have always been close, from their early days living in Jordan to their days as members of the royal family. Pippa often appears alongside Catherine at both royal events and social events. She was even her maid-of-honor.

"I mean, obviously she has pressures that she's taken on and things. But we spend a lot of time together. We still do a lot together as a family," Pippa said to "Today." "We have a very normal, sisterly relationship. We're very close. And, you know, we support each other and get each other's opinions and things." It sounds like Pippa is definitely a member of the inner circle.

While Princess Catherine has plenty of female friends, she's also very close with a few men — especially those she met at St. Andrews. Oliver Baker met Catherine at university and quickly became a close friend to her and Prince William. 

Baker went on to marry Mel Nicholson in 2010, who is reportedly a close friend of Catherine's (via the Daily Mail). He and his wife are often spotted with Catherine and William and in 2015, he was named as one of Princess Charlotte's godparents (via PopSugar).

Olivia Bleasdale is another close friend of Princess Catherine. Bleasdale first crossed paths with the princess at university. In Catherine's second year, she and Prince William moved into a shared apartment for just £100 a week with Bleasdale and another friend, Fergus Boyd. Catherine and William continued to live with Bleasdale for their third and fourth years when they all shared a farmhouse off-campus (via ABC and Cambridge News). 

According to the Daily Mail, Bleasdale went onto work in corporate communications at Taylor Bennett. Based on an Instagram photo, it seems that Bleasdale later married Robert Wallace, but has kept her life as private as possible.

Princess Catherine has plenty of close friends from school and university, but one of her closest confidantes is actually her stylist, Amanda Cook Tucker. Tucker has been a royal hair stylist for years, and she first started styling Catherine's famous hair in 2012. Since then, she's been by her side ever since, even accompanying her on overseas trips.

It's pretty clear that the pair have become incredibly close. According to Grazia, Tucker was the first person outside of the family and the medical team to meet Catherine's first son, George. Tucker reportedly visits Catherine at her home to trim her hair every six to eight weeks (via The Sun). Sounds like these two have been pretty close for at least a decade. After all, if Catherine trusts her with her famous hair, there's probably nothing she wouldn't trust her with!

While we all need good friends, we also need allies within our extended families. For Princess Catherine, that person seems to be her aunt-in-law: Sophie, Countess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward. According to Hello! Magazine, Catherine and Sophie are often seen chatting and laughing at official events like the Royal Ascot, Trooping the Colour, Wimbledon, and more. And as Express reported, Sophie lives just 40 minutes away from Catherine and William's home in Norfolk.

When Catherine assumed her new role as Princess of Wales in 2022, it seems that Sophie became her mentor. "One friend tells me that, as we move into the next phase of the monarchy, it will be critical for the Duchess of Cambridge to have a female sounding board," said Rebecca English, royal editor of the Daily Mail, in the documentary "Edward & Sophie: The Reluctant Royals." "And they genuinely couldn't think of anyone better to provide that than loyal, trustworthy Sophie" (via Express).

Lady Laura Meade, née Marsham, is another member of Princess Catherine's inner circle who has been around for years. The daughter of Julian Marsham, 8th Earl of Romney, Laura has always moved in aristocratic circles (via The Sun). According to The Sun, Catherine first met Laura through her husband, Prince William. Apparently, Laura is married to James Meade, who is one of William's best friends from his Eton days. Meade even gave the best man speech at the prince's wedding. 

Because of their husbands' close bond, Catherine and Laura seem to spend plenty of time together. Luckily, she and her husband James live near Catherine and William's Norfolk home. Laura is one of Prince Louis' godparents.

One of Princess Catherine's newest additions to her inner circle is rumored to be Lucy Lanigan O'Keefe. O'Keefe is a teacher at Thomas's Battersea, the London school where both George and Charlotte studied before moving to Norfolk. According to The Times, O'Keefe specializes in teaches mindfulness and outdoor learning. O'Keefe became even closer to the royal family when she married Prince William's friend and Charlotte's godfather, Thomas van Straubenzee (via Entertainment Daily). 

According to reports, Lucy Middleton is Princess Catherine's closest cousin. As The Sun reported, she is slightly older than Catherine, having graduated from Bristol University in 2022 with a degree in French and Italian. She went on to study law in 2004 before becoming a solicitor for Penguin Random House. According to her LinkedIn profile, Lucy specializes "in defamation, privacy, confidence and data protection."

Rumor has it, she encouraged Kate to come and visit her during her gap year in Florence, where the pair learned Italian and shared a $650-a-month apartment (via The Telegraph). Eventually, Lucy was named one of Prince Louis' godparents.

Laura Warshauer was an American student at St. Andrews when crossed paths with Prince William and Princess Catherine when they all lived in the same dormitory, St. Salvator's Hall. According to Warshauer, she immediately noticed the connection between the prince and his future wife. As she told People, the pair "definitely had chemistry" in their early days. "Whenever Kate was in the room, Will was obviously paying attention to her," Warshauer said. "When we'd be sitting at lunch in the dining hall and the two of them would be talking, it was amazing to see how natural it was, how they had so much to say to each other. Looking back, there were all these small moments — certainly moments where I was like, 'Wow, this could really be something.'"

In another interview, Warshauer recalled how William had invited his friends to a "Harry Potter" party at a nearby castle. "We all got on a big bus to go there and I remember Kate and William dancing together all night," she recalled. Warshauer, who is a singer-songwriter, went on to write an original song for William and Catherine's wedding (via the Daily Mail).