New Book Reveals The Way William Broke Up With Kate In 2007 (It's Brutal)

While William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales are one of the most well-known couples in the world, their relationship started back when the two met at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in the early 2000s. William and Kate's early romance developed out of a friendship, and their couple status was eventually confirmed to the world in 2004. But in January 2007, the couple broke up. Reportedly, it was William who initiated the split — over the phone. At least it wasn't by text? But still, the call must have been heartbreaking for Kate.

This update about the famous couple's famous split comes from the biography "Catherine, The Princess of Wales" by Robert Jobson, scheduled to come out in August 2024. In an excerpt published in the Daily Mail, the breakup call "was an emotionally charged 30-minute conversation, [in which] they both acknowledged they were on 'different pages'." After the call, William is said to have announced "I'm free" to his friends while on a night out at a club in London, and then proceeded to drink. A lot.

Kate Middleton doesn't seem to have let the breakup get her down either, at least publicly. In the days after the split, Kate and her sister Pippa Middleton were frequently pictured living their best nightclub lives. However, Prince William and Kate, who now have three children together, have a mutual friend's party to thank for getting them back together. Less than half a year after they split, Sam Waley-Cohen held a costume party with the theme "Freakin Naughty."

At the time, People reported that Kate wore a nurse's outfit while William wore a police helmet. According to the new book about Kate, the two reconnected — it started with talking, which apparently led to dancing, which then led to kissing, and then it seems that they got back on the same page about their romance.

William and Kate talked about their relationship and their breakup during their 2020 engagement interview, though without any of the specifics about it happening via phone call. "We did split up for a bit," William said (via ITV News). "But that was just, we were both very young, it was at university, and we were both sort of defining ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff."