Happy birthday Kate! As the Duchess of Cambridge turns 30, FEMAIL brings you 30 facts about our future queen

... And Kate gets a birthday message from reality TV royalty Kim Kardashian


By Deborah Arthurs


Kate, wearing lace Alice Temperley, spent the eve of her 30th birthday at the War Horse premiere in London

1 Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born to parents Michael and Carole Middleton at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on January 9 1982.

2 Kate was christened at the parish church of St Andrew's Bradfield in Berkshire on June 20 1982.

3 Aged eight, she became a brownie with the 1st St Andrews pack in Pangbourne, Berkshire.

4 At the age of 13, she went to the £15,000-a-year Marlborough College in Wiltshire.
5 During her time there she represented the college at tennis, hockey and netball. She became captain of the college's hockey team and played in the first pair at tennis.

6 Kate is a keen photographer and took pictures for her parents' mail order business Party Pieces.

7 Amman, the capital of Jordan, was home to Kate and her family for a few years in the mid 1980s.

8 The Duchess has completed her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

9 Hobbies she enjoys include walking, tennis, swimming, sailing, and painting.

10 It was rumoured that at Marlborough College Kate had a poster of her future husband William on her wall. But she has quashed speculation by revealing it was in fact the "Levi's guy" who adorned her bedroom.
11 Kate spent time studying at the British Institute in Florence during a gap year.

12 She also crewed on Round the World Challenge boats in the Solent while taking a break from studies.

13 In 2001, the Duchess enrolled at the University of St Andrews, Fife, from where she graduated in 2005 with a 2:1 in history of art.

14 When an undergraduate she continued playing sports and turned out for the university's hockey team.

15 Kate met her future husband at St Andrews - a university where graduates have around a one in 10 chance of meeting their perfect partner and getting married.

16 The Duchess worked in London as a part-time buyer for the clothing company Jigsaw Junior. When she left without finding a new job, she earned the nickname 'Waity Katie' - despite the fact she was known to help her parents with their party supplies business.

17 Kate and William's first official event together after they got engaged was at Anglesey last February - dedicating a new RNLI lifeboat.

18 Kate followed wedding tradition, and for 'something blue' had a blue ribbon sewn into the interior of her dress.

19 After the wedding ceremony, on April 29 last year, her bouquet was placed on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey after the service, continuing a tradition started by the late Queen Mother.

20 The see-through dress which sparked William's interest in Kate when she wore it at a university fashion show in 2002 was auctioned in 2011 for £78,000.

21 The Duchess is descended from a family of solicitors and landed gentry on her father's side and butchers, plasterers, road sweepers and domestic servants on her mother's.

22 During her tour of California and Canada during the summer of 2011 she wore more than 25 outfits, winning her accolades from the world's fashion press.

Kate's first public appearance as a working royal after becoming engaged to William was for the naming of a new Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) vessel in Anglesey, in February last year

23 Whenever she is photographed wearing high street fashion the garment quickly sells out - one Reiss dress, the Shola bandage dress, sold at a rate of one a minute after Kate was pictured wearing it. As such, Kate has widely been credited with reviving flagging interest in the British high street, transforming the fortunes of her favoured brands such as Zara and Reiss.

24 The Duchess is an official ambassador for Team GB and Paralympic GB.

25 With her husband William she will travel to Malaysia, Singapore, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year.

26 When in the capital Kate sometimes uses the London bike hire scheme - and London Mayor Boris Johnson gave Kate and William a tandem Boris bike as a wedding present.

27 She is patron of Action on Addiction and the National Portrait Gallery, and royal patron of East Anglia's Children's Hospices and The Art Room. She is also a volunteer with the Scout Association and in the future will join activities privately with groups in north Wales and other areas.

Traditional bride Kate wore something blue on her wedding day - a small piece of ribbon stitched on the underside of her Sarah Burton wedding gown


28 Although Kate could have a private chef at her disposal, she prefers to do the majority of the cooking for herself and William, and is often spotted shopping at Waitrose on Anglesely and, when she is at Kensington Palace, at the Waitrose on Kensington High Street. Kate even surprised shoppers at Tesco last month when she shopped at the supermarket, stocking up on essentials including Kellogg's Special K.

29 Kate is not allergic to horses, as has been widely reported. At last night's War Horse premiere she steered clear of the horse on the red carpet - but only to protect her Alice Temperley gown. 'The horse was leaving piles of manure everywhere,' an onlooker said.

30 Contrary to previous reports, Kate will not move in with Camilla and Charles when William is posted to the Falklands next month. Instead, Kate plans to use the time to embark upon her charity work.


Aged 29, Kate had blossomed into a confident duchess. Right, aged just eight, Kate enrolled as a brownie with the 1st St Andrews pack in Pangbourne, Berkshire

source:dailymail