Kate DIDN’T target William because he was royal, reveals a school friend 

Hurtful claims that Kate Middleton targeted from an early age becoming Prince William’s bride have been strongly repudiated by a friend.

Talking to The Mail on Sunday on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the announcement of the couple’s engagement, the Marlborough College contemporary said that, in fact, Kate had actually hated the idea of a life in the public eye.

In a major three-part series for the newspaper – accompanied by a free, 24-page glossy photo magazine – the school friend says: ‘All Catherine ever wanted was a husband, a house in the country, loads of kids, a dog and a kitchen with an Aga.’

This contradicts unsubstantiated claims that a young Kate – with the connivance of her socially aspirational mother Carole – set her sights on William and even changed university to be alongside him at St Andrews in Scotland.

Kate and William now share three children: Prince George, left, Princess Charlotte, right, and Prince Louis, centre. A friend told the MoS: ‘Catherine was much more like her father. She wanted a happy, domestic setting – looking after everyone’

The friend told the MoS: ‘Whereas Catherine’s younger sister Pippa was always expected to be a hot-shot lawyer or work in the City – having the ambition and drive of her mother – Catherine was much more like her father. She wanted a happy, domestic setting – looking after everyone.

‘Becoming a member of the Royal Family, thrust into the limelight, is the last thing she would have wanted. But she fell in love with William, who just happened to be heir to the throne.

‘She married William despite his position, not because of it.’

These comments flatly refute the suggestion raised in royal biographer Robert Lacey’s recent book that an 18-year-old Kate had gone so far as set up lodgings with two friends in Edinburgh to study History of Art at the Scottish capital’s university but changed her mind and took a year off before switching to St Andrews after it has been announced that William had chosen to study there.

In fact, Kate was still pining for her Marlborough first love, Harry Blakelock (pictured with Felicity Thornhill in 2010), who friends said had ‘blown hot and cold with her when they were at school and she was always talking about how she could get him back.’

The Marlborough College contemporary said that, in fact, Kate had actually hated the idea of a life in the public eye. Pictured, William and Kate at St Bartholomew’s in the City of London on October 29

Prince William with Kate Middleton at an England V Italy rugby union match at Twickenham, Middlesex on February 10, 2007

In fact, Kate was still pining for her Marlborough first love, Harry Blakelock, who friends said had ‘blown hot and cold with her when they were at school and she was always talking about how she could get him back.’ 

Both Kate and Blakelock were in Florence during her gap year but they never reunited. He subsequently married a school friend of Kate’s and is now a senior vice-president at the world’s largest privately held, independent insurance broker.

The Mail on Sunday series also include exclusive photos of William dancing – a little worse for wear – in the early hours with a blonde girl dressed in a sexy, corset-laced basque at a basement club in Fulham, South West London, in September 2007. 

At the time, the prince had just got back together with Kate after a split which many thought would be permanent. The night out with Army pals was seen as his last fling as a bachelor.