32 Facts About the Duchess of Cambridge

HRH The Duchess of Cambridge

      Today, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge celebrates her 32nd birthday. To commemorate it, I have compiled a list of 32 facts about the future Queen of the United Kingdom and the overseas Commonwealth realms.

1. HRH The Duchess of Cambridge was born as Catherine Elizabeth Middleton on January 9, 1982 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, England, United Kingdom.

2. Her parents are Michael and Carole Middleton.

3. She is the eldest of three children.

4. She has a sister, Phillipa (Pippa), and a brother, James.

5. Her ancestry includes manufacturers, merchants, and coal miners.

6. For two and a half years, Kate lived in Amman, Jordan while her father and mother were working for British Airways.

7. While at Marlborough College (the equivalent of the last two years of high school in the US), she studied Chemistry, Biology, and Art.

8. The Duchess was also a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

9. She enrolled at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 2001, where she met Prince William.

10. While at St. Andrews, Kate played for the University’s hockey team.

11. In 2005, she graduated from St. Andrews with a degree in the History of Art.

12. Upon graduation, she worked in catalogue design and production, marketing and photography for her parents company, Party Pieces, as well as a buyer for clothing company Jigsaw Junior.

13. Prince William and Kate were engaged in October 2010 during a visit to Kenya.

14. Middleton was given the engagement ring that had belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales.

15. On April 29, 2011, Catherine married Prince William, Duke of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that was watched by over 2 billion people.

16. Her title and style in full is: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, and Lady Carrickfergus.

17. For the first two years of her marriage, the Duchess lived in a rented Welsh farmhouse with Prince William while he was an RAF search-and-rescue pilot in Anglesey.

18. The Duchess’ first official engagement occurred in May 2011, when she and William met President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace.

19. In July 2011, Kate made her first royal overseas visit when she and William toured Canada and California in the United States.

20. The trip to California was Kate’s first visit to America.

21. Her first solo engagement occurred on October 26, 2011, when she stepped in for Prince Charles at an event for In Kind Direct while Charles was in Saudi Arabia.

22. She gave her first solo speech on March 19, 2012 during the opening of a hospice center for East Anglia's Children's Hospices, of which she is Patron.

23. Along with Prince William and Prince Harry, Kate was an official ambassador for Team GB leading up to and during the Olympics and Paralympics.

24. As part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, she traveled with Prince William to represent the Queen in the Commonwealth countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands in September 2012.

25. In her first full year as a member of the royal family (2012), she carried out 111 public engagements.

26. She is Patron of ten charities, including Action on Addiction, SportsAid, and the Natural History Museum, which was a patronage of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

27. The Duchess is a volunteer leader with the Scout Association.

28. The Duchess has a keen interest in sports, having played tennis, netball, and hockey during her school years.

29. She also counts sailing, swimming, photography, painting, and hillwalking among her hobbies.

30. On July 22, 2013, the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, who is third in line to the thrones of the Commonwealth realms.

31. The Duchess of Cambridge currently lives at Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace with her husband and baby boy.

32. Kate is the first person without an immediate royal or aristocratic background to have married a person in direct succession to the throne for over 350 years.

     Here's to wishing the Duchess of Cambridge a Happy 32nd Birthday! May there be many more yet to come.

Photo Credit: Tom Soper Photography via Fotopedia cc