Kate Middleton Traveled to Ireland to Process Her Breakup During Her Brief Split from Prince William

In 2007, true love briefly died when Prince William and Kate Middleton broke up (opens in new tab) briefly in 2007. The split didn't last long, thankfully—Will and Kate (opens in new tab) split in March of 2007 and were back together by June of that year, according to Express (opens in new tab).

Years later, during their joint engagement interview (opens in new tab), Will and Kate (opens in new tab) were asked about the split, because obviously the world needed answers. Will was very PC (opens in new tab) about the whole thing, blaming the time apart on a need to grow separately as people:

"We were both very young," he explained. "It was at university (opens in new tab), we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff, it was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up, and so it was just sort of a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it worked out for the better."

Kate, on the other hand, was very candid (opens in new tab) about the impact the break had on her, admitting that she wasn't really on board for the time apart, before conceding that it was ultimately for the best.

"I think I at the time wasn't very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person," she said at the time. "You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn't realized, or I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you are younger and I really valued that time for me as well although I didn't think it at the time. Looking back on it."

So what did Kate (opens in new tab) do during that time apart? According to Express (opens in new tab), she took a trip to Dublin with her mom, Carol Middleton (opens in new tab), to process things. Kate was spotted in Ireland just days after her split from William. Kate and Carol (opens in new tab) visited the National Gallery of Ireland during their stay and Kate politely refused to offer a comment about, well, anything when approached by reporters at the time because she is a class act (opens in new tab).

Kate was reportedly also joined by a group of girlfriends for the trip, proving that even a future-duchess has more or less the same post-breakup routine (opens in new tab) as the rest of us: Call your mom and then bring in friends for distraction.