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    Kate Middleton Was "Deeply Hurt" by Prince William's Behavior During Their Split

    During a trial separation in 2004, Prince William flirted with American heiress Anna Sloan. The behavior is said to have "deeply hurt" his eventual wife Kate Middleton.

    By Kayleigh Roberts
    Published 19 January 2019 In News

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    Even the best and strongest couples have their share of problems. For Prince William and Kate Middleton, most of those problems happened early in their relationship, when Will was infamously on the fence about staying with Kate.

    Before their well-known 2007 breakup, the couple took a brief "trial separation" in 2004, during their final year at St. Andrews University, where they first met while both attending school.

    Express reports that royal author Katie Nicholl, wrote about the mini-split in her 2010 book, William and Harry. According to Nicholl, Will knew he wanted to take a break from the relationship and planned a boys-only yachting holiday in Greece as a chance to spend some time away from Kate.

    "Kate was beginning to question William’s commitment to their relationship, and she also had her own creeping doubts about their future after St. Andrews," Nicholl wrote, according to Express.

    So, why was Kate questioning the relationship? According to Nicholl:

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    Apparently, Will and Anna had a lot in common and Kate was worried that their connection might include some romantic feelings, at least on Will's part. Express quotes Nicholl as writing:

    Nicholl reports that nothing romantic ever happened between Will and Anna, who eventually married Eddie Smith and attended Will and Kate's wedding as a guest.

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    "Anna was not the least bit romantically interested in William, and the friendship was never anything more than just that," Nicholl wrote.

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    Contributing Editor at Marie Claire

    Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

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