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.


Even the best and strongest couples have their share of problems. For Prince William and Kate Middleton (opens in new tab), most of those problems happened early in their relationship, when Will was infamously on the fence about staying with Kate (opens in new tab).
Before their well-known 2007 breakup (opens in new tab), 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 (opens in new tab) reports that royal author Katie Nicholl (opens in new tab), wrote about the mini-split in her 2010 book, William and Harry (opens in new tab). 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 (opens in new tab).
"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 (opens in new tab).
So, why was Kate questioning the relationship? According to Nicholl:
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.
"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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Kayleigh Roberts is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, covering celebrity and entertainment news, from actual royals like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle to Hollywood royalty, like Katie Holmes and Chrissy Teigen. She’s a Ravenclaw who would do great things in Slytherin. To learn more about her, google “Leslie Knope eating salad GIF.
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