Before she became a member of the royal family, Kate Middleton (opens in new tab) held a very low-status job as a deckhand on a fleet of Challengers.
Kate worked the job for four months before she started college and earned just $75 total for 11+ hours of work each day.
Before she was the Duchess of Cambridge—before she was even the girlfriend of a prince—Kate Middleton (opens in new tab) was just a normal teen working terrible jobs for almost no pay. The summer before Kate started college at the University St. Andrew's (where she would meet Prince William (opens in new tab) and begin her fairytale love story), Kate scraped together extra cash (opens in new tab) by working as a deckhand.
Like many jobs held by young people, the pay was low and the hours were long. Kate earned just $75/day for her trouble and worked from 7 a.m. until at least 6 p.m. That means that, during a typical 11-hour day on the boat, Kate was earning roughly $6.81 per hour. To do hardcore manual labor. Oof.
In her book Kate: The Future Queen (opens in new tab), royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl (opens in new tab) says that Kate spent four months working on Challengers at the Ocean Village Marina in Southhampton. Nicholl wrote of Kate's time on the job (opens in new tab):
"It was back-breaking work," Cal Tomlinson, one of the skippers Kate worked under at the time, told Nicholl for the biography. "Kate mucked in and was very professional. She fitted right in, although she did stand out for being so pretty. She spoke well, she was very attractive, and she an air about her. She was competent and confident but very unassuming. She was polite and respectful to whoever was in charge of her and neat as a pin. She was never wore any makeup; she was naturally beautiful."
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