Kate Middleton Pined for Her Ex, Harry Blakelock, Before She Met Prince William

• Long before she even met, let alone dated, Prince William, Kate Middleton (opens in new tab) was just a normal girl, getting her heart broken by normal, non-royal guys.
• One guy, Harry Blakelock, really did a number on Kate, apparently. According to royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl (opens in new tab), Kate spent much of her gap year in Italy talking about Harry and how he had broken her heart.
• "She spoke about him all the time. I think he might have broken her heart slightly. He seemed to have blown hot and cold with her when they were at school," a friend of Kate's said of the romance.

Before Kate Middleton met the love of her life (opens in new tab), she met other guys who could have, theoretically, been the love of her life. One, in particular, made a pretty big impact on the future Duchess of Cambridge: A guy named Harry Blakelock.

Kate and Harry went to school together at Marlborough College (opens in new tab) and, apparently, she was still pretty hung up on him after graduation and spent a lot of time talking about him to girlfriends during the early part of her gap year, when she was studying in Italy.

In her book Kate: The Future Queen (opens in new tab), royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl (opens in new tab), spoke to a friend of Kate's from the time who spilled the quasi-embarrassing details about the Duchess' first big heartbreak and hangup. According to Nicholl, Kate lived with three roommates at the time and was constantly talking about Harry and her heartbreak (opens in new tab).

"When Kate arrived, she was really hung up about this boy from Marlborough called Harry," a friend of Kate's told Nicholl for the biography. "She spoke about him all the time. I think he might have broken her heart slightly. He seemed to have blown hot and cold with her when they were at school, and she was always talking about how she could get him back. He was the only boy she talked about, and I don't even think it was that serious."

Of course, Kate did eventually move on in a big way, clearly.