Nineteen years ago, a young Kate Middleton made her first-ever appearance with the Royal Family when she attended Prince William's graduation at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The traditional passing-out parade was held on December 15, 2006, and Kate was joined by her parents Carole and Michael Middleton, along with Queen Elizabeth, King Charles and Queen Camilla (then Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall). What royal watchers didn't know at the time was that Kate had turned down an invitation to celebrate Christmas with the Royal Family.
The then-royal girlfriend, dressed in a bright red coat, black dress and oversized black Philip Treacy hat, had been dating Prince William since 2001. But they fiercely protected their privacy during their University of St. Andrews days, and his 2006 Sandhurst graduation became the first time she was pictured at a major event attended by the senior royals.
According to the Daily Mail, an ITV lip reader claimed that Kate praised William's uniform, declaring it to be "so, so sexy," during the military parade. But no matter how appealing Prince William looked in his ensemble, Middleton refused to accept his invitation to join the royals at Sandringham for Christmas that December.
Kate sat between her friend James Meade and her mother at William's passing-out parade.
Prince William held back a laugh as Queen Elizabeth inspected him at the parade.
It was an unusual invitation for a royal girlfriend, since typically only married partners of the family were invited to Christmas. But Kate, who had been with William for five years at that point, didn't feel comfortable attending without an engagement.
"Kate, reflecting the confident mood of her Philip Treacy hat, maintained her resolve that she would not go to such a significant Royal Family gathering unless she had a ring on her finger," wrote Tina Brown in her book The Palace Papers.
"She declined," Brown continued, adding, "William met her decision with silence." In turn, he didn't show up to her family's New Year's Eve celebration, with Brown writing that King Charles and Queen Elizabeth convinced him against attending.
They allegedly found it "unfair to expose Kate to so much press harassment unless an engagement was imminent," a comment Prince William took to heart. "It is an understatement to say that The Queen was skittish about any marriage that might fail," the author added, referring to the "upsetting" divorces of three out of the late Queen's four children.
And although William and Kate went on to briefly break up in the spring of 2007, they got engaged in autumn 2010—but she still waited to head to Sandringham for Christmas until after their April 2011 wedding.
