Kate Middleton Once Spilled Her Own Secret Code Name

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published 24 July 2022

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, like many public figures, apparently have code names they use when they travel to keep their comings and goings less public and more under the radar. According to The Express, Kate Middleton is known as Daphne Clark when she goes away, and Prince William is known as Danny Collins—both DC initials for, you guessed it, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

But Daphne Clark isn’t Kate’s only alias, according to The Mirror, which reveals that Kate accidentally let this code name slip during a shopping trip in Wales.

As The Sun tells it, Kate was living in a cottage in Anglesey at the time while William was a search and rescue pilot at nearby RAF Valley. Kate visited a local watersports shop, and, while there, found a wetsuit she wanted to buy. Shopkeeper Dave Buckland—who, somehow, didn’t recognize Kate—was asked to put the wetsuit on hold so she could come back and buy it later. The name Kate left? “Mrs. Cambridge.”

“He was looking straight at her and actually commented that it was quite an unusual surname,” a source told The Mail on Sunday about the incident. “He hadn’t a clue who she was. She just smiled and said she’d be back. He hasn’t lived it down since.”

William and Kate’s eldest son Prince George also once gave a stranger a fake name—and it might surprise you. The Sun reports that George was out with grandmother Carole Middleton and sister Princess Charlotte when a dog walker saw the kids playing in a stream near the Middleton family home in Berkshire.

“I was asked by a police minder not to take a photo of the children, which I didn’t, but George started stroking my dog,” the woman says. “Just to be friendly, I engaged in a bit of small talk, and I asked George what his name was, even though obviously I knew it. To my astonishment, he said ‘I’m called Archie’ with a big smile on his face. I don’t know why he calls himself Archie, but kids often play with their names, and I think it’s lovely.”

This would be interesting regardless of when it happened, but it’s especially notable that the incident happened before George’s uncle Prince Harry and aunt Meghan Markle welcomed Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in May 2019, when George was nearly six.

“It is not known whether it [Archie] was a family nickname for George, or he simply gave an alias,” The Sun reports.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.