When Princess Kate and Prince William first started dating and got serious in their early twenties, he is said to have set up his girlfriend an emergency hotline telephone number
The ins and outs of Kate and William’s love story have, for the most part, played out in the public eye and Prince William was all too aware from the start the kind of pressure a great deal of attention his partner would receive.
When Kate made an emotional video message direct to the nation revealing that she had been diagnosed with cancer, and is undergoing a course of preventative chemotherapy – it came after weeks of wild online speculation about the status of her health, marriage, and whereabouts.
However, even long before social media networks were commonplace, William was deeply concerned about how Kate would be able to manage the scrutiny that comes along with any close association with the Royal Family, and so quickly set up an emergency hotline for her, a royal author has claimed.
Kate and William famously met while the pair were studying at the University of St. Andrew’s, but once they had graduated and Kate was living in London, interest in the long-term girlfriend of the future King stepped up a notch, with paparazzi often following her as she went about her day-to-day activities, seeing friends, nipping to the shops and going to work.
After watching his mother the late Princess Diana suffer at the hands of media intrusion, he decided that something had to be done to protect his then-girlfriend. William decided to set up an emergency hotline number for Kate to use if she needed assistance, and the calls went directly to a senior palace aide – Paddy Haverson, his father Charles’ press secretary.
“William was aware of the situation and anxious about it,” explained Katie Nicholl in her book Kate: The Future Queen. “He had seen firsthand how his mother had been harassed by the paparazzi and was determined that Kate not be subjected to the same treatment.”
“We had been introduced to Kate early on, and we were instructed from the outset to give her every support possible. She was obviously the subject of a lot of press interest and intrusion from the paparazzi,” explained a palace source to the royal author.
“William said we had a duty of care to her and her family and so we advised her on how to deal with the cameras. We told her to smile at the photographers so that there would be a better picture. She was given advice on how to manage the media, and we were there to support her if there was a crisis.”
Kensington Palace declined to comment on this story.
A version of this story was first published in July 2019.
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