Why Prince William, Kate Middleton Really Broke Up Before The New Year

Prince William and Kate Middleton broke up just before the New Year several years before their 2011 wedding.

It is believed that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had a falling out not only because their relationship was long distance for a few years. Middleton once invited Prince William to celebrate the New Year with her family, and he agreed. But at the last minute, he decided to back out from the celebration.

Prince William was required to head to Sandringham with the royal family to celebrate the New Year. And at that time, Queen Elizabeth II didn’t allow non-royals to join the celebrations if they are not married to a member of the British clan.

This rule was recently tweaked for the sake of Meghan Markle, who doesn’t have a family in the United Kingdom, according to CBS. The Duchess of Sussex celebrated Christmas and New Year with the royal family even though she and Prince Harry weren’t married yet at the time. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex tied the knot on May 19 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

After reports about Prince William and Middleton’s split made headlines years ago, the 37-year-old prince reminded everyone to not believe everything that they hear or read in the news. But he did confirm that he and Middleton broke up with each other.

“Well I think, to be honest, I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the paper but in that particular instance we did split up for a bit. But that was just that, we both were very young, it was at university, we were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff, it was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up, and so it was just sort of a bit of space and a few things like that and it worked out for the better,” he said (via ABC News).