Kate Middleton
Even those of us who don’t follow UK gossip have heard of Kate Middleton. She’s Price William’s girlfriend. In fact, that’s how Wikipedia defines her:
Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton (born 9 January 1982) is the girlfriend of Prince William of Wales.
Kate and William have been dating (on and off) since 2003, and the speculation as to if and when they’re getting married has gone on for so long it’s already turned into speculation about whether or not she’s pregnant.
It’s hard not to like Kate Middleton. She’s pretty in an earthy, J. Crew way. If you do a Google Image search of her, you’ll see that she looks like an English Barbie doll, now in a bikini on a yacht, now in an elegant white pea coat, now in an enormous hat, now in hunting boots, now in a ball gown. And she must be intelligent. She went to St. Andrew’s and Marlborough College.
But besides attending royal functions, appearing on best dressed lists and keeping her cool amidst all the tabloid marriage pressure (which is, admittedly, extremely impressive), it’s unclear what Kate Middleton has actually been doing for the past six years.
It isn’t uncommon for girls dating high-powered guys to invest more into getting the guy than into getting a life of their own, but as a friend of mine pointed out in an email:
All I can think of is my friend who lamented to me years ago that she really shouldn’t go to law school if she was “just” going to be a mother - well, now she’s divorced and she’s a corporate lawyer making big bucks and paying off her debt. Good thing she went to law school.
It seems likely that Kate and William will get engaged. They’ve been dating for seven years and her parents just attended a private shooting party at the Queen’s Scottish estate, which is the English equivalent of a future in-law dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.
But what if they don’t?
Our girl is trusting a boy, who was 20 when they started dating, to keep an implicit promise of a lifetime commitment. If he breaks it, she has no recourse and no backup plan. He, of course, will still have his riches, his network and his royal blood. She may know something none of us know, but without that ring on her finger she might want to start focusing less on landing the future King of Wales, and more on Kate Middleton.
