Prince William’s description of “special” Kate Middleton has become the focus of a new viral video after footage from the royal’s engagement interview in 2011 resurfaced on TikTok.
There has been a surge in social media interest around William and Kate since the princess stepped out of the public eye in January to recuperate from abdominal surgery.
At the time of the operation, Kensington Palace announced that Kate would not return to royal engagements until at least “after Easter,” and in the absence of regular updates on her condition, speculation and conspiracy theories grew online.
Suspicion was heightened when Kate received backlash for editing an official portrait of herself and her three children released to celebrate Mother’s Day, and continued after footage of the royal and her husband out shopping in Windsor being published by the media.
William and Kate will celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary on April 29. The couple met while studying together at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland in 2001, and began dating soon after.
William proposed in 2010, and after their engagement was announced, the couple sat down to give the press their first (and to date only) in-depth interview about their relationship.
Footage of William describing his first impressions of Kate from the engagement interview uploaded to TikTok by user @TeamWalesFamily on March 20 has now gone viral.
“When I first met Kate I knew there was something very special about her,” the prince said in the footage, which has been edited together with photos and clips from throughout the couple’s relationship.
Captioned “They have always felt a strong attraction for each other!” the post has been viewed over 180,000 times in less than 24 hours, receiving in excess of 19,000 likes and numerous comments, many of which praised the royal couple.
In the extended interview, William goes on to explain how his relationship with Kate developed over time.
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“I knew there was possibly something that I wanted to explore there. We ended up being friends for a while and that just sort of was a good foundation,” he said.
“Because I do generally believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage.”
In the years since getting married, William and Kate have rarely provided such insight into their relationship. However, to mark their tenth anniversary in 2021, they released a touching set of portraits and a short film featuring their three children; Prince George, 10; Princess Charlotte, 8; and Prince Louis, 5.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.