Fun Facts

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20 fun facts about Kate Middleton and Prince William



In celebration of the royal baby’s arrival, discover things you never knew about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with our interesting collection of royal trivia

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1. The royal wedding was watched by 24.5m people in the UK, and an estimated two billion people around the world.
2. The couple only informed the Queen and the Prince of Wales of their engagement two hours before it was made public.
3. Prince William’s nicknames have included Big Willie, P.Willie, Wills, Billy, Wombat, Prince of Wails, and His Naughtiness.
4. Alexandra, Victoria, Elizabeth and Diana are the bookies' favourite names for a girl. George, Charles, Philip and James are the favourites for a boy.
5. Kate and her family lived in Amman, the capital of the Middle East country Jordan, for a few years in the mid 1980s when she was a young child.
6. The arrival of Kate and Will’s baby will see uncle Prince Harry move from third to fourth in line to the throne. The Duke of York will shift down fifth place and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to sixth and seventh respectively.

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7. Kate followed tradition for her nuptials to William. For her ‘something old’ she had traditional carrickmacross lace sewed into her wedding dress. Her ‘something new’ was custom-made diamond oak-leaf earrings with a diamond-encrusted acorn in the middle (a nod to their new family crest). Her ‘something borrowed’ was the Queen’s Cartier tiara, and for 'something blue' she had a blue ribbon sewn into the interior of her dress.
8. The iconic see-through dress, which is believed to have sparked William's interest in Kate when she wore it at a university fashion show in 2002, was auctioned in 2011 for £78,000.
9. It’s always a tricky task choosing a present for a friend’s wedding, but not forLondon Mayor Boris Johnson, who gifted Kate and William with a tandem Boris bike!
10. Kate is older than Prince William by six months. She was born on 9 Jan 9 1982 and Prince William was born on 21 June, 1982. At age 29 on her wedding day, Kate Middleton is the oldest royal bride.
11. Kate and Prince William dated on and off for eight years before tying the knot.
12. William’s full name is William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor, and Kate’s is Catherine Elizabeth Middleton.
13. When Kate was studying at Marlborough College, it was rumoured that she had a poster of her future husband on her wall. At a press conference she put the rumours to bed, claiming it was in fact a poster of the “Levi’s guy”.
14. Kate’s wedding dress had hand embroidered individual lace flowers and a 2.7m train. The dress became the star attraction on display at Buckingham Palace in 2011, helping to sell £10million worth of entrance tickets. Also on display were her diamond earrings, shoes, wedding cake and the Cartier tiara she borrowed from the Queen.

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15. Prince William once attempted to detract attention from himself while in a nightclub, telling strangers his name was “Danny” and he “often gets mistaken for William”.
16. Following tradition, the birth of Kate and Will’s baby will be announced with a note pinned on the gates of Buckingham Palace. There will also be a 41-gun salute fired in London parks to celebrate the news.
17. Kate and William's first official event together after they got engaged was at Anglesey where they attended an RNLI lifeboat naming ceremony.
18. Prince William and Harry can't be on the same plane together (just in case it crashes!). When the princes were young, Princess Diane would travel with William and Prince Charles would take Harry on a separate flight.
19. Prince William admits to being a less-than-perfect dancer, claiming that his wife could “dance me under the tables".
20. Prince William’s colleagues at RAF Valley in Wales always play pranks on the future King. One said: “We've spent a few pounds on Kate and William memorabilia and strategically secreted it around the place so he might open a locker and find stuff, or find his own face on a cushion or see his own face on a cup when you give him a cup of tea.”

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20 fun facts about Queen Elizabeth II

Discover things you never knew about the Queen in celebration of her 60 years on the throne

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The Queen is the only person in Britain who is not required to have a passport

1. The Queen has 30 godchildren.
2. Her childhood nickname was Lilibet because she couldn’t pronounce Elizabeth.
3. The Queen has owned more than 30 corgis during her reign. One of her corgis mated with a dachshund belonging to Princess Margaret to produce a new breed called a dorgi. (She currently has four corgis and three dorgis…).
4. The Queen's robes were so heavy that at the start of her Coronation she asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to give her a push, saying “Get me started!”.
5. She has seen 12 prime ministers and six popes come and go.
6. When the Queen acceded the throne in 1952, sugar, eggs, cheese and meat were still rationed.
7. She is a patron of more than 600 charities and organisations.
8. In her reign she has answered some three million items of correspondence.
9. She has given around 90,000 Christmas puddings to staff.
10. Unusual live gifts given to her on royal tours include two tortoises and a seven-year-old bull elephant.
11. She has sat for 129 portraits during her reign.
12. The Queen keeps a portable hook with a suction cup in her handbag so she can hang it discreetly under tables.
13. She was a big fan of 70s cop show Kojak, starring Telly Savalas.
14. The Mayfair address where she was born on 21 April 1926 is now the site of upmarket Chinese restaurant, Hakkasan.
15. In July 1982 unemployed father of four Michael Fagan climbed up a drain-pipe and into the Queen’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace. He sat on her bed for about 10 minutes as she engaged him in conversation and calmly called for her footman when he asked for a cigarette.
16. There is a Coutts cash machine at Buckingham Palace.
17. The Queen is the only person in Britain who is not required to have a passport
18. Unlikely candidates who have met the Queen include: Tracy Emin; Lady Gaga at Royal Variety Performance in 2009 (Lady G is said to keep a pic of The Queen on her dressing table when she’s on the road); Barbara Windsor and co when she visited the set of EastEnders; shot-put champion Geoff Capes (at the 1982 Braemar Highland Games) and Blue Peter presenter John Noakes.
19. In 1945 aged 19, the then princess did her bit for the war by joining the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service in Surrey as a driver and mechanic.
20. She enjoys reading The Racing Post every day