Inside William and Kate Relationship, 15 Years inChris Jackson – Getty Images
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This year, to celebrate their milestone 15th wedding anniversary on April 29, Prince William and Princess Kate opted to mark the occasion a little differently.
As has become custom, the Prince and Princess of Wales released a never-before-seen photo of themselves—except, this time, they weren’t alone. Joining them in the shot—taken by photographer Matt Porteous while the family was on a private holiday in Cornwall earlier in April—were their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. The family’s two dogs, Orla and Otto, even made the photo, and the entire family lay in the grass, barefoot, captured in a lighthearted, carefree moment.
The candid image is proof that William and Kate are keen to do things their own way—and that will continue as their time on the throne approaches. In addition to marking 15 years since the couple said “I do” at Westminster Abbey in 2011, this fall marks 25 years since William and Kate met as first-year students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The two, still teenagers at that time, have now known one another for more than half of their lives.
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In 2024—what William would later call “brutal” and the “hardest year” of his life—both Kate and King Charles III were diagnosed with cancer. (While the Princess of Wales announced in January 2025 that she is in remission, the king’s cancer treatment continues.) In his new book, Kate!: The Courage, Grace, and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen—out May 5—longtime royal biographer Christopher Andersen writes that, after the princess’ diagnosis, William and Kate reassured one another, “We’ll get through this.” But, as he tells Harper’s Bazaar, it was a moment of shock, dismay, confusion, and stunned disbelief.
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Kate was initially told that her abdominal surgery—performed in January 2024—“had been a complete success,” Andersen says. “Cancer was not on her radar. William at first thought there’d been a mistake.” As she underwent chemotherapy treatment, William took on more responsibility at home, while also simultaneously carrying a heavier burden of official duties as his father’s cancer treatment began in tandem.
“Since Kate’s diagnosis, we have really seen Prince William take on the role of her protector,” says Caroline Hallemann, author of The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made, which is out June 2. There has been a palpable shift in their marriage since those awful days of 2024—no doubt inside their relationship, but also visibly to the public. The two are more tactile than ever—and it represents a larger transformation in the monarchy as a whole. “I really do think it’s a shifting in royal norms,” Hallemann tells Bazaar.
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“Serious illness can either bring people together or drive them apart,” Andersen says. “In this case, the whole ordeal clearly cemented their relationship even more. Nevertheless, it has taken a heavy emotional toll on both of them.”
“The Marriage Is Clearly Stronger and More Resilient Than Ever”
When it comes to royal marriages, “The idea of a marriage for love is a relatively new concept,” Hallemann explains. The Prince and Princess of Wales, she says, are “a love match.”
“William and Kate genuinely love each other,” Andersen agrees. “This has decidedly not been the case for most members of the U.K.’s hyper-dysfunctional royal family.” The two—harkening back to those early days at St. Andrews—have always been in love, but now, “Despite all the pressures, it’s obvious that William and Kate are more in love than ever,” he adds.
“The marriage is clearly stronger and more resilient than ever,” Andersen continues. “William and Kate are partners in every sense of the word—and in ways that are totally alien to the rest of the royal family.”
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Kate, Andersen says, “has always been William’s emotional rock. He is very kind and has that magic touch his mother [Princess] Diana had, but he is also given to extreme mood swings, and [Kate] has always been there to offer love and support. Now the tables have turned—dramatically so.”
The two are crucially united in their desire to raise their three children in as normal an upbringing as possible, despite being inside the royal fishbowl. They are committed to putting George, Charlotte, and Louis first, striving to raise them in a loving home with two happily married parents—a childhood that Kate experienced, but that William did not. “The lives of royal children can never be described as being entirely ‘normal,’ but that [won’t] stop William and Kate from trying,” Andersen says.
Hallemann describes William and Kate’s marriage as “a true equal partnership” and “the future of the monarchy.”
“And it’s not just William—it’s William and Kate,” she adds. “It’s them together. It’s that partnership.”
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The prince and princess, Andersen says, “bring more to the table than any monarch before them—charisma, grace, strength, style, wit, courage, and the all-important human touch.” He notes that for years, polls have shown that William and Kate “are far and away the most popular royals, and as such, they are really the only ones who can breathe new life into one of the world’s oldest institutions.”
“The Monarchy Is So Lucky to Have Them”
In Andersen’s view, when the time comes for William and Kate to become king and queen, they “will bring a modern sensibility to the throne.” As the wife of one future king and the mother of another, “Kate, in particular, does not want George to inherit a badly dented crown,” he adds.
In his reign, Hallemann believes that William “is going to evolve the monarchy,” she says. “I think that he knows that that’s essential for it to survive. And I think he knows that Kate is such a key part in that.”
Andersen says that, through writing his book about the Princess of Wales, he realized how the future of the monarchy “really rests on Kate’s shoulders.”
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“World leaders trip over each other scrambling to meet Kate, then wind up melting in her presence,” Andersen continues. “Not since Queen Elizabeth has anyone wielded soft power more deftly than Kate. In that and many other ways, she is the monarchy’s secret weapon.” Andersen says that he can’t imagine “anyone more qualified to be queen than Kate. All who know her will tell you that she knows what she wants and how to get it. Beneath that luminous exterior is a will of steel.”
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Though they are 15 years into marriage now, their partnership, in some ways, is really only beginning. When they take the throne someday, “absolutely there will be even more pressure than there is now for them,” Hallemann says. “You can’t even imagine. But at the same time, I think that they will have a real equal partnership in terms of the duties that that job entails.”
“You can’t help but walk away from their love story thinking that they are so lucky to have each other,” Andersen adds, “and the monarchy is so lucky to have them, as well.”
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