It's interesting looking back at William and Catherine’s journey. I was talking about it with my mother, yesterday. She's only 5-6 years older than William.
She never thought that these two would make it this long. I didn't as well.
They met extremely young and started dating a couple of years after that.
I was born in late 2000 so I don't really remember their dating years but my mum told me that the press were brutal towards her and her family. The narrative back then was that Catherine was basically a stalker and that her and mother plotted for William and Catherine to be together.
Not only that, some of William's friends weren't that nice to her and would call her name because she came from a different social class. At that time, my mum thought they'd break up and never get back together
They did in 2007 but the quickly got back together. Then came the Waity Katie years, the media basically humiliated that poor girl for years, telling the world he was basically using his military training to avoid marrying her, all the while the paparazzis were stalking her for years and she had no protection because she only was a royal girlfriend.
They finally get engaged in 2010 and married in 2011. This period, I remember, the wedding was beautiful but my mum thought they would eventually divorce in the next 5 years because of the media pressure. The media were quite still nasty in the 2011-2018 period but she didn't break. Just the topless photo scandal would've broken anyone but her composure during that tour was very impressive (meanwhile William looked very annoyed) and this scandal happened when they were in a Muslim country. She got on with it and did the job.
I'm not a huge royalist like my mum but I like Kate a lot. She reminds me a little bit of myself in a way. I'm also a pretty shy person who's not that great at public speaking. I tend to be quieter than other and doesn't really show my personality in public which some people can perceive as cold, boring (some just think it's a product of the British environment I grew up in) or a lack of confidence
So while I criticise her and William often for their work ethic, it's impressive how she's lasted that long especially for a woman who doesn't seem to like the spotlight very much
She's really evolved compared to 2011 and I can tell she's a lot more sure of herself