For just over two years as a child, Kate Middleton followed her parents to Jordan.
Before becoming the icon of the British Royal Family that she is today as the wife of Prince William, mother of George, Charlotte and Louis, Kate Middleton travelled extensively, especially during her childhood.
Born in January 1982 in Reading, U.K., the young woman was only two years old when she moved to Jordan where her father, a flight dispatcher with the British Airway, had been transferred. The Middleton family stayed there for two years. During those two years, Kate attended a British nursery school in Amman, the country’s capital.
In June 2018, Prince William travelled there to follow in his wife’s childhood footsteps. “She really loves this country very much. She is very disappointed that she could not come with me,” explained the future King of England as his wife looked after their third child, Prince Louis, who had been born a few days earlier.
Prince William had even visited the archaeological site of Jerash, where Kate, aged 4, had posed 30 years ago, with her father Michael Middleton and her younger sister Pippa. “Michael looks really smart in his flip-flops,” had even taken the liberty of ironicizing Prince Charles’ son about his stepfather. The photo was then shared by the official account of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Prince William in Jordan: “My wife is very sorry she can’t be here with me.”
During a speech given after his visit to the archaeological site, Prince William recalled how disappointed his wife was not present. “My wife Catherine is very sorry that she cannot be here with me so soon after the birth of our son Louis, but her family still remembers with emotion the three years she spent here when her father worked for British Airways in Amman.
The experience is not unique. The exchange between our two countries is real and deep: work, studies, tourism and family ties… Our historical ties and friendship are at the heart of the lives of thousands of people who consider both countries as their homelands,” he said.
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