While we recognise her as Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, during her school days, she was an ordinary girl, a model student who enjoyed listening to her Walkman and watching Friends. Marlborough College, one of the UK’s most prestigious schools, has seen many famous faces pass through its historic halls.
From poets and artists to comedians, the £42,930-a-year school is also the alma mater of Kate Middleton, our future Queen. In 1996, a then 14-year-old Kate joined the Wiltshire-based school as a shy, gangly teenager.
She had transferred from Downe House after reportedly being bullied. Her dorm mate, Gemma Williamson, recalls her as ‘thin and pale,’ with her house tutor, Joan Gall, adding that Kate suffered from eczema due to stress, according to the Daily Mail.
Kate quickly found her footing at Marlborough and settled into the school swiftly after her previous school experience. During her time at the school, Kate blossomed into her personality, socialising and taking up new sports.
She became co-captain of the tennis team and was a standout hockey player, and Kate’s sporty habits persist to this day. Although in a more official capacity, Kate is the patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League, reports the Mirror.
Her friends recall Kate Middleton at school as the epitome of an exemplary student—kind, diligent, and always part of a tight-knit group. Even while her peers would sneak off to Reading for nights out, Kate largely kept on the straight and narrow, only getting into trouble when she was sick on a train after an all-night hockey party.
In her leisure, much like her contemporaries, she relished life’s simple pleasures: listening to her Walkman, watching the beloved American sitcom ‘Friends’, and eating Marmite sandwiches.
Friends aired between 1994 to 2004, becoming one of the most beloved TV shows of all time. Whilst it was set in New York City, it follows the lives of six close-knit friends-Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe-as they navigated the ups and downs of life, love, and careers in their 20s and 30s. Their stories resonated worldwide because of the show’s easygoing nature and humour, witty dialogue and catchphrases.
By the time she left Marlborough, Kate had transformed into a confident, beautiful young woman but during her time there Kate Middleton was a normal schoolgirl enjoying TV and snacking on her favourite foods and watching the TV shows many others her age grew up on.
Kate was voted “Person most likely to be loved by everybody” in her yearbook and she scored two As and a B in her A-levels and headed off for her gap year, before securing a spot at St Andrews University, where she famously met Prince William, her future husband.