After Kate and William split in 2007, they partied like normal young singles.
But as Kate increasingly enjoyed nights out in London with her sister Pippa, William began to doubt his decision to end things.
So when they were both invited to a costume party by a mutual friend, and Kate showed up as a nurse in fishnet stockings and a short dress, reconciliation seemed almost inevitable.
For his part, his friend, amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen, has previously denied deliberately playing Cupid.
Prince William was photographed leaving a nightclub in London in April 2007 after splitting from Kate.
Kate photographed in Kensington, London, in May 2007.
Sam Waley-Cohen and his future wife Annabel Ballin attended William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. They married the following year.
Waley-Cohen hosted the party at his family’s 17th-century manor house in Oxfordshire with the theme ‘Freakin Naught’ and guests dressed accordingly, with Prince William appearing in shorts and a police helmet.
Robert Jobson writes in his biography Catherine, The Princess of Wales, that William may have regretted their breakup.
He and his future wife reportedly spent most of the night talking and ended with a dance and a kiss.
Even though their party had brought them back together, Waley-Cohen told the Mail in 2011: “There’s this idea that I was like Cupid with a bow and arrow.”
“People love the idea of someone bringing them back together, but they bring themselves together a lot more.”
Sam rides winning horse Noble Yeats during the Aintree Grand National in 2022
William and Kate at the Cheltenham Festival in March 2007, just a month before they split
The now Princess of Wales was photographed regularly hanging out in London with her sister Pippa during the breakup.
Within weeks of the party, the future Prince and Princess of Wales were vacationing together in the Seychelles.
William and Kate became engaged three years later, in October 2010, and their wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011 was watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Waley-Cohen, who went to prep school with the prince and is a long-time friend of Kate, He said of being invited to the nuptials: ‘It was absolutely fantastic. It was great to see two people so in love. I think everyone could see it, whether they know them or not.’
Looking back, both Kate and William have said that their brief time apart was for the best.
During an interview on the occasion of her engagement in 2010, Kate said: “I think I wasn’t very happy about it at the time, but it actually made me a stronger person, you discover things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realized.” “. .
“I think a relationship can be quite consuming when you’re younger. I really valued that time for myself too, although I didn’t think about it at the time!’
William added: “We were both very young…We were both finding ourselves and being different characters.
Sam chats to Kate at the Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival in 2008
Kate and William on their graduation day at St Andrews in 2005
“It was very much about trying to find our own way, and we were growing, so we just had a little bit of space and it worked out for the better.”
Waley-Cohen had a successful career in amateur horse racing and retired in 2022 after winning the Grand National at Aintree.
The jockey won with outsider Noble Yeats 50/1 and Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, presented the trophy to him and her father Robert Waley-Cohen, who owned the horse.
The Welsh praised him on X/Twitter with a post saying: “Huge congratulations to @swaleycohen for winning the Grand National.” What a way to retire!’
When asked if her win was the result of the same magic touch that brought William and Kate together in 2007, Waley-Cohen He replied: I don’t think I have any connection with them, but as a general philosophy I think hoping for the best and living full of hope is a good way to live.’
The former jockey also founded Portman Dental Care in 2009 and has three children with his wife Annabel Ballin: Max, Scarlett and Alexander.