But before William and Kate could go forth and produce their tiny heirs, they had more rough patches to endure.

As William joined his little brother Prince Harry at The Royal Military

But before William and Kate could go forth and produce their tiny heirs, they had more rough patches to endure.

As William joined his little brother Prince Harry at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Kate began scoring invites to key royal events such as the May 2006 wedding of Camilla's daughter, newspapers began speculating about when Kate would receive William's ring. Woolworths even began production on wedding memorabilia, including a set of William-and-Kate china.

Already adept at handling press attention, Nicholl said, Kate took the predictions in stride. But William bristled. He had, after all, told The Sun that he was far too young to wed, insisting, "I don't want to get married until I'm at least 28 or maybe 30." (Tellingly, he would go on to wed Kate two months before his 29th birthday.)

Distance—while Kate accepted an accessories buyer position in London with British boutique Jigsaw, William was undergoing training three hours away—also placed a strain on their union, not helped by the photos of William partying at various nightclubs. Come Easter, the couple made the decision to split once more.

"We were sort of both finding ourselves as such and being different characters and stuff," William explained in their 2010 engagement interview, "it was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up, and so it was just sort of a bit of space and a bit of things like that and it worked out for the better."