Kate Middleton Young Photos: See The Princess of Wales Now vs Then

The whole world is sending well wishes to Kate Middleton after the Princess revealed her heartbreaking cancer diagnosis last week. As a prominent figure in the royal family and the future Queen Consort, the Princess of Wales has long been a subject of public interest, even prior to marrying Prince William. (The beginning of their relationship was recently highlighted in the final sixth season of The Crown.) Read on to see photos of Kate Middleton young vs. now.

Middleton was born in Reading, England, in 1982. Her father, Michael Middleton, and her mother, Carole, were a flight dispatcher and a flight attendant at British Airways, respectively. She has a younger sister, Philippa (Pippa), and a younger brother named James. Kate’s great-grandparents, Noël and Olive Middleton, hosted members of the British royal family from the 1920s through to the 1940s.

After attending Marlborough College from 1996 to 2000, Kate took a gap year to study at the British Institute in Florence, conduct charity work in Chile, and row with Round the World Challenge in the Solent strait. The following year, she enrolled at the University of St. Andrews in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she first crossed paths with Prince William.

William and Kate were friends for a year before they started dating. “I think you said I actually went bright red when I met you and sort of scuttled off. [I was] feeling very shy about meeting you,” Kate said to William years later in their engagement interview, according to People. The Princess of Wales also recalled feeling “really nervous” to meet then-Prince Charles, but noted that he was friendly from the beginning. “It couldn’t have gone easier for me,” Kate remembered about the monarch.

After graduating from St. Andrews in June 2005, Kate was pictured cheering in the stands at horse traces, watching charity polo matches to see Prince William and Prince Harry compete, attending book launches and parties, and going out with her friends and sister Pippa.

On November 16, 2010, the couple finally announced their engagement to the world after eight years of dating (and a brief breakup in April 2007). William proposed while the pair were vacationing in Kenya with friends a few weeks before the interview. “It was a total shock when it came,” Kate revealed then. “There’s a true romantic in there.”

Kate and William officially tied the knot in a grand royal ceremony in April 2011. Since then, they’ve welcomed three children: Prince George (age 10), Princess Charlotte (age 8), and Princess Louis (age 5). To see how different Kate looked when she was younger, scroll on to see photos of Kate Middleton before she became the Princess of Wales.