After Meghan Markle made headlines for revealing her nickname for Prince Harry — she calls him “my love” — Kate Middleton has stepped into the spotlight with a nickname for her husband, Prince William. According to Harper’s Bazaar , the Duchess of Cambridge reportedly calls her husband “babe.”
While the pair visited the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016, Middleton was overheard saying referring to the prince as “babe.”
“Babe, we’ve got those. We’ve got loads of those,” referring to a plant at the event.
A landscape designer, Mick Conway, also overheard the pair speaking at that event, and said that Prince William called his wife “darling.”
“Could you make one of these, darling?” said Prince William, according to another landscape designer, Margaret Knight. Though their nicknames for each other seem cutesy now, Prince William’s terms of endearment for Middleton were even more endearing when the pair were just dating. After a number of Prince William’s voicemails were leaked in 2006, transcripts of his conversations revealed that he used the words “baby” and “babykins” when leaving her voicemails.
“Hi baby,” said Prince William in one message.
“Oh, my little babykins! I hope you are all right,” he gushed, in another.
Prince William and Kate Middleton seemed to have had a fairytale romance. The pair met at St. Andrew’s College in 2001 when they were both freshmen. Though they began as friends, the pair became smitten with each other in 2002, and according to Vanity Fair , the pair moved in together in 2003. Their relationship was not without its trials; the couple nearly broke up after graduating college, and often spent long distances from each other; for instance, when Prince William was in military training. Speculation about their eventual engagement began as early as 2006, but Prince William denied any claims that he was planning to propose at the time.
“I am too young to marry at my age. I don’t want to get married until I am at least 28 or maybe 30,” he said, as reported by Vanity Fair.
The pair separated in 2007 after much strain from the media. Middleton was constantly being photographed, and op-eds with the headline “The People’s Next Princess” appeared everywhere. Prince William was photographed with several women, leading many to believe that he had been unfaithful. The pair quickly reconciled, and in late 2010, they became engaged. Prince William and Kate Middleton were married on April 28, 2011, in a lavish, televised ceremony, close to 10 years after they first met. The pair has three children: Prince George, 5, Princess Charlotte, 3, and Prince Louis, 5 months.