Royal Profile: Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge

Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, who is now known as HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, was born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on January 9, 1982, the eldest of three children of  Michael and Carole Middleton. She has a younger sister and a younger brother, Pippa and James.

As a youngster, she lived with her family in Jordan in the mid-1980s, where she attended an English-language  nursery school. Upon the family's return to England, she began to attend St. Andrew's School. Upon graduation from St. Andrew's School, she briefly attended Downe House School before becoming a boarder at Marlborough College in 1995. Upon graduation and a gap year, she began attending University of St Andrews, Fife, where she graduated in 2005 with a 2:1 in History of Art. In February 2006, it was announced that Middleton would receive her own 24-hour security detail supplied by the Royalty Protection branch (SO14) due to media harrassment.

Upon graduating, she worked as a photographer for her parents mail-order business, Party Pieces and as a part-time buyer for the clothing company, Jigsaw Junior. 

She met Prince William while he was William Wales at the University of St. Andrews. It was there that the media watched their love blossom. On 16 November 2010, their engagement was announced {Source}, and their wedding took place on 29 April 2011. After the wedding ceremony, on April 29 last year, her bouquet was placed on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey after the service, continuing a tradition started by the late The Queen Mother, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II.

Upon becoming a royal officially, she became offiical patron of Action on Addiction and the National Portrait Gallery, East Anglia's Children's Hospices and The Art Room.She is also a volunteer with the Scout Association and in the future will join activities privately with groups in north Wales and other areas. She, along with her husband and brother in law, were also official ambassadors for Team GB and Paralympic GB for the London 2012 Olympics. Also during her 1st two years of a royal life, she participated in two royal tours: one to Canada and the USA and the other on Queen Elizabeth's behalf in honor of the Diamond Jubilee to  Malaysia, Singapore, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

She is often seen as very fashionable, and is known for mixing couture peieces often by British designers. Whenever she is photographed wearingg high street fashion, the garment quickly flies off store shelves. In 2006, she was selected as The Daily Telegraph's Most Promising Newcomer off it's Style Winners and Losers list. In 2007, she made #8 on Tatler's list of Top Style Icons, was featured in People on it's Best-Dressed List and appeared on Richard Blackwell's ten "Fabulous Fashion Independents". In 2008, she was included in Vanity Fair's Best-Dressed List, and Style.com's monthly Beauty Icon for June In 2010, she made People on it's Best-Dressed List again. In February 2011, she was named the Top Fashion Buzzword of the 2011 season by theGlobal Language Monitor.

She was formally introduced to public life on 24 February 2011, two months before the wedding, when she and Prince William attended a lifeboat naming ceremony in Trearddur, Anglesey in North Wales. She presently has one honorary military appointment-a Canadian Ranger, as of 5 July 2011.

In December 2012, it was announced that she and husband Prince William are expecting their first child, with the birth anticipated in summer 2012.