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Kate Middleton (Elizabeth Catherine), Duchess of Cambridge Style Icon 2012
 Prince
William and Catherine Middleton became engaged in October 2010 in Kenya, East
Africa, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy to celebrate
Prince William's passing his RAF helicopter search and rescue course. Clarence
House announced the engagement on 16 November 2010. Prince William gave
Middleton the engagement ring that had belonged to his mother, Diana, Princess
of Wales. He said about his decision to give his fianc�e his mother's ring,
"It's very special to me. As Kate's very special to me now, it was right to put
the two (Catherine and Diana) together. It was my way of making sure my mother
didn't miss out on today and the excitement, and the fact that we're going to
spend the rest of our lives together." The couple married in Westminster Abbey
on 29 April 2011 (St. Catherine's Day) with the day declared a bank holiday in
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Estimates of the
global audience for the wedding ranged around 300 million or more, whilst 26
million watched the event live in Britain alone.
In October, several months after the wedding, Commonwealth leaders pledged that
they would implement changes in British royal succession law to allow daughters
of future monarchs to have equal rights to the throne.
On 3 December 2012, St James' Palace announced that the Duchess was pregnant
with her first child and had been admitted to the private King Edward VII's
Hospital Sister Agnes in London, suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum where she
remained for three days.
 Middleton
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. A day later they appeared in St Andrews to
launch the university's 600th anniversary celebrations. On 16 February 2011,
Clarence House announced that the Duke and Duchess's first royal tour of Canada
would take place in July 2011.
In May 2011, shortly after the wedding, Clarence House announced that the Duke
and Duchess would extend their tour to visit California. This was to be the
Duchess of Cambridge's first visit to the United States.
The Duke and Duchess meet with U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady
Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace a few weeks after the wedding.
The Duchess's first official engagement after the wedding came in May, when she
and her husband met with Barack Obama, the President of the United States, and
First Lady Michelle. In June 2011, the Duke and Duchess presented medals to
members of the Irish Guards.
On 26 October, Kate undertook her first solo event for In Kind Direct, stepping
in for the Prince of Wales who was in Saudi Arabia. On 2 November, the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge visited the UNICEF Supply Division Centre for supplying
food to malnourished African children in Copenhagen, Denmark.
On St Patrick's day, 17 March 2012, the Duchess carried out the traditional
awarding of shamrocks to the Irish Guards at their base in Aldershot; this was
her first solo military engagement. On 19 March she gave her first speaking
engagement for the opening of the Treehouse, a new children's hospice opened by
EACH, a charity of which she is a patron.
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Dated 15 December 2012
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