The Crown is currently in production on its sixth and final season, which will include the beginning of the relationship between Will and Kate, the current prince and princess of Wales. The Crown season 6 is expected to be released on Netflix later this year and will cover the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, which offers enough time to hit major Will and Kate storylines. Set pictures from The Crown season 6 went viral due to Will and Kate’s uncanny likeness to their real-life counterparts when they were in their twenties, adding to the excitement for the upcoming final season.
Will and Kate will be played by Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy respectively. Both of the young actors are relatively unknown, with The Crown season 6 offering them their biggest opportunities yet. The Crown has provided breakthrough roles for actors in the past, most notably Emma Corrin, season 4’s Princess Diana, who won a Golden Globe Award for their performance. Prince William played a larger role in The Crown season 5 as a pre-teen and will surely get even more time to shine in season 6, due to the highly anticipated storylines of his mother’s death and the start of his relationship with his eventual wife, Kate Middleton.
Will & Kate’s First Meeting
In The Crown season 5, Prince William (Senan West) was shown as breaking tradition by attending Eton College rather than Gordonstoun, where his father, King Charles III, and grandfather, Prince Philip, both attended. He was given a sense of freedom at the school that was awarded to him once again when he began his years at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, a public institution. In his first year there, he met Kate Middleton, a fellow student, in the dorm hallways, though they didn’t begin a relationship with each other for another year.
The Crown season 6 has confirmed that it won’t explore Kate’s younger years, but she had a different upbringing to most members of the royal family. Something that immediately drew the press to Kate was that she was the first commoner to marry into the royal family. She was born into an upper-middle-class family in Berkshire as the eldest of three children. Will and Kate both studied art history at St Andrews before the prince switched to geography.
Will & Kate Become Roommates
After their first year at St Andrews, Will and Kate were still just friends, and, along with two other friends, they moved into an apartment together. This is where they began to get closer and their relationship really blossomed. The Prince of Wales was considered to be popular during his university years, with students calling him “Steve” to protect his identity from journalists looking for gossip (per Marie Claire). Kate was just one of his many friends, but it didn’t stay that way for long. This will surely be explored in The Crown season 6, as it is where it all began for the couple.
Kate’s Fashion Show
Though Will and Kate had become closer as friends, a 2002 college fashion show titled “The Art of Seduction,” in which Kate modeled a see-through dress designed by a fellow student, is often seen as the turning point in their relationship (per Yahoo!). Kate and the dress reportedly caught Will’s eye, and it wasn’t long before things turned romantic between the two students in 2003. Before their engagement, Kate worked as an associate buyer for a popular fashion brand, and she is now known as one of the most stylish and influential royals, so it would only be fitting to include the fashion show in The Crown season 6.
Will & Kate’s Ski Trip
In April 2004, Prince William went public with a romantic relationship for the first time when pictures of himself and Kate on a ski trip in Switzerland were published by The Sun. The couple had been together for about a year at this point and had even moved in together, this time without additional roommates. This trip was especially important because it was a family one, with Prince Charles in attendance as well. It would be a few more years before Will’s grandmother, The Queen, met Kate, but it was an important step in their blossoming relationship.
Though the royal family was reportedly upset with The Sun’s publication of what were meant to be private photos, it signified how serious their relationship was. Once it was confirmed that Kate Middleton was in a relationship with an heir to the throne, she became the subject of relentless paparazzi and scrutiny by the media. This offered parallels between the current Princess of Wales and her predecessor, Princess Diana, who was a victim of the paparazzi, which could be explored in The Crown season 6.
Kate & Will’s Breakup
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In 2007, after about four years together, Will and Kate broke up (per Marie Claire). The royal couple briefly broke up but got back together after about 2 months apart, and have remained together to this day. They have now been married for over a decade and have three children. In the ITV News interview that accompanied their engagement, Prince William claimed they just needed a little space despite reports that the media attention had finally gotten to Kate. Though the breakup was brief, it is still worth mentioning in The Crown season 6 and could easily be dramatized by Peter Morgan.
Kate Meets The Queen
In 2008, after approximately five years together, Kate finally met Queen Elizabeth II at the 2008 royal wedding of Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly. Peter is the Queen’s eldest grandchild, the son of Princess Anne, and the cousin of Prince William. The prince later shared that his grandmother had been wanting to meet Kate for a while and was very welcoming to his then-girlfriend. Following their 2011 wedding, Kate and the Queen would develop a close relationship akin to a friendship, often traveling and appearing with one another on royal duties.
While this is perhaps a bit later in the timeline that The Crown is looking to explore in season 6, the meeting between Kate and the Queen could provide an important and interesting juxtaposition between her relationship with another royal family outsider, Princess Diana. Will and Kate’s own royal wedding could brilliantly bring The Crown full circle by bookending the show with two weddings, but it is yet to be seen just how far The Crown will go into more modern-day events. Will and Kate’s relationship offers a variety of moments and storylines to be explored in The Crown season 6, with these just being a few of them.
