8 years ago William proposed to Kate - and this is exactly how it happened

Amid the the many royal celebrations this October - Princess Eugenie's wedding, Meghan's pregnancy announcement and the arrival of the Duchess of Cambridge's new nephew - Prince William and Kate are celebrating eight years since their engagement! Although the pair didn't officially make the announcement until 16 November 2010, William revealed he proposed to his girlfriend of nine years while on a trip to Kenya with friends a few weeks earlier in October. They had signed a guestbook at Rutundu Cabin at the foot of Mount Kenya around that time, which suggests it was the magical place where there engagement began.

The guestbook Kate and William signed shared by Teatime With The Cambridges

In their first interview after announcing the engagement, William explained he'd planned it for a while and carried his mother's sapphire and diamond engagement ring in his rucksack for three weeks before proposing and was terrified of losing it. Kate called the moment "very romantic," before admitting it was a "total shock," but the couple admitted they'd discussed marriage with each other a lot in the previous year. William loves Africa and felt it was the perfect opportunity to finally ask Kate to marry him.

Kate and William engagement photo

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Talking about how important family is to both of them, Kate said at the time: "It's very important to me and I hope we'll be able to have a happy family ourselves," before William added: "Obviously we want a family, so we'll have to start thinking about that." The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wed the following Spring on 29 April 2011 in a fairytale ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Kate and William's beautiful family

Fast-forward seven years and their dreams of having a family have come true! Kate and William welcomed George two years later on 22 July 2013, Charlotte on 22 May 2015 and Louis near their seventh wedding anniversary on 23 April 2018. Kate and William have quite the story to tell them about the day daddy asked mummy to marry him!

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