Prince William has no doubt given Kate Middleton many gifts she cherishes over their more than two decades together — but one gift was apparently so “awful” that he’ll never live it down.
Prince William, now 42, gave Kate, also 42, the gift early in their courtship, when they were both students at the University of St. Andrews — where they met in 2001 and fell in love thereafter. As The Mirror put it, back in the early 2000s William “was far less confident in his gift-giving abilities,” and one gift left his then-girlfriend baffled.
The future king opened up about the present during an interview on BBC Radio Five Live. When the subject turned to gifts, William said, “I did get my wife a pair of binoculars once — she’s never let me forget that.”
“That was early on in the courtship, that was — I think that sealed the deal,” he joked. “It didn’t go well. Honestly, I have no idea why I bought her a pair of binoculars. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
On Christmas Eve — when the royal family traditionally open their Christmas presents — they eschew expensive, luxurious gifts in favor of gag gifts, like when Prince Harry once bought his grandmother Queen Elizabeth a shower cap that read, “Ain’t life a bitch.”
In turn, Kate once gifted Harry a “Grow Your Own Girlfriend Kit” — obviously before he met and married wife Meghan Markle (and when his high-profile relationships pre-Meghan were in the headlines). Speaking of Meghan, when she joined the royal family for her first Sandringham Christmas in 2017 — not long after she and Harry announced their engagement but before their May 2018 wedding — she gave William a gag gift that “was a huge hit,” royal authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote in their book Finding Freedom.
Related: Meghan Markle Gave Prince William This Gag Gift at Her First Christmas with the Royal Family
The two wrote in the book that gift-giving has always been “an audition like no other, and [Meghan] wanted to impress her future royal relatives.”
“To that end, Meghan’s biggest challenge was finding the perfect novelty gifts to amuse her new extended family,” the book continued. “At least one of her gifts was a huge hit — a spoon for William that had ‘cereal killer’ embossed on the shallow bowl end of the utensil.”
For their first Christmas in Montecito, California in 2020 after stepping back as working members of the royal family earlier that year, Meghan gave her husband Harry a Christmas ornament that depicted Queen Elizabeth — which their 19-month-old son Prince Archie accidentally broke, Harry wrote in the pages of his 2023 memoir, Spare.
Royal gifts can be sentimental — like when Kate gave Queen Elizabeth homemade chutney for her first Christmas at Sandringham in 2011 — but are usually cheeky. Case in point? Princess Anne once gave her brother, King Charles, a leather toilet seat when he was still Prince of Wales.
The former Prince of Wales apparently forgot to tell his first wife, Princess Diana, that the royal family gave each other inexpensive gag gifts at Christmas. After marrying on July 29, 1981, Diana was already three months pregnant with Prince William, their eldest child, for her first Christmas at Sandringham that year. Despite suffering from morning sickness, she still took the time “to buy her new family members thoughtful and expensive gifts,” Vanity Fair reported — not realizing she’d be the only one to do so.
Related: Princess Diana ‘Hated’ Christmas at Sandringham with Royal Family, Calling It ‘Terrifying and So Disappointing’
Not surprisingly, she was “mortified” on Christmas Eve when she gave her sister-in-law Princess Anne a cashmere sweater — and received a toilet paper holder in return.
“It was highly fraught,” Diana told her biographer Andrew Morton. “I know I gave, but I can’t remember being a receiver. Isn’t that awful? I do all the presents, and Charles signs the cards.”
Of Christmas at Sandringham, Diana said it was “terrifying and so disappointing. No boisterous behavior, lots of tension, silly behavior, silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood.”
“I sure was [an outsider],” she added, though she eventually got into the gag gift spirit — even giving Harry fake dog poo in his stocking at one point!
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Though she wasn’t a fan of Christmas at Sandringham, Diana wrote in a 1990 letter that her sons William and Harry “are thrilled at the prospect of Christmas on the horizon and have searched high and low for any parcels that might be coming their way!” she wrote.
In a 1985 letter to a friend, she mentioned her eldest son specifically when she wrote, “A parcel of any shape or form has never been safe with me. And I fear that William has also picked up this dreadful habit from his mother, as I find wrapping paper undone in the most extraordinary places.”
Read the original article on People
