Split With Prince "Devastated" Middleton
By now, almost everyone knows it's over. Prince William broke up with his girlfriend of four years, Kate Middleton.
Katie Nicholl, diary editor of London's Mail on Sunday newspaper, said that Middleton's friends say she is devastated, but Nicholl says that Middleton is a "tough cookie."
"Don't understatement this girl," Nicholl told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "You know, she is very much in the media limelight at the moment. There's a lot of pressure on her. I think she's finding this very tough. She believed they would get married so this is going to be very, very difficult for her."
The public is still unclear about why the prince decided to end the 4 1/2-year relationship and many wonder if he will regret it the same way his father Prince Charles regretted losing his first love, his now wife, Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall.Photos: Prince William
There are many theories about why the romance came to an end. A British press field day reveals it ended with a phone call or maybe on a ski trip. Many reports say that Prince William's commitment crisis sparked the spat.Photos: Kate Middleton
"It's always difficult looking at other people's relationships and decide what really is the cause of things going wrong," Princess Dianna's former private secretary Patrick Jephson told CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. "Perhaps Kate asked for an explanation over the nightclub incident and maybe the explanation wasn't good enough."
Nicholl said that the couple temporarily split in the summer of 2004.
"William was feeling claustrophobic," said Nicholl, who is the same age as the couple and attends the same clubs. "He wanted time, space, finals were coming up. You have to look at where he's been in his life; he just lost a very dear friend killed in Iraq. He has a lot of pressures of his own at the moment. I don't think any of us can rule out a reconciliation. Kate is so perfect for him, I think people will be hoping they do get back together and, perhaps this is just a trial separation - time apart for them both to get their lives on track and maybe they will come back together. It happened to his father. It's not impossible it will happen to him."
"He knows how to drink," she said. "I've seen Kate order shots and get through them."
It is also said that Middleton was angry and embarrassed by her bar-hopping boyfriend, photographed two weeks ago with a royal arm draped around an 18-year-old Brazilian. Also, the duties demanded by his army career were reportedly a sore point in the couple's relationship as was all the media attention. Some say the romance could have withered in the spotlight of celebrity.
Asked about the split, Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "We should leave them alone without having reams of stuff written about them which I can assure you from my experience of royal stories, most of which will be complete nonsense."
There have also been rumors about an other woman, blonde heiress Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, whose name alone reportedly sends middle-class Middleton into a rage.
And what about the whole middle class thing? Are the background differences between Middleton and the prince too great to overcome?
"When Mrs. Middleton, Kate's mother met the queen she said, 'Pleased to meet you,' " said royal commentator James Whitaker. "There's nothing intrinsically wrong in that except it categorizes you as from a certain social background."
Some speculate that Middleton simply ran up against the snobbery of William's upper-crust friends and family. With the kind of sinister sneer that Windsor family soap operas are famous for, it's actually claimed eyebrows were raised in the royal household when one of the Middleton's called the bathroom the toilet instead of the more refined "lavatory."