The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been happily married since April 2011, and although they had been dating since 2003, their engagement still came as quite the surprise! The royal couple got engaged after Prince William proposed to Kate during a private holiday in Kenya, and it was announced to the world in November 2010. Royal photographers found out at lunchtime that day, having been invited to St James' Palace. Shutterstock's royal photographer Tim Rooke spoke to HELLO! about how it all unfolded. He explained: "When they announced the engagement of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, I don't think we were expecting it. We found out at lunchtime and we were invited to St James' Palace."
Prince William and Kate's engagement photocall Credit: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock
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Tim added: "Whereas with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex I think we were expecting them to make an announcement and it was a much bigger photo call for Harry and Meghan, with 100 members of media there, and it was outside too. I think we were expecting to be told and then we were just told to turn up at Kensington Palace." Like with the procedure for photographing the arrivals of the royal babies, each photographer was given a number to assign them to a designated time to take their pictures. "We were given a bag of numbers and all the photographers and television crew had to take a number out of the bag and were allowed into the palace in the order of their number. So the lowest first and the highest last. It was just the fairest way of doing it."
The happy couple went on to have three children
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Having been taking photographs of the royal family since the age of 16, Tim has had an incredible career, and has covered the births of all three of the Cambridge children, as well as the weddings of the Harry and Meghan, Kate and William and Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. And while all the royal photographers are now anticipating the arrival of the new royal baby, Tim believes there is a big chance things will be different this time around – and that the world will see the first photo of the newborn on Instagram instead. He said: "It looks like there is nothing going to happen with Prince Harry and Meghan, now they moved out to Windsor, but there has not been any parking restrictions at St Mary's hospital and we are still waiting to find out what's going to happen. But at the moment everyone seems to think it will be private and we won't be seeing the baby at all."
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