Kate Middleton’s Life Before She Married Prince William Included This Retail Job

Kate Middleton married Prince William in 2011 and became the Duchess of Cambridge, but before becoming part of the royal family, she led an ordinary life and did ordinary things. Among those things was a job a very normal, ordinary job, it turns out. It was a job she seemed to enjoy, and her employer has nothing but good things to say about her days there.

Kate and William met when they were students at the University of Saint Andrews in Fife, Scotland. She studied art and took classes like Photography, according to InStyle. She graduated in 2005 with a degree in Art History and held a couple of jobs before becoming the Duchess of Cambridge. The first was a position he held for a short period of time with her family’s business, Party Pieces. As a family business, Kate and her siblings grew up with the business. She even did some modeling for Party Pieces as a child, according to CNN Money. They described her other duties there as including the design and production of catalogs, marketing, and photography.

Following her job at Party Pieces, the future royal also held a very ordinary position that is highly relatable for many. She worked in a retail store by the name of Jigsaw. She worked as an accessory buyer for both their adult lines and their children’s lines three days a week.

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Kate did land that job through family connections, but she reportedly was a model employee, according to InStyle. Owners John and Belle Robinson are close friends of the Middletons and worked with her to arrange a schedule that would work with the hectic and unpredictable lifestyle of a woman who’s dating a British prince. Belle Robinson described Kate as down-to-earth and a joy to work with.

“She sat in the kitchen at lunchtime and chatted with everyone from the van drivers to the account girls,” she said. Robinson also expressed admiration for the way Kate handled the press during that time.

“There were days when there were TV crews at the end of the drive. We’d say, ‘Listen, do you want to go out the back way?’ and she’d say, ‘To be honest, they’re going to hound us until they’ve got the picture. So why don’t I just go, get the picture done, and then they’ll leave us along.” She added, “I thought she was very mature for a 26-year-old, and I think she’s been quite good at neither courting the press nor sticking two fingers in the air at them. I don’t think I would have been so polite.”