It’s been just over 20 years since the British tabloids first announced that Prince William had made his brunette classmate Kate Middleton his girlfriend. Two decades later, the Princess of Wales—who celebrates her 43rd birthday on January 9—is now a wife, mother, and stalwart working royal whose grace through a recent cancer diagnosis inspired the UK.
But from time to time, the internet is reminded of who Kate was before she became a future queen. Upon her graduation from the University of St. Andrews in June 2005, Kate moved to an apartment in Chelsea—a short drive away from William’s wing inside Clarence House—and started looking for a job in fashion or retail. As a royal girlfriend, she also became a favorite of the paparazzi. It led to a few uncomfortable moments, and William reportedly installed a panic button in her apartment after her address became public.
Still, the public attention means there was plenty of documentation of the few years when Kate was living the millennial dream at nightclubs and high society events around London. Kate and William often went out separately, but even when they were at the same party, they had a habit of sitting or dancing separately. (That might explain why Kate is nowhere to be seen during some of William’s biggest fashion missteps.) During these years, Kate also started attending events like society weddings and the Cheltenham Festival, where she rubbed shoulders with William’s extended family. The couple’s occasional travel to exclusive locales like Kenya and Mustique sparked frequent engagement rumors, but they wouldn’t actually make it official until November 2010.
If the era of vintage Kate started in 2005, it definitely came to an end sometime before the couple’s globally televised fairy-tale wedding in April 2011. If we have to pick a date for the history books, we probably said farewell to the roller-disco halter-top queen of the 2000s on the day in 2008 when Kate sent a humorous email to all of her friends announcing that she would heretofore like to be called Catherine. In honor of the Princess of Wales’s birthday, here are some of her best moments when she was still Kate Middleton.
