How the Grand National Winning Jockey Helped Kate Middleton and Prince William Reunite After Split.
Sam Waley-Cohen invited both Prince William and Kate to a "Freakin Naughty"-themed birthday celebration in the course of their post-college breakup.
On Saturday, Kate Middleton and Prince William shared a tweet congratulating jockey Sam Waley-Cohen on winning the Grand National at Aintree in the course of his remaining horse race in opposition to 50-1 odds.
"Huge congratulations to @swaleycohen for prevailing the Grand National," they wrote. "What a way to retire!"
Not solely does the couple comprehend Sam, 39, personally — he attended their royal wedding ceremony in 2011 — but it's rumored that the jockey was accountable for reuniting the couple after they cut up lower back in 2007.
Kate and Prince William met as novices at the University of St Andrews in Scotland in 2001, turning into friends earlier than their relationship grew to become romantic. But they had a short breakup in 2007. Friends of the couple who spoke with PEOPLE at the time said there was once no last-straw moment, but instead a gradual unraveling. Kate, however, was ready to commit and William used to be now not prepared to settle down.
According to the Daily Mail, Sam invited each Kate and Prince William to a "Freakin Naughty"-themed celebration at his family's 17th-century mansion in Oxfordshire, where William wore short shorts and a police helmet while Kate dressed as a nurse.
They reconnected at the birthday party and had been viewed chatting. Just weeks later, they had been on holiday collectively in the Seychelles.
While many savings Sam with bringing the couple again together, he has played coy about his role in the past.
"There's an idea that I was once like Cupid with a bow and arrow," he said in 2011, in accordance to the Daily Mail. "People love the idea that somebody put them again together, but they put themselves together some distance more."
Sam — whose brother Thomas died in 2004 after a combat with cancer — was a buddy of Kate's during their time at Marlborough College. He memorably joined Kate at a 2008 charity curler disco benefitting Place2Be and "Tom's Ward," named after Sam's brother, at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Kate wore a sparkly green halter pinnacle and yellow shorts with red leggings at the '80s-themed event.
Kate additionally attended Sam's wedding to Annabel Ballin with younger sister Pippa in 2011, simply a couple months after her very own massive day.
Sam has another royal connection: to Prince William's cousin, Princess Beatrice.
Both Sam and Princess Beatrice wore inexperienced tutus and baseball caps with their names on them whilst jogging the 2010 London Marathon in the "Caterpillar Run Team," a group of 32 runners tethered together.
Due to his novice status, Sam will not acquire any prize cash for his horse racing victory. According to the outlet, Sam is additionally an proprietor of a dental care company.
But he was nonetheless overjoyed through the win.
"I can't say anything; I can not trust it," the jockey stated upon accepting the victory. "I have to say thank you, as it is my final ever ride, to Dad [Robert Waley-Cohen, horse Noble Yeats' owner] — he is had unwavering trust and love for 23 years."
He added, "I suppose residing life with an open coronary heart is a good strategy. I do not think [winning the race] has any connection to them, but as a well-known philosophy I suppose hoping for the best and dwelling full of hope is a exact way to live."
Tags: Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Meghan
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