Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge(Catherine

Elizabeth "Kate"; neMiddleton; born 9 January

1982),is the wife ofPrince William, Duke of
Cambridge. The Duke of Cambridge is second in
line to the thrones, afterhis father, of the
16Commonwealth realmsand the Duchess is
expected to eventually becomequeen consort.

Catherine grew up inChapel Row, a village

nearNewbury, Berkshire, England.She studied Art
History inScotland at theUniversity of St Andrews,
where she met the then Prince William of Wales in
2001.

Catherine has had a major impact upon British fashion

which has been termed the "Kate Middleton effect", and in
2012, she was selected as one of The 100 Most Influential
People in the World by Time. On 14 January 2013, St James's
Palace announced that the Duchess was expecting her first
child in July 2013. Catherine became prominent for her
fashion style and has been
placed on numerous "best
dressed" lists.

She is the eldest of three children born to Carole (ne

Goldsmith), a former flight attendant, and Michael Middleton,
who also worked as a flight attendant prior to becoming
a flight dispatcher for British Airways.
Middleton's paternal ancestors were from Leeds, West
Yorkshire. Middleton's maternal ancestors, the Harrisons,
were working-class labourers and miners from Sunderland
and County Durham.

Following her return from Amman, Middleton was enrolled

at St Andrew's School near the village of Pangbourne in
Berkshire, then briefly at Downe House. She attended
Marlborough
College,
a
co-educational independent
boarding school in Wiltshire, and graduated in 2005 from
the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, with an
undergraduate MA (2:1 Hons) in the History of Art.