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Topics: Royal Family, Prince William, Kate Middleton
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Royal Family, Prince William, Kate Middleton
Prince William and Princess Kate have surprising royal code names, often having to utilise different monikers for different occasions.
We all know that life behind closed doors for the royal family is often shrouded in mystery, and often Buckingham Palace will use coded language to relay information discretely.
Laura Windsor, a London-based expert on the royal family, recently told Reader’s Digest that the tradition goes back decades, starting when switchboard operators had to manually connect private calls.
“Royal code names are used for security reasons,” she said, adding: “These switchboard [operators] could hear in on every conversation, so royal code names were used to prevent them from finding out any important news before the royal family did themselves."
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While switchboards are largely now a thing of the past, there are still other security threats – such as hackers – that mean code names remain useful.
These are often ‘fictional or references to famous British landmarks’, Windsor said, explaining how they often prove handy for travel plans.
“Arrangements involving the royals take a long time to unfold, so using code names doesn’t arouse any suspicion,” she said.
“In a way, it’s like with actors: When they travel and stay at hotels, they also don’t give their real names.”
When William and Kate were still the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, they reportedly went by Danny Collins and Daphne Clark – those initials being a reference to their royal titles.
However, Windsor says it’s likely these will have changed, not just because they were leaked to the press, but also because the couple are now the Prince and Princess of Wales.
According to Andrew Morton’s 2011 biography William and Catherine, the pair once used the names Martin and Rose Middleton when they holidayed in the Seychelles in 2007.
The trip took place as they reunited after their brief split, meaning they were no doubt in particular need of privacy, with Morton noting they ‘spent a sublime week renewing their love affair’.
In new book Catherine, The Princess of Wales, author Robert Jobson claims Wills and Kate would sometimes go under Mr and Mrs Smith in the early 2000s.
The prince would ‘often whisk Catherine off to Highgrove or Sandringham or to a cottage on the Balmoral estate’ when they were both students in St Andrews, with Jobson saying: "Occasionally, they checked into hotels, using the names Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which doubtless fooled no one."
Hilariously, Mr Smith wasn’t William’s only reported code name during that period.
Jobson said that, in a ‘rather pathetic attempt to stay under the radar’ after starting uni, he sometimes opted for the code name Steve in an attempt to feel more normal.
It’s believed Kate helped with the rouse, often calling him by the fake name.