TIMELINE OF KATE MIDDLETON AND PRINCE WILLIAM'S RELATIONSHIP

KATE MIDDLETON IN LABOUR: Royal baby due almost 12 years after she met Prince William: Timeline of their relationship Parents-to-be: Kate and William will welcome their first child this month Splash By Andy Rudd  |  22 Jul 2013 12:52 The royal baby is almost with us and to celebrate Kate finally going into labour Mirror.co.uk takes a look back at the events leading up to today. September 2001: Prince William and Kate Middleton meet at St Andrews University, where they are studying art history. Christmas 2003: The pair reportedly become a couple after sharing a house together with two friends. November 16, 2010: William and Kate's engagement is announced by Clarence House. April 29, 2011: The pair wed at Westminster Abbey. William is made the Duke of Cambridge by the Queen and Kate becomes the Duchess of Cambridge. December 3, 2012: St James's Palace announce that the Duchess is pregnant and being treated in hospital for severe morning sickness, known as hyperemesis gravidarum. December 4, 2012: Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg confirms the Government has received final consent from all Commonwealth realms to press ahead with a Bill ending discrimination against women in the succession to the British throne. December 5, 2012: Prank callers from an Australian radio station pretending to be the Queen trick a nurse at the King Edward VII's Hospital in London into revealing information about Kate's condition. December 6, 2012: The Duchess is discharged from hospital after three nights, telling reporters she is feeling "much better". December 6, 2012: The Prince of Wales says he is "thrilled" that the Duchess is pregnant, adding: "It's a very nice thought to become a grandfather in my old age." December 7, 2012: Nurse Jacintha Saldanha who took the initial prank call and put it through to another colleague is found dead in a suspected suicide. December 9, 2012: William pulls out of attending the British Military Tournament so he can spend time with Kate as she recuperates. December 16, 2012: Kate makes her first public appearance since leaving hospital by presenting the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award to cyclist Bradley Wiggins. December 25, 2012: Instead of going to Sandringham on Christmas Day, Kate and William stay with the Middleton family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire. January 11, 2013: Kate and William attend the unveiling of her first official portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. January 14: St James's Palace announces that the baby is due in July and that Kate is feeling better. She is now in her second trimester and has had her 12-week scan. February 5: Kate and William holiday on the Caribbean island of Mustique with the Middletons, reportedly staying in a £19,000-a-week villa. February 12: Italian gossip magazine Chi uses photos of Kate in a bikini on holiday. St James's Palace say they are "disappointed" at the "clear breach" of privacy. Other foreign publications follow suit. February 19: Kate carried out her first engagement in five weeks and visited the Hope House addiction treatment centre in south London, showing signs of a small baby bump and admitting she was nervous about giving birth. Meanwhile, debate raged when novelist Hilary Mantel described the Duchess as "gloss varnished" with a "perfect plastic smile". Prime Minister David Cameron stepped into the row and branded the comments "completely wrong". March 2: Kate and William travel to Switzerland for a friend's wedding in the ski resort of Arosa. March 5: Kate apparently lets slip that she is expecting a daughter on a solo visit to Grimsby. Accepting a teddy bear from a member of the public, she apparently replied: "Oh, is this for our d...? Thank you so much." Although other footage suggest she said "Is this for us? Aw" instead. March 17 - Kate tells a soldier at a St Patrick's Day parade that they do not know the sex, but says she would like a boy and William a girl. March 19 - William and Kate visit the headquarters of Child Bereavement UK, exchanging hugs with bereaved parents. They also meet TV cook Mary Berry. March 20 - Kate gets given a "Baby on board" badge when she joins the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Baker Street underground station to mark the 150th anniversary of the Tube. March 22 - Kate visits a Scout camp in the Lake District in snowy conditions. April 4 - Kate reveals she has taken up knitting ahead of the birth during a two day visit to Scotland and reveals the baby is due in mid July. April 5 - Kate and William join the Prince of Wales at Dumfries House in Ayrshire where Kate is given a "Princess Catherine" doll by a wellwisher. April 19 - Kate chooses three more patronages - SportsAid, the Natural History Museum and Place2Be, a mental health charity for schoolchildren. April 21 - The Duchess showed off her baby bump, looking obviously pregnant for the first time, at the National Review of Queen's Scouts at Windsor Castle. April 23 - Kate's bump was even clearer under her a £1,065 blue patterned silk Erdem dress by Sophia Visconti as she visited Willows Primary School on the deprived Wythenshawe estate in Greater Manchester. In her third speech as a royal she said "cycle of addiction needs to be broken" as she launched a school drugs and alcohol counselling programme. April 24 - Kate, in a duck-egg blue empire-line Emilia Wickstead cocktail dress, attended an evening reception at the National Portrait Gallery in honour of The Art Room charity and gave a short speech on the power of art to change people's lives. April 25 - It emerges that France's Closer magazine and a photographer have been placed under formal criminal investigation following the publication of topless pictures of Kate in September 2012. April 26 - Kate, William and Prince Harry get given their own wands on a tour of Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, where the Harry Potter films were made. April 29 - The Duchess spends part of her second wedding anniversary celebrating Children's Hospice Week with a visit to Naomi House Children's Hospice in Hampshire. May 11 - Kate and William attend William van Cutsem and Rosie Ruck Keene's wedding in Oxfordshire. May 12 - It is reported that Kate's baby is due on July 13. May 22 - Kate attends a garden party at Buckingham Palace. June 4 - William and Kate return to their wedding venue when they join the royal family for a service marking the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation at Westminster Abbey. June 13 - Kate, in a dalmatian print coat, carries out her final solo engagement before going off on maternity leave when she names a new cruise liner - Royal Princess - in Southampton. June 15 - The eight months pregnant Duchess makes her last public appearance before the birth at the Trooping the Colour parade. June 19 - It is confirmed Kate is planning to give birth at the private Lindo wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington. She is hoping for a natural birth but does not know if the baby is a girl or a boy. June 22 - Kate stays at home while William attends the wedding of his close friend Thomas van Straubenzee. Feb 19th: Kate debuted her tiny bump for the first time at four months but no maternity wear was needed as she stepped out in this £298 MaxMara wrap dress March 5th: On a chilly day in Grimsby she kept warm and covered her patterned Great Plains dress with this £369 chestnut brown wool Hobbs Celeste coat March 17th: THE Duchess celebrated St Patrick's Day with an emerald green Emilia Wickstead dress-coat, recycled from an earlier engagement, teamed with a John Lock hat March 19th: AT five months, Kate kept it simple on a visit to Buckinghamshire with a £45 Topshop black contrast collar dress with a slightly pricier £560 cream coat by Goat April 4th: A WHIRLWIND day in Glasgow called for a sturdy outfit, so happy Kate opted for a £425 blue and grey checked woollen coat by UK label Moloh April 21st: EVEN at six months Kate continued to shun maternity wear as she wore this £1,750 Mulberry frayed coat in mint cotton tweed at Windsor Castle April 23rd: THE Duchess courted controversy by picking this £1,065 Erdem frock, with a bold Visconti print, for a visit to a deprived area of Manchester April 24th: ON a pleasantly warm spring day, Kate wore this pastel blue creation by favourite designer Emilia Wickstead which skimmed her by-now blooming bump April 26th: THIS £38 polka dot maternity dress sold out at Topshop after Kate teamed it with a Ralph Lauren jacket. She wore it again a few weeks later April 29th: ON her second wedding anniversary Kate picked a £380 bright coral coat by Tara Jarmon over a peach dress by an unnamed "independent dressmaker" May 22nd: KATE, now seven months pregnant, wore this bright £1,285 Emilia Wickstead coat-dress, with a Jane Corbett hat, for the Queen's first summer garden party June 4th: ON her first visit to Westminster Abbey since her wedding, Kate chose an understated lace peach Jenny Packham dress and a matching Jane Taylor hat June 13th: Kate made the daring choice to wear this £169 Dalmation print coat from Hobbs with a Jane Taylor hat for her last solo public appearance naming a ship