After Kate and William split in 2007, they threw themselves into parties like normal young singles.
But as Kate continued to enjoy herself on a night out in London with her sister Pippa, William began to question his decision to end things.
So when they were both invited to a costume party by a mutual friend – and Kate showed up as a nurse in fishnet tights and a short dress – a reconciliation seemed almost inevitable.
However, the friend, amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen, has previously denied deliberately playing Cupid.
Prince William pictured leaving a London nightclub in April 2007 after splitting with Kate
Kate pictured in Kensington, London in May 2007
Sam Waley-Cohen and his future wife Annabel Ballin attended William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. They married the following year
Waley-Cohen hosted the party at his family’s 17th century country house in Oxfordshire with the theme ‘Freakin Naught’ and guests dressed accordingly – with Prince William appearing in hot pants and a policeman’s helmet.
Robert Jobson writes in his biography Catherine, The Princess of Wales that William may have regretted their breakup.
He and his future wife reportedly spent most of the evening talking – and ended it with a dance and a kiss.
Despite his party bringing the two back together, Waley-Cohen told the Mail in 2011: ‘There’s this idea that I was like Cupid with a bow and arrow.
“People like the idea that someone put them back together, but they put themselves together even more.”
Sam will ride winning horse Noble Yeats at the 2022 Aintree Grand National
William and Kate at the Cheltenham Festival in March 2007, just a month before they split
The now Princess of Wales was frequently spotted out and about with her sister Pippa in London during the breakup
Within weeks of the party, the future Prince and Princess of Wales were holidaying together in the Seychelles.
William and Kate got engaged three years later in October 2010, and their wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011 was watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Waley-Cohen – who went to high school with the prince and is a long-time friend of Kate – on being a guest at the wedding: ‘It was absolutely fantastic. It was wonderful to see two people so in love. I think everyone can see that, whether they know it or not.”
Looking back, both Kate and William have said their short time apart was for the best.
During an interview on the occasion of their engagement in 2010, Kate said: ‘I don’t think I was too happy about it at the time, but it actually made me a stronger person. You discover things about yourself that you may not have realized yet. .
‘I think you can get quite caught up in a relationship when you’re younger. I really appreciated that time for me, even though I didn’t think so at the time!’
William added: “We were both very young… We were both discovering ourselves and had different characters.
Sam talks to Kate at the Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival in 2008
Kate and William on their graduation day from St. Andrews in 2005
“It was a lot of trying to find our own way, and we were growing up, so it was just a bit of space and it worked out well.”
Waley-Cohen had a successful career in amateur horse racing and retired in 2022 after winning the Grand National at Aintree.
The jockey won with 50/1 outsider Noble Yeats and Camilla – then Duchess of Cornwall – presented him and his father Robert Waley-Cohen, who owned the horse, with the trophy.
The Waleses praised him on X/Twitter with a message that read: ‘Big congratulations to @swaleycohen for winning the Grand National. What a way to retire!’
When asked if his win was the result of the same magical touch that brought William and Kate back together in 2007, Waley-Cohen said replied: I don’t think it has any bearing on that, but as a general philosophy I think hoping for the best and living with hope is a good way to live.’
The former jockey also founded Portman Dental Care in 2009 and has three children with his wife Annabel Ballin: Max, Scarlett and Alexander.