The media associated Wills with many women before he got engaged to Kate, even while the two of them were actually dating, which as you can imagine, was not pleasant for the now Duchess of Cambridge. Andersen recalled one ex-girlfriend in particular, 39-year-old Jessica 'Jecca' Craig, an environmental conservationist and doctoral student who also helped found Panthera, the world’s largest wildcat conservation organization, as well as Stop Ivory, an independent NGO which aims to protect elephants and stop the ivory trade. Jecca is often regarded as William's first love, who he met back in 2000 when he stayed at a Kenyan ranch owned by her parents while he was on a gap year before starting university. They reportedly went their separate ways when Wills attended St Andrews university, which we know is where he met and started dating Kate.
According to the book, William reportedly kept seeing Jecca – as a friend, we believe – while he was dating Kate, even choosing to spend part of his summer vacation in Kenya, where she lived, without bringing his girlfriend along with him. Ouch! The pair even attended several weddings of mutual friends together while Wills was in a relationship with Kate, because as you may have guessed, Kate was purposely not on the guest list. Ouch again!
This is all making a lot of sense now! A few years ago, reports about Prince William's 21st birthday party came out – and it sounded extremely humiliating for Kate. Kate and Wills were reportedly secretly dating at the time (Wills famously told the press he was single at the time though) and Kate was invited to his birthday party. So far so good. However, the birthday boy allegedly sat next to and paid the most attention to Jecca, who flew in from Kenya especially for the occasion. "Kate didn't know whether they had been romantically involved or not, but she noted that Jecca had been seated at the head table next to William, whereas Kate had to raise her glass to toast the prince from afar," royal biographer Katie Nicholl previously wrote. Poor Kate!
Sick of being "threatened and humiliated" by the constant press coverage of his friendship with his ex, Andersen writes that Kate apparently gave her boyfriend an ultimatum, but apparently he didn’t take it seriously. We sometimes forget that Wills was quite the bachelor back in the day, and famously didn’t want to settle down. He did, however, listen to his younger brother Prince Harry, who according to Andersen, "cautioned his headstrong brother to consider Kate’s hurt feelings" with his actions. Aww! We always knew that Harry and Kate had a very special bond, and we guess this proves it! And this makes their current feud even more heartbreaking…
Prince Charles apparently also had something to say about his son's refusal to let Jecca go too, as he knew first-hand what being in a love triangle was like given his history with Princess Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles. But interestingly, his alleged advice didn’t initially seem to be in his now daughter-in-law's favor. According to the book, the Prince of Wales encouraged his son to not string both women along, saying, "You mustn’t put her through that, William. It isn’t fair to Jecca."
We would have thought that HRH would have said it isn't fair on Kate, his actual girlfriend, but never mind. Regardless of whose side he was on, it's clear to see that things worked out for the best for Wills and Kate. We can't imagine a world where Kate wasn’t by William's side, or a world without Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.