'She Stood Out For The Wrong Reasons': Kate Middleton Was 'Miserable' At 'Cliquey' Boarding School, Source Reveals
Kate Middleton may be admired by all nowadays, but growing up, she found it difficult to make friends while attending boarding school.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl talked to some of her former classmates at secondary school Downe House, all of whom admitted that the royal never adjusted to her surroundings.
"It is a very cliquey school and there was a lot of pressure," revealed Emma Sayle. "The girls were all high achievers, and there were lots of girls with eating disorders. Everyone wanted to be the best, the fittest, the prettiest. I think Kate was miserable from the start."
Though the Duchess of Cambridge is now admired for her beauty, Nicholl noted that her looks actually made her stand out "for the wrong reasons" as the "gangly and lanky" teen was "especially slender and a head taller than her peers."
It didn't help matters that Kate didn't join the school until she was 13, whereas the majority of her classmates started at 11.
"It does make a difference going from eleven," student named Georgina Rylance reportedly told The Sunday Times. "You have two years of bonding, your first time away all together. Even some of the most popular girls in my school had a hard time when they came in at thirteen."
And since the future Duchess didn't sleep at the school like the other girls, she missed out on opportunities to socialize with them.
Noted Rylance: "In boarding schools a lot of the boding takes place late at night, or at the weekends, going to the local sweetshop."
After vocalizing her struggles, Kate's parents moved her to another school — but headmistress Cameron insisted that she wasn't ever seriously bullied by anyone.
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"She may well have felt like a fish out of water, or unhappily not in the right place. Certainly, I have no knowledge of any serious bullying at all. But there's what everyone calls bullying, and there's actual, real, miserable bullying where someone had a dreadful time," she explained. "That certainly didn't happen. Yes, there would be teasing. It's all a part of the normal competition of growing up, of establishing a pecking order."
"Girls are cliquey by nature and they can be rather cruel. If you're attractive, too, that can be seen as rather a threat. They can sense those who are slightly weaker or who haven't shown their strengths yet, and it's those girls who are likely to end up being picked on or teased," added Cameron. "I think it's fair to say she was unsettled and not particularly happy. Maybe in Catherine's case she just kind of went quiet and didn't say anything."
