William and Kate: here are all the fake names they use to hide from prying eyes

That William and Kate, Princes of Walesoccasionally want to live a “normal” life, away from prying eyes, seems absolutely plausible. The future royals of England, on the other hand, have always talked about how, as far as possible, they are also trying to raise their three children in an at least apparently normal way, for example by avoiding them having a servant dedicated to them.

However, it is impossible to do it completely when it comes to future king and queen of Englandso much so that they are recognizable only by the two names side by side, without the need to add any surname. You can’t think of booking, say, a romantic restaurant for an occasion dinner, or a summer vacation, or even a simple late summer family dinner, when you are one of the most high-profile couples in the entire world.

And so it is said, among the well-informed at court, that William and Kate have a habit of using a series of fake nameswhen they want to go unnoticed or not announce their presence in a place in advance, with the risk of finding it full of paparazzi and onlookers.

William – who unlike Kate Middleton in this life was born and raised there – had this habit already at universitybefore finding his future life partner there (as the last season of The Crown romantically told us). Second Robert Jobson, one of the most prolific authors of books on the British royal familyrecently released in bookstores with the biography Catherine, Princess of WalesPrince William went by his friends’ name at the time simply «Steve»so as not to announce himself with his high-sounding title and attract insincere friendships around him. King Charles’ eldest son officially enrolled in courses at the University of St. Andrews as “William Wales”, but among his friends – says the English journalist – he always preferred to use a false name, to avoid those people who wanted to know him just because of its notoriety. “He decided to use the pseudonym ‘Steve’ in a bizarre attempt to go unnoticed,” she says.

Even later, during his relationship with Kate, William occasionally preferred to escape in secret, perhaps for a romantic weekend that was not in one of the royal residences. Even then, Jobson says, the couple used a false name to book hotels. “Sometimes they checked into hotels using the names Mr and Mrs Smith, which no doubt fooled no one.” A romantic quote from the Hollywood film that made Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie fall in love, for a long time one of the most glamorous couples in the star system (before everything irreparably fell apart), or simply the use of one of the most banal and widespread British surnames, to the pure and simple satisfaction of going from one extreme to the other.

The journalist Andrew Morton had already spoken about the false names used by William and Kate on these occasions in his biography of the couple, William and Catherinetelling how during an engaged holiday in the Seychelles (immediately after their much talked about breakup) the two had chosen to call each other Martin and Rose Middletonprecisely to hide from unwanted attention.

For the bodyguards and their security personnel, it seems that Kate and William were Danny Collins and Daphne Clarktwo code names, both corresponding to the initials of the Dukes of Cambridge, used (and we presume then modified following the leak) to guarantee their anonymity.

Nothing extraordinary, after all, for someone who has always been under the watchful eye of anyone who jumps to attention at the mere mention of your name. Better, sometimes, to try to divert attention, as much as possible.