Prince William once revealed his notoriously bad gift to his wife, Princess Kate, after which she never let him forget it.
The Prince of Wales jokingly said the gift, which he bought for her during the early days of their relationship, actually “sealed the deal” for his then-future wife.
William and Kate met at St Andrews University in 2001 and got married a decade later.
The couple will have undoubtedly exchanged countless gifts to each other but there was one time when William’s gifting failed miserably.
Back in 2020, the heir to the throne appeared on the BBC’s “That Peter Crouch Podcast” where he discussed the early days of his and Kate’s relationship.
The podcast’s hosts, Peter Crouch, Chris Stark and Tom Fordyce, were discussing the worst gifts they’d ever given their partners, with Crouch confessing to buying his wife Abbey Clancy a raincoat while another one said he once gifted someone a tree.
When William was asked “can you beat a worse present than that?” he replied: “I probably can. I did get my wife a pair of binoculars once. She’s never let me forget that.
“That was early on in the courtship, that was. I tell you what, I think that sealed the deal. She fell for me at that point.”
The royal added: “I think I was convincing myself about it. I was like, ‘These are really amazing! Look how far you can see!’
“And she started looking at me going, ‘They’re binoculars. What’s going on?’…It didn’t go well.” William confessed: “Honestly, I have no idea why I bought her a pair of binoculars.”
It comes as the Princess of Wales celebrates her 42nd birthday today, with William said to “spoil her rotten” with gifts, after a particularly tough period following the publication of Omid Scobie’s explosive book Endgame.
Royal expert Jennie Bond claimed that “William will spoil [Kate] rotten this year, because it’s been a really tough time for her”.
She told OK!: “I imagine they will spend some quality time with their children, as it’s the last day of their Christmas holiday before they return to school, but perhaps a candle-lit champagne dinner will be on the cards.”
