The future Duchess of Cambridge never got her colleagues back for the prank, which made her feel ‘mortified and very embarrassed’

Kate Middleton may be known as the Duchess of Cambridge these days, a working royal with an impressive title who lives at Kensington Palace, but she certainly didn’t always have a life like this. After finishing school, Kate began studying History of Art at the University of St Andrews, where she met Prince William.

Before she started studying for her degree, the future Duchess decided to get a summer job, as many students do, to help fund some of the nights out she would be going on once she was in Scotland. But while many students preparing to go off to university take relatively predictable jobs, such as working behind the bar in a pub or stacking shelves in a supermarket, Kate opted for slightly unusual employment, The Mirror reports.

According to royal biographer Katie Nicholl, Kate spent the summer before she left for university in Southampton, where she worked as a deckhand on a fleet of Challenger yachts. Cal Tomlinson, one of the skippers Kate worked under, said that the future Kensington Palace resident’s job entailed ‘back-breaking’ work, although he said she ‘mucked in’, was ‘very professional’, and was ‘confident but very assuming’.

Despite the job being pretty tough, some of Kate’s colleagues made time for fun and even played a prank on her one day, much to her embarrassment. As part of her role, Kate was tasked with giving clients a safety demonstration, which involved her demonstrating how the vessel’s life jackets worked.

But Kate was stitched up by her colleagues during one demonstration, Cal says, although she managed to stay calm and professional despite the unpleasant surprise. He told Katie, who wrote about the ordeal in ‘Kate: The Future Queen’: “When she pulled the toggle, the thing inflated and a load of condoms fell out.

William and Kate with children George and Charlotte attending church at Easter (Image: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock)
“She was mortified and very embarrassed. She took it more seriously than the others might have, but she wasn’t thrown off her stride.”

“She was angry at first, but she settled down, and I don’t remember her ever getting them back.”

Despite not finding the prank funny, it appears that it did not affect Kate too much, as she is keen to show her three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, the benefits of having a holiday job. Earlier this year, she revealed that Prince George has a very unusual job to get on with during the school holidays whilst the family are staying at Anmer Hall on the Queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

Whilst visiting a goat farm in Wales with the Duke of Cambridge, Kate said that George had been responsible for moving animal feed around on the estate. This was after William spotted a robot silage sweeper in one of the barns and pointed it out to the farmer.

When the farmer explained to the Duke and Duchess that the fascinating device could be used to move feed, Kate said: “That was George’s job at half term – moving feed.”

After, William told his host his children had been getting involved on the farm at Sandringham, where his own dad Charles has been working to turn the estate into a fully organic operation and added: “We are trying some Agroforestry as well.”