Kate Middleton was 'snubbed' by Prince William at his 21st birthday

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been happily married for over eight years and have three gorgeous children together — Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

However, things haven't always been so smooth-sailing for the royal couple.

While they would have undoubtedly spent Prince William's recent birthday together as a family, back in 2003 it was a different kettle of fish.

According to royal author and Vanity Fair correspondent Katie Nicholl, Wills "snubbed" a young Kate at his 21st birthday party.

"When William attended Kate's belated 21st birthday in June 2003 at her family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, the glance she threw him across the room when he walked into the 1920s-themed party was beyond platonic," the author detailed in her book William and Harry, which was published in 2010.

Some months later at William's 21st birthday celebrations, it was the total opposite.

"Then at William's party at Windsor Castle later that month, it seemed as though Kate was barely registering on William's radar," Nicholl claimed.

"He seemed very preoccupied with a pretty girl called Jecca Craig."

William had met Jecca three years prior whilst he was on his gap year in Kenya, and he "apparently had a secret crush on [her] since the first time he met her".

At William's birthday dinner, it was Jecca who got the "pride of place next to William at the head table" not Kate.

Despite the alleged "snub", nothing ever happened between William and Jecca, the Duke even attended her wedding in Kenya in 2016, but Kate did not.