THE Duchess of Cambridge, formerly Kate Middleton, is celebrating her 32nd birthday today.

So in honour of that here are 20 facts about the mum-of-one and wife of second in line to the throne:

  • Kate was born in Reading, Berkshire. Her parents Michael and Carole Middleton met when they both worked for British Airways.
  • Jordan’s capital Amman was home to the Middletons in the mid-1980s.
  • Aged eight Kate became a brownie with the 1st St Andrews pack in Pangbourne, Berkshire.
  • As a young girl she performed in a play as a young lady wooed by a handsome blond prince named William.
  • At age 13, she went to £15,000-a-year Marlborough College boarding school in Wiltshire. She represented the college at tennis, hockey and netball.
  • The Duchess has completed her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
  • Kate once quashed a myth when she revealed it was the “Levi’s guy” who was on a poster on her bedroom wall while at Marlborough College and not her future husband William.
  • Another claim about Kate is she’s allergic to horses but this isn’t true.
  • Her parents became self-made millionaires through a successful party supply company called Party Pieces.
  • Kate is a keen photographer and took pictures for her family’s mail order business.
  • In 2001, Kate started at the University of St Andrews in Fife. She graduated in 2005 with a 2:1 in history of art. As an undergraduate she continued playing sports and turned out for the university’s hockey team.
  • It was at St Andrews where she met Prince William. The see-through dress which supposedly sparked William’s interest in her when she wore it at a university fashion show in 2002 was auctioned in 2011 for £78,000.
  • The Duchess worked in London as a part-time buyer for clothing company Jigsaw Junior.
  • Kate followed tradition on her wedding day, and for ‘something blue’ had a blue ribbon sewn into the interior of her dress.
  • The royal couple received a tandem bike from London Mayor Boris Johnson as a wedding present.
  • She wore more than two dozen outfits during her tour of California and Canada in summer 2011.
  • Kate is very distantly (13th cousin three times removed) related to Second World War II General George S Patton. It is also reported she is very loosely related (12th cousin once removed) to hubby the Duke of Cambridge.
  • It is said Kate does most of the cooking for herself and William despite having a private chef at her disposal.
  • Kate is five months older than Prince William.
  • In 2012 Kate was picked as one of The 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine.