Kate Middleton body language: Kate and Wills vs Zara Tindall - how the couples compare

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William have been national favourites since their picture perfect wedding in April 2011. The couple have three children and royal fans rejoice anytime the couple are spotted out in public, especially when out with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Prince William’s cousin Zara Philips, the eldest granddaughter of the Queen, married Mike Tindall in July 2011, just three months after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. So how exactly do the couples compare according to a body language expert?

Kate and William

Kate Middleton and Prince William first met as first year students at the University of St Andrews when they were allocated rooms near one another in St Salvators Hall of Residence.

Prince William reportedly found it difficult to adjust to university life, but was persuaded to stay by Kate.

The pair maintained close friends and moved into a student house together for their second year.

It was not until 2003, after Kate had broken up with her boyfriend and she had acted as a model in a friend’s fashion show, that romance blossomed between the pair.

The relationship became public knowledge when they were photographed on a skiing trip to Klosters in 2004 and the following year, the pair were pictured together on their graduation day.

The couple continued to date until they briefly parted ways in April 2007.

Kate and William were not separated for long, however, and they attended their first high profile event as a couple in April 2008.

Two years later, they moved into their first home together, a cottage close to William’s RAF base in Anglesey where they would remain for the next three years.

Kate and William announced their engagement in 2010 and were married in April 2011.

Since that time they have had three children: Prince George born in July 2013, Princess Charlotte born in May 2015 and Prince Louis born in April 2018.

Zara and Mike

By comparison, Zara Philips first met her future husband Mike Tindall at the Manly Wharf bar in Sydney during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, while she was on a gap year travelling with friends.

In an interview with Australian television programme, 60 Minutes, Zara said the Yorkshire-born rugby star was drowning his sorrows after being dropped from the England squad before the semi-finals.

The couple were introduced in the bar, but did not speak much.

Later, Mike was given her phone number by a friend and after that the relationship blossomed.

Zara invited the then Gloucester player to join her at the North Cotswold Ball, before things reached “the next level”.

The relationship became official in 2004 and Mike Tindall was soon afterwards introduced to Zara’s mother, the Princess Royal, Anne.

The couple moved in to a property on Princess Anne’s Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire before they settled in nearby Cheltenham in 2009, but eventually moved back to Zara’s mother’s estate in January 2013.

After more than five years of dating, the couple announced their engagement in December 2010.

They married in July 2011 at a private wedding for friends and family at the Canongate Kirk on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

Since that time, the Tindall couple have had two children: Mia Grace Tindall, born in January 2014 and Lena Elizabeth Tindall in June 2018.

So how do the couples compare regarding their body language?

Body language expert Judi James revealed her verdict on the interactions between Zara Philips and Mike Tindall, and Kate Middleton and Prince William at this year’s Wimbledon tournament.

According to Ms James, the relationship between Kate and William appears to be “friends with benefits”.

She told Fabulous Digital: “The body distance and touch-free behaviour combined with the intense and mutual eye-gaze and wide, amused-looking smiles suggest strong ties of friendship as well as their bonds as a married couple.

“William’s wide grin suggests Kate enhances his life and lifts his mood.”

By comparison, Ms James revealed the relationship between Zara Philips and Mike Tindall is “strongly sexual”.

She said: “This tactile, relaxed posing with each slumped in towards the other and his leg splay suggests a spontaneously, mutual sexual attraction that is easy-going and unforced.”