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Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William are a rock-solid couple, with three young children and a lifetime of royal duties ahead of them. The pair have been married for nine years, celebrating their wedding anniversary last month. At their wedding, the couple echoed one other iconic royal romance.

Kate and William are one of the most famous royal couples, but how did their wedding day echo the romance of the Queen and Prince Philip?

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are arguably the most iconic royal couple – and will celebrate 73 years of marriage in November.

Their long marriage is admired by many, and now the couple are back living together in Windsor Castle – where they are isolating amid the coronavirus outbreak.

One similarity between the romances of the Queen and Prince Philip and the Cambridges is the long time between the couples meeting and announcing their engagement.

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Then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip first met in 1934 at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark to Prince George, Duke of Kent.

However, it was not until 13 years later that the couple’s engagement was made official, on July 9, 1947.

Elizabeth and Philip slowly began to spend time with one another, and when the Royal Family was visiting the Royal Naval College in 1939, Philip was one of the few healthy cadets during an outbreak of mumps and chickenpox.

He was selected to keep Elizabeth and her younger sister, Princess Margaret, company during the visit.

The next day Philip joined the royal family on their yacht, Victoria and Albert, for lunch.

Elizabeth and Philip’s romance continued with outings such as visits to the theatre, before in 1946 Philip asked Elizabeth to marry him.

She agreed without asking her parents’ permission, and her father, understanding his daughter’s feelings but worried about her age, asked them to wait a year until Elizabeth was 21 before publicly announcing the engagement.

Ahead of their wedding in 1947, Philip wrote to the Queen Mother of his luck in having “been spared in the war and seen victory, and to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly”.

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Elizabeth and Philip wed on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey in London.

Kate and William also knew each other for several years before announcing their engagement.

The couple met and became friends in 2001 when both college students and had a long relationship, a brief break-up and then eventually announced their engagement in November 2010.

Kate and William both attended St Andrew’s University in Scotland and officially began dating in 2003, living and graduating together.

Kate gradually began to attend events alongside the Royal Family, showing their acceptance of her into the fold.

In 2007, the couple split briefly before getting back together shortly after.

Looking back on their split, William said later, “We were both very young . . . we were both finding ourselves and being different characters.

“It was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up so it was just a bit of space and it worked out for the better.”

Kate echoed this sentiment and said of their split: ““At the time I wasn’t very happy about it, but actually it made me a stronger person, you find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realized.

“I think you can get quite consumed by a relationship when you’re younger. I really valued that time for me as well, although I didn’t think it at the time!”

They got back together and attended events, the weddings of friends and parties together as their relationship strengthened.

Then, in 2010, Prince William proposed to Kate while the couple holidayed in Kenya – using his late mother Princess Diana’s sapphire ring.

Kate and William married on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey – the same place William’s grandparents had married 64 years earlier.

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