Prince William and Kate Middleton Spent New Year's Eve With the Middletons

How does a royal ring in the New Year? Well, if you’re the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, not that differently from a lot of us common folk who celebrated a more low-key New Year’s Eve with close friends and family. Apparently Prince William and Kate spent the holiday with Kate’s family the Middletons in West Berkshire, as is their tradition. “It’s going to be a lively night with a great party atmosphere,” an unnamed friend told The Express. “The Middletons are always great hosts and like guests to enjoy themselves.”

What we don’t know for sure is if Kate’s family threw their typical New Year’s Eve bash, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. According to The Sun, Carole and Michael Middleton have been known to throw blow-out parties in their back garden with over 100 guests in attendance. 

As for William and Kate themselves, while they didn’t share any photos or information from the event itself, they did post a glamorous photo to their shared Instagram account to mark the end of 2021. The photo, which has been somewhat dubiously called “PDA-filled,” is from when the Duke and Duchess attended the premiere of No Time to Die, and shows two two smiling and holding hands in the back of a limo. The caption reads simply, “Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!”

The Cambridges are known for minimal displays of affection in public, which is why this previously unseen snapshot, in which the couple appears genuinely happy and in love, made such waves on the internet. For any other celebrity couple it would be chaste—but for William and Kate, they might as well be making out.

If they were trying to ring in the new year with a party atmosphere, we’d say they definitely succeeded.