Prince William expresses shock over Kate Middleton’s secret skill

Kate Middleton's foreign language skills even caught Prince William off guard.

The Prince of Wales made the revelation during a rare, live media appearance on the British radio show Heart Breakfast, filmed during his two-day trip to the Duchy of Cornwall land holdings.

Prince William shared there that his wife "came back buzzing" from her trip to Italy the previous week for her early childhood work, a visit significant as her first overseas work trip since her cancer diagnosis in 2024.

"I had no idea she spoke Italian, either," said show cohost Amanda Holden, commenting on how the Princess of Wales spoke some Italian in Reggio Emilia.

"I didn't actually," Prince William replied, which made Holden and cohost Jamie Theakston laugh.

"She must have dusted that off from a while ago," he added.

The Princess of Wales flexed her language skills and introduced herself to children as Catarina, the Italian form of her first name, Catherine, during her two-day stay in Reggio Emilia this month.

"I speak a bit of Italian. What is your name? I am Catarina,” she told the youngsters who came out to see her at the city's town hall, talking with them in Italian and learning new vocabulary.

Princess Kate may have first immersed herself in the language while studying abroad in Florence in the summer of 2000.

She studied Italian and the history of art during a three-month course, Italy Magazine reported, during one stop of her gap year before starting college in Scotland, where she met William in 2001.

Princess Kate returned to Italy for a fact-finding mission focused on furthering her early childhood work as her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood expands internationally, and William praised his wife for the foray following her recovery.

“So proud. Very, very proud. She's been amazing. She's been through so much in the last couple of years, particularly, and she'd been looking forward to the Italian trip a lot, so I'm really glad it went really well," he said on the Heart Breakfast episode filmed in the Isles of Scilly.

"She's an amazing mum, an amazing wife, and, literally, our family couldn’t cope without her, so, she's been absolutely stunning, brilliant," Prince William emotionally added when asked about seeing Princess Kate fulfilled by the Italy trip.