It's twenty years since Kate was first snapped with Wills and a tidal wave of ... trends now
The Prince and Princess of Wales have plenty of other things to think about right now, but to their legions of fans, the start of April has a very particular significance.
Because it's two decades this week since the world first learned that William, heir to the throne, and a 22-year-old commoner, Kate Middleton, were boyfriend and girlfriend.
They'd been photographed smiling and nestling against each other as they rode a drag lift up the slopes at the Swiss skiing resort of Klosters.
And on April 1, The Sun published the picture as a world exclusive with the headline 'Finally, Wills gets a girl' – which might suggest more about the newspaper's impatience with the young Prince's love life than his pulling power.
Looking back today, it's clear that any concerns about William's romantic tardiness were hopelessly misplaced.
Kate Middleton joined the Royal party on their Klosters ski trip the following year - and this time there was no secret about it
Because in those images there is evidence of the same closeness and care that the couple still exhibit two decades on. He was waiting to choose, in other words – and chose wisely.
Kate and William might have looked like any other young couple in love back then, but you can also detect a protectiveness in the young prince, a quality that his wife will be drawing upon now more than ever.
Perhaps it's instinctive, a natural response to knowing that any woman he showed interest in would find herself in the spotlight.
Or maybe it's a trait that originally developed through wishing to protect his late mother, Diana.
Whatever the case, the gentle tilt of William's head tilt in those first photographs betrays a kindness that Kate will be relying upon like never before as she faces her battle with cancer.
Prince William and Kate only seemed to have eyes for each other on this 2005 trip
The first time the young couple were spotted together was 20 years ago in Klosters. Since then, Kate has been a ski regular
Twenty years is a big chunk of time, particularly in a royal context.
It's longer than the late Princess Diana was at the forefront of public consciousness and it's longer than King Charles and Queen Camilla have been married.
But what's also remarkable about the photographs from this and other skiing holidays is how happy Kate looks.
It's a reminder of how we have rarely seen her without a smile.
Back then, we could hardly have known that the pretty brunette from a decidedly middle-class background possessed exactly the characteristics which would enable William and Kate to establish the most solid royal marriage since the late Queen Elizabeth fell for the dashing Philip Mountbatten.
With the Royal Family seeming more
