Kate Middleton's girls' trip amid heartbreak over Prince William

Kate Middleton once flew to Dublin for a girls' trip with her mother and close friends after splitting up with Prince William back in 2007.

• While Kate Middleton and Prince William are now one of the most admired royal couples in the world, they had a rocky patch a few years before their fairytale wedding at Westminster Abbey.
• The couple briefly broke up in 2007, reportedly leaving Kate utterly heartbroken. 
• In other royal news, Prince William's heartbreaking question after 'earthquake' moment he found out Princess Diana had died has been revealed. 

After finding romance and living together at St Andrews University in Scotland as students, Kate Middleton and Prince William hit a rocky road in their relationship after graduating, with William calling time on the coupling. 

Kate was working as a Accessories Buyer at fashion brand, Jigsaw, when Prince William ended things with her over the phone. Having reportedly been left devastated by the break up, Kate jetted off to Dublin. 

Joined by Carole Middleton and some close friends, Kate spent some time away in Ireland to help with the heartache before the news had even been made public, the Express reports. 

Kate and William rekindled their love after the brief split and William went on to pop the question in 2010 during a romantic trip to Kenya. 

The pair, who have recently moved to Windsor's Adelaide Cottage with the three Cambridge children in order to be near the Queen, touched on the short break during their iconic engagement interview. 

Opening up about how much the situation hurt her, Kate admitted that she also "really valued" the time apart from William. 

"I think at the time, I wasn’t very happy about it but actually it made me stronger person. You find out things about yourself that maybe you hadn’t realised," she explained. 

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