Prince William's surprising gap year that saw him cleaning toilets for a summer

Like many students before heading off to university, Prince William took a gap year to explore the world - but it wasn't as regal as you might imagine. 

Life for members of the Royal Family is full of important charity work, vital engagements that raise awareness, and parties that commemorate the work of some of the world's most important figures. While we love gushing over their outfits like Queen Elizabeth II's most flamboyant and memorable hats and Duchess Sophie’s coral dress with fun fluted sleeves, and adore learning surprising and interesting facts about Catherine, Princess of Wales, at the end of the day the Royals are there to do hard work. 

Prince William's gap year saw him take on some of his own charity work. While he took time off from education, he still made sure to fill this time with important work as he traveled to Chile to help locals and build new infrastructure. And despite being the future King, Prince William was reportedly treated just like everyone else.

This means that William spent a lot of time 'cleaning toilets' during his trip, according to a royal expert. 

"William coped very well, and what struck me about him was how normal he was. He said he wanted to be treated like everyone else, and he was," Malcolm Sutherland, who ran the expedition told royal biographer Katie Nicholl for her book Kate: The Future Queen.

"When you saw him cleaning the toilets, it wasn't for the cameras, he really did clean the lavatories."

The Making of a Royal Romance by Katie Nicholl | £8.88 at Amazon

Published in 2011, this provides a fascinating insight into the lives of Prince William and Kate. It reflects back on her childhood, her close family and her romance with the future King. The book goes up to the preparations for the couple's fairytale wedding and also focuses on their life in Wales together.

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As well as getting stuck in and scrubbing the toilets, William turned his hand to other practical skills. The Mirror reports that the then 18-year-old Prince, 'spent three months working on community projects with the expedition organisation Raleigh International'.

For the three month stint, he helped build and decorate houses as well as playgrounds and could been seen both painting and chopping wood. He also spent time working on a a dairy farm.

This type of work may have been a little different for teenage William, but he clearly enjoyed it as it went off on a similar, if not even more remote, trip straight after.

Living in the jungles of Belize with the Welsh Guards, Nicholl shares that the Prince, 'was taught how to kill and prepare his food'.

She explains, "An exercise code-named Native Trail began with instructors slaughtering a pig, hanging it from a pole and butchering it."

Forget the struggle of ordering in unfamiliar restaurants, William was well and truly thrown into the deep end here.

"The soldiers, William included, were then given a live chicken to dispatch. They had to wring its neck and cut off its head and feet with a machete, pluck its feathers and gut it before cooking it over a fire, exactly as they would have to do if they were living off the land in a jungle war. They were shown how to make a termite stew – and then made to eat it."

Katie added, "At night, William tried to snatch what little sleep he could in the rain in a hammock strung between two trees."

But even more strange than William's remote holiday, is the coincidence that Kate went on the same trip before the couple had even met! 

Mr Sunderland called the coincidence 'absolutley crazy' before adding, "For me, it was a normal assumption that everybody else would have realised what that connection was. I think a lot of people don't realise there is that common connection there in their pasts."

Just like William, Kate joined the same challenge programme, Raleigh International, and spent ten weeks trekking through Chile and helping locals. Her trip took place just a few weeks after William's had ended!

But even before their near-meeting in Chile, William and Kate may have caught each other's eye. Nicholl claims in her book that the now couple's respective hockey teams once played each other when they were both only nine-years-old. The young prince, she explains, was a student at Ludgrove Prep School and his teammates went to Kate's school of St. Andrew's Prep for a friendly game. 

"Although she wasn't especially interested in boys, the arrival of one particular young man had caught her attention," she writes. "William, like Kate, loved sports and was one of the best hockey and rugby players in his year. Of course, the arrival of the prince generated a flurry of excitement."