Prince William's heartbreaking explanation for delaying Kate Middleton engagement

Prince William and Princess Kate dated for nearly a decade before he popped the question during a holiday in Kenya - and there was a very poignant reason why the Prince waited so long

Millions of people around the world tuned in to see Prince William marry Kate, the Princess of Wales, in a fairytale wedding at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.

The couple have gone on to welcome three children together and seem happier than ever, their bond strengthened even further by the Princess' recent cancer battle. But it took William nearly 10 years to pop the question to Kate - for a very poignant reason.

The Prince previously revealed the real reason for the delay in the proposal to royal photographer Arthur Edwards. According to Arthur, William said it was because he wanted to make sure his marriage would "last forever".

It echoes the comments William made during the couple's official engagement interview with Tom Bradby at the end of 2010.

"This is a life in the public domain to a degree that you can't escape, you both know that, you (William) obviously know it better than Kate does, you are obviously very protective of her," Tom noted.

"Massively so," William replied. "Her and her family, I want to make sure they have the best guidance and the chance to see what life has been like or what life is like in the family, that's kind of almost why I have been waiting this long.

"I wanted to give her a chance to see in and to back out if she needed to before it all got too much. I'm trying to learn from lessons done in the past and I just wanted to give her the best chance to settle in and to see what happens on the other side."

As a child, William watched his own parents' marriage fall apart - and the acrimonious aftermath of their split. As such, he wanted to be sure that when he married, it would stand the test of time

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the engagement interview, Tom asked William and Kate, "Did you always have at the back of your minds that you wanted to marry each other? Did that come slowly or did you decide a couple of weeks ago, people have assumed you were going to be married for a long time. How did you both come to it in your heads?"

"When I first met Kate I knew there was something very special about her," William shared. "I knew there was possibly something that I wanted to explore there. But we ended up being friends for a while and that was a good foundation.

"I do generally believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage. It just went from there. I knew over the years, I knew that things were getting better and better and we went through a few stumbling blocks as every relationship does, but we picked ourselves up and carried on. From where you had the odd problem when you are first getting to know each other, those have all gone and it is just really easy being with each other, it is really fun and I'm extremely funny and she loves that so it's been good!"