Testino: The Story Behind The Royal Engagement Portrait

 

MARIO TESTINO's famous engagement portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hugging was a moment of "spontaneous emotion".

"I waited a long time, an hour or two, to make that picture perfect," said Testino. "But I wasn't totally satisfied. Then, when I'd finished the shoot, they were about to leave and they suddenly hugged in front of a radiator. I took my camera and that was the picture that ran everywhere - it was spontaneous emotion… you could see they were completely in love."

Testino first met the then Catherine Middleton in 2008, and says that he could tell even then that William was "in love with Kate. I knew they would stay together." The photographer has a long-standing relationship with the royal family, having taken some of the world's most famous shots of Diana, Princess of Wales. However, he maintains that the late princess doesn't remind him of Catherine.

"Kate, she is beautiful in a different way: she radiates happiness," he told The Telegraph. "She is comfortable in her love."