Duchess Catherine's burlesque dancer cousin was shocked to discover that they were related.
Duchess Catherine
Katrina Darling, 25, admitted she could not believe it when a reporter discovered the link between her and the future Queen of England back in 2011 and she initially thought it was an April Fools' Day joke.
She told the Sunderland Echo: "It was in the lead up to the Royal Wedding and national newspapers were looking into extended members of the Middleton family. I got a phone call from a reporter at the Daily Mail. At first I didn't believe them as it was April 1 and I assumed it was an April Fool's.
"I rang the press office at the Palace and they said it was true, and that I should handle it how I want."
Before discovering her royal connection, Katrina, whose grandmother Jane Darling, was the sister of Duchess Catherine's great grandfather Thomas Harrison, had her own 'God Save The Queen' burlesque routine.
Since then she has appeared on the cover of Playboy, explaining: "I'd always been a fan of pin up, which is why I chose to do Playboy. But there's much more I've turned down, such as 'Celebrity Big Brother', 'Splash' and 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here'. I don't want to eat kangaroo testicles."
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