'The Crown' Invented a Fake Ex-Girlfriend for Prince William

In the final season of The Crown, Prince William arrives at St. Andrews and begins seeing a student named Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid, even while he starts to develop feelings for Kate Middleton. There's even a scene where Lola (Honor Swinton Byrne) confronts William (Ed McVey) over Kate (Meg Bellamy).

But none of this really happened, because Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid is a fictional character. Rather, Lola, described as "from a family so posh they had to name it thrice," functions as a stand-in composite of all of William's posh ex-girlfriends.

Indeed, one of Kate's coworkers tells her, "When it comes to bagging a prince, only genuine blue bloods need apply." Of course, as the viewers, we know this isn't true—but at the time, it was thought William, like generations of royals before him, would marry an aristocrat (a so-called blue blood).

In reality, William was linked to a few women before Kate, including Rose Farquhar, Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe (the three last names perhaps provided inspiration for Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid), Olivia Hunt, Carly Massy-Birch, and Davina Duckworth-Chad.

If you're curious if the Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid family really exists, it doesn't. But, the three names are linked to various aristocrats. First, there is the very real Cavendish family, headed by the Duke of Devonshire (in fact, John F. Kennedy's sister, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, married William "Billy" Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington, a member of the Cavendish family). There's also a Kincaid family, also called "Clan Kincaid," a prominent Scottish family.

The "Airdale" family doesn't exist, to our knowledge, but it could be drawing from the "The Airedale Terrier," which is described by a breeder as "an aristocratic guardian of estates, exuberant otter hunter and family friend."

There you have it: Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid wasn't real, but rather a clever stand-in for the aristocratic women Prince William was linked to before dating Kate Middleton.

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