Kate Middleton

If you sometimes feel that the fairytale marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton is just too cutesy to be real, and that somewhere stage right is some masterly public relations whiz choreographing the entire relationship for the benefit of British tourism and a bid to keep the monarchy in good stead with the public, well, you'd be totally ... wrong. Because we now know, without a shadow of a doubt, without there being any hint of a set-up or planted story, that William calls Kate "babykins."

Yes, it's real, folks. Those two are really madly, passionately in love. The truth is in voicemails that were played in court in the News of the World hacking trial. The tabloid has long been accused of hacking into the telephone voicemails of dozens of celebrities and important people. Hugh Grant, Angelina Jolie, and Kate herself have been victims of those amoral hackers over at the defunct gossip rag.

Proof that Kate's messages were not only hacked into but also quite cute came today when Prince William's were played. These were left for Kate while they were still dating. In one, he says:

I had a busy day today again. I've been running around the woods of Aldershot chasing shadows and getting terribly lost, and I walked into some other regiment's ambush, which was slightly embarrassing because I nearly got shot. Not by live rounds but by blank rounds, which would be very embarrassing though. Um, er, yeah, I'm off on exercise tomorrow morning, just for the day, and then I'm back on Saturday first thing, erm, so I probably won't be able to speak to you tomorrow night. All right, baby, lots of love, um, speak to you soon. Bye bye.

He also added that he might send her a "cheeky text message."

In another he coos:

My head's all right. I've just picked up your message. Oh, my little babykins! I hope you are all right. I just tried ringing you but I do not thing you would pick it up because it is 5:35 a.m. in the morning so it is probably not a very good time to ring you. I hope you are all right.

And in another:

Planning on definitely coming out, hopefully by sevenish, so I will be with you by quarter to eight at the latest. Hope that's all right, baby. I can't wait to see you. Lots of love and I'll speak to you later.

Awww, William is not only a sweetheart, but has good breeding! He's so polite! Guys could really take lessons from this man.

I'm not sure "babykins" is for me, but I could probably get used to it. Anyway, this just adds to the couple's extreme likability. Kate ... you got lucky, girl! Wills is not only a Prince but a prince.

Seriously, though, it's just wrong to crack into people's voicemails. If even, you know, they're so cuuuute.

Does your husband have a pet name for you?