William and Kate share unseen romantic pictures to mark a decade of marriage

Prince William and Kate Middleton looked absolutely in love in the new pictures they released on Wednesday to mark a decade of their marriage.

The Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge, who usually refrain from even holding hands in public, cuddled with broad smiles on their faces as they posed for candid portraits ahead of their 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday, April 29. The first picture showed them sitting on a log, with William gazing at his wife who looked away while holding his hand.

The second image seemed like a recreation of their engagement picture from 2010. It showed William looking at the camera while a giggling Kate hugged him from the side.

William wore a blue sweater for the photos, that he wore over a denim shirt. Kate, meanwhile, complimented her husband in a powder blue summery top and trousers. The pictures were taken by British photographer Chris Floyd earlier this week, in the gardens of the couple's official residence Kensington Palace.

While this is the 10th wedding anniversary for the Duke and the Duchess, they have been together for around 18 years now, and have known each other for two decades. The couple met in 2001 while studying at the University of St. Andrews. They got engaged on October 20, 2010, after William proposed to Kate with his mother Princess Diana's engagement ring during a private trip to Kenya. The palace formally announced their engagement in November that year, later revealing that their wedding day would be a public holiday.

Around 1,900 people were invited to see their nuptials at the Westminster Abbey in London, while 600 people attended the luncheon reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by William's grandmother Queen Elizabeth II. An evening dinner attended by 300 people was hosted by the groom's father Prince Charles.

The televised wedding ceremony was viewed live by tens of millions of people around the world, including 72 million live streams on YouTube. As many as 26.3 million people watched in the UK, with a total of 36.7 million watching part of the coverage.

The future monarch couple now share three children- Prince George, 7, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 3.