As royal followers might know, rowing was a big part of Princess Catherine's life, and in fact, she turned to the sport when she and Prince William went through a brief breakup in 2007.
Parade notes that there is an excerpt in Marcia Moody's Kate: The Biography, which talks about the princess's dive into the sport. “Training with the Sisterhood helped distract her and also make her feel better,” Moody writes of the rowing team Middleton joined. “The twenty-one girls involved were aiming to row across the channel to raise money for the Ben Hollioake Fund, who raise money for the CHASE Hospice Care for Children, and another children’s hospice charity, Babes in Arms. Kate got involved through her old school friend Alicia Fox-Pitt, and fellow rower Emma Sayle recalls, ‘Kate was very down and I think the training became her therapy. Kate had always put William first and she said this was a chance to do something for herself.’”
Of course, three kids and twelve years of marriage later, it's clear that the Prince and Princess of Wales made it work. But in that short time apart, Princess Catherine found an activity she loved.