Even royal romances aren’t always a bed of roses.
Prince William and Princess Kate met at St Andrews University in Scotland. What followed was a budding romance that eventually led to a royal wedding, but things could have gone very differently. Fortunately, Charles managed to steer his son in the right direction.
Chance
Kate and William met while studying at St Andrews University. They had both just completed a gap year when they decided to go to university in Scotland to study art history.
The fact that they ended up in the same class was already a bit of a stroke of luck, because according to royal expert Katie Nicholl, this was a last-minute decision for Kate. She had initially planned to go to the University of Edinburgh, but at the last minute she decided to give up her place there and take a gap year. As a result, she ended up in the same class as the prince at St. Andrews a year later.
First meeting
Wills and Kate were placed in the same accommodation complex, and it didn’t take long for the two to meet. Although it wasn’t exactly love at first sight… In a 2010 interview, William openly admitted that he can’t really remember their first meeting. Kate, on the other hand, remembers it all too well: “I blushed when I saw you, and I ran away because I was embarrassed,” she says. Cute!
Charles’ influence
Yet it was a close call, or the two would never have seen each other again. According to royal author Robert Lacey, the student life on the Scottish coast was rather disappointing to the future king. When he returned home for Christmas in 2001, he reportedly told his father Charles that he wanted to throw in the towel. Oh no!
Fortunately, Charles managed to talk him into it, and convinced his son to stay at St Andrews – albeit with a switch from art history to geography. And that conversation may well have saved his future with Kate, because it was around this time that their romance began to blossom.
Blooming love
In 2002, the two young students noticed that there was indeed some love in the air. The famous charity fashion show (in which Kate walked in revealing lingerie) reportedly had something to do with it, but we can only speculate about that.
Anyway, regardless of how the romance started, it certainly came with its fair share of obstacles. The couple wanted to keep their relationship a secret from the tabloids and the press, and that took quite a bit of doing. For example, Prince William asked his closest friends to call him by the pseudonym ‘Steve’. After all, the couple ‘Steve and Kate’ would attract less attention in the corridors of St Andrews University than if the name ‘William’ had been mentioned. On top of that, they always tried to arrive at parties at different times, and made a pact never to hold hands in public. Well, you have to be willing to do what you can…
Source: Mirror | Image: NL Image
