Prince William and Kate Middleton’s love story is truly one for the history books. The couple fell in love while studying at St Andrews University in Scotland, and initially the future king was almost prohibited from living with his then-friend Kate.

Despite the obstacles, though, the two found each other and fell in love. That led to the British paparazzi press persisting in doing their utmost to land the juiciest stories about the then-girlfriend of the future king. By all accounts, William did his best to protect Kate from the excessive media coverage, and after they had dated for some time, he decided to help her navigate what had become a very public relationship.

Prior to that, however, William is reported to have discovered something that left him raging. When one newspaper printed what could be interpreted as a private secret, the prince’s mood shifted quickly towards anger.

Prince William and Kate Middleton might never have met one another if the former had made a fateful decision he was considered. Just a semester into his first year at St Andrews University in Scotland, the future king was reportedly pondering the idea of leaving.

Prince William & Kate Middleton met at St Andrews University

It’s said that William thought the school was too far away from home, and he wasn’t enjoying his classes.

“I don’t think I was homesick; I was more daunted,” William later revealed, as per royal expert Katie Nicholl.

“My father was very understanding about it and realized I had the same problem as he probably had. We chatted a lot, and in the end we both realized—I definitely realized—that I had to come back.”

In the meantime, the school worked hard to get him to stay, and so William decided to give it another go. The prince settled in nicely during his second semester – around the same time he had taken notice of a “shy” and “quieter” girl named Kate. In her book William And Harry, Nicholl wrote that William liked that about her.

“Often Kate would go running before breakfast and arrive at the dining hall just before breakfast was over,” Nicholl wrote.

“Within weeks William was bold enough to invite her to join him. Every morning he and his friends sat in the same place, next to the head table, where a crimson throne and 18 seats were reserved for the wardens and deans. The impressive ground-floor dining hall was decorated with heavy oil paintings of philosophers from the Scottish Enlightenment and beautiful stained-glass windows, and there was always a cooked breakfast available. Health-conscious like his father, William would choose muesli and fruit, as did Kate.”

William and Kate became friends, before things took off at a now-famous charity fashion show. In 2002, William bought a front-row ticket to a fashion show in which Kate was featuring, spending around £200 for the seat.

Prince William “was smitten” with Kate Middleton

Kate took to the catwalk in a now-legendary see-through dress that revealed her underwear. By that point, William felt she wasn’t just a friend anymore, but rather someone he had developed feelings for.

In William & Harry, Katie Nicholl explained that William “decided to make his move” at a party after the show. The two “huddled” in a quiet corner, speaking. But when the prince leaned in to kiss her, Kate pulled away, “momentarily stunned that he had been so bold in a room full of strangers.”

At the time, Kate was dating another student, but that didn’t matter to Prince William.

“It was clear to us that William was smitten with Kate,” a friend of William and Kate’s, who was at the party and saw it all, told Nicholl.

“He actually told her she was a knockout that night, which caused her to blush. There was definitely chemistry between them, and Kate had really made an impression on William. She played it very cool, and at one point when William seemed to lean in to kiss her, she pulled away. She didn’t want to give off the wrong impression or make it too easy for Will.”

At first, the two were good friends. In the fall of 2002, they moved into 13A Hope Street, an off-campus apartment, with friends Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale. Their romance grew stronger, and behind the flat house doors, they could be together without having people around them all the time.

However, it wasn’t a given that William would be allowed to move into the off-campus apartment with Kate.

Prince William was almost denied to move in with Kate Middleton in St Andrews

In 2023, the landlady Charlotte Smith recalled when William was to move in, the apartment had a strict no-boys policy.

“We’d had an unfortunate experience with some boys in the flat once before and we were determined not to have young men there again. Broken furniture, broken windows – there was a lot of damage, so that put us off really. I said to this young lady we’d really rather not have more boys and she said, ‘What if I were to tell you that it was Prince William?’” Smith told the Daily Mail.

Smith’s husband convinced her the future king could move into the flat. Ultimately, William and Kate were “ideal tenants.”

“We arranged to meet Kate Middleton, Fergus and Olivia before they moved in but we thought we’d better not ask to see Prince William because we thought his credit rating must be quite good. But he insisted on meeting us,” she continued.

The now-Prince and Princess of Wales paid around £400 monthly at Hope Street.

In their engagement video, William elaborated on their time in university: “We moved in together as friends because we were living together, we lived with a couple of others as well. It just sort of blossomed from there, really,” William said. “We just saw more of each other, hung out a bit more, and did stuff.”

So, was William a romantic guy? Well, he revealed that he cooked dinner for Kate. She admitted that “he would always come with a bit of angst and a bit of anger if something had gone wrong,” and that she “would have to wander in and save something that was going.”

Prince William was “furious” when relationship with Kate Middleton was exposed

“When I was trying to impress Kate, I was trying to cook these amazing fancy dinners, and what would happen was I would burn something, something would overspill, something would catch on fire and she would be sitting in the background trying to help, and basically taking control of the whole situation, so I was quite glad she was there at the time,” William recalled.

“It was very romantic,” Kate said. “There’s a true romantic in there.”

Naturally, Prince William wanted to ensure that his blossoming romance with Kate Middleton didn’t become the next explosive thing for the British paparazzi press to write about. He tried to help her protect her privacy for as long as possible, not wanting her to become the center of the media’s attention.

Sadly, that didn’t last – and when news of their relationship finally became public, William was furious.

In April 2004, news of William and Kate’s romance became public knowledge. The now-Princess of Wales had joined her boyfriend on a family skiing holiday – and as they cozied up on the slopes, a camera caught them. The next day, pictures of the pair were all over the British newspapers, leaving Prince William enraged.

Speaking on Channel 5’s documentary William & Kate: Too Good To Be True, royal expert Rebecca England said: “Unfortunately for them, a paparazzi photographer took pictures of William and Kate clearly very close on the ski lift together. A red top tabloid newspaper slashed it all over their front page.”

She continued: “William was furious, and he was also genuinely worried for Kate and her family about what this would now mean for them.”

Further in the documentary, England mentioned the claims that Kate Middleton’s mother, Carole, had tried to set up her daughter with William.

Prince William & Kate Middleton’s 2007 split

At one point, there were even rumors that Kate had a poster of William on her wall in her room at Marlborough College, which she attended before enrolling at St Andrews. However, Kate rubbished the rumor in a 2010 interview.

After the couple graduated from St Andrew’s, William and Kate made their first public appearance together. Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles were there, alongside Carole and Michael Middleton.

On October 20, 2010, William then proposed to his girlfriend during a holiday in Kenya. The prince had reportedly been carrying a ring in a bag for three weeks and never let it go. Kate had considered the idea that William might propose, but it came as a “total shock.”

A shock indeed, since only years earlier, it seemed as though their love story was destined to end in misery. It was even reported in some places that William and Kate had broken up for good.

When William and Kate split in 2007, rumors about what had happened spread quickly. Some royal experts claimed William decided to split up with Kate because he felt the “fun” had disappeared from their relationship. Meanwhile, Kate was said to have been left “desperately upset” – she had already pictured how they would marry.

Shortly after the breakup, William allegedly roamed London nightclubs and saw several other girls.

Kate, of course, was left angry. According to reports, “harsh words” were exchanged as Kate thought she had been “humiliated” by William’s behavior. She also felt that he was “cheapening her image.”

Kate Middleton gave Prince William “an ultimatum”

“It was the first such warning she had dished out over the course of their four-and-a-half-year relationship,” a report by royal expert Katie Nicholl read in 2007.

One of Kate’s friends told the Daily Mail: “Kate had had enough, and words were exchanged. Kate told William that he was making her look bad, one of her friends explained. She has coped for years with girls flinging themselves at her boyfriend, and for a while, she found it humorous and even flattering.

“But after his recent behaviour she gave him an ultimatum and told him that every time he behaved like that in public he was cheapening her image as well as his own. She told him she wasn’t prepared to be treated like a doormat and that his carefree behaviour was affecting her image. She gave him quite a pasting. In the past she had always let go of things like that, but this really bothered her.”

Luckily, William and Kate found their way back to each other – and as far as we know, their relationship is stronger than ever.