At least, according to their friend Ben Duncan, who said as much to E! News in 2011, musing, “They sat at separate tables, he with the boys and she with the girls. But they would have noticed each other there, because not many people got up for breakfast at 8.”
Like, to the point where he issued a statement to BBC News saying, “People who try to take advantage of me and get a piece of me—I spot it quickly and soon go off them. I just want to go to university and have fun. I want to go there and be an ordinary student. I mean, I’m only going to university. It’s not like I’m getting married—although that’s what it feels like sometimes.”
While William was super into Kate, they were “just friends” for a while—and even moved in together as platonic roommates. As William put it during his post-engagement interview, “When I first met Kate, I knew there was something very special about her. I knew there was possibly something that I wanted to explore there. We ended up being friends for a while and that just sort of was a good foundation. Because I do generally believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage. And it just went from there.”
Pretty sure the story of how Kate Middleton and Prince William met and fell in love could be the basis of any given Lifetime rom-com (wait, sorry, that movie literally exists). You know how it goes: A handsome prince who hasn’t started balding yet goes to a school with “regular people,” falls in love with a “normal girl,” and ends up marrying her in a fairy-tale royal wedding. And that’s…pretty much what happened with Wills and Kate! But while most people know the general story, the details of their meeting are actually pretty under the radar. We did some digging, so gather round.
First Up: They Didn’t Actually Meet at College
Her name was Carly Massy-Birch, and she talked about her connection with William to author Nicholl.
“I’m a real country bumpkin,” Massy-Birch said in an excerpt of Nicholl’s book published in Vanity Fair. “I think that was why we had a connection. William was in the year below, and we just happened to meet through the general St. Andrews melee. It’s such a small place that it was impossible not to bump into William, and after a while, there was nothing weird about seeing him around. We got on well, but I think we would have got on well even if nothing had been going on romantically. It was very much a university thing, just a regular university romance.”
Obviously, the rest is literally history! But if you want all the details (including a lot of drama and a very angsty breakup), go ahead and wander over this way:
Brand: Weinstein Books Kate: The Future Queen
They Both Ate Breakfast Early
A friend also told Nicholl, “William was very taken with [Massy-Birch], which was completely understandable,” but the relationship was fleeting.
He Asked Kate Out After That Fashion Show
You know, the one where Kate walked down the runway in the totally sheer dress? Yeah, well, apparently, William was impressed and—per Nicholl—said to a friend named Fergus (of course), “Wow, Fergus, Kate’s hot!”
Everyone assumes that William and Kate laid eyes on each other at the University of St. Andrews, but this isn’t actually true. At least, not according to royal biographer Katie Nicholl, who told Katie Couric that Wills and Kate met way before university.
“I was speaking to some of her friends at Marlborough School, which is where she went before St. Andrews,” Nicholl revealed. “And they said, ‘Uh-uh, she didn’t meet him at St. Andrews, she met him before she got there, while she was at school during her sixth form through some of her friends. They knew Prince William and Prince Harry, so there wasn’t any meeting.’ And that, for me, it changed everything.”
