The quintessential “girl meets prince” fairy-tale come to life, Kate Middleton and Prince William’s high-profile romance has seemed to captivate the world from the very beginning. The year was 2001 and all eyes were on Prince William who was preparing to venture off to St. Andrews University, ironically referred to as Britain’s “top matchmaking university” due to its reputation for spawning an unusually high percentage of married couples.
“St. Andrews was so small, so close, so intimate — and so intense — that it, it did lend itself to those sorts of relationships,” says ABC News Correspondent Katie Nicholl. Prince William, who, due to a media ban on campus and for all students and staff for the first time in his life, was able to live like a normal person, enjoying the simple pleasures of making friends and visiting the grocery store.
But it wasn’t long before his life was turned upside down for an entirely different reason. For more than a year, Prince William and one Kate Middleton were good friends and even became flatmates along with two other close friends.
“Well I actually think I went bright red when I met him and sort of scuttled off, feeling very shy about meeting him,” Middleton told ABC News when speaking of the first time she met William.
Then came the night of legend, March 27, 2002, at the St. Andrews University fashion show when Kate wore the infamous see-through dress that caught William’s eye. Why are Kate Middleton and Prince William a true power couple?
“Kate hadn’t told him exactly what she’d be wearing,” remarked Nicholl about the fashion show. “So, when she strode out in uh, well, her underwear and a see through dress, I mean, William was gobsmacked, [He] just turned to [his friend] Fergus and said, ‘Wow. Kate’s hot.’”
“She didn’t dress in a sort of Euro-trash revealing way, it was always very homely,” said Andrew Sands, one of the organizers in charge of selecting models for the show. “So people were desperate to see her in slightly more scanty attire.”
Prince William was positively floored and found his chance to make a move at a party later that night.“She was, I think, as shocked as she was flattered. And she pulled away, because, at the time, she was dating a fourth-year student called Rupert Finch,” said Nicholl. “Well, that was the start of their relationship, and poor Rupert Finch. Well, he didn’t stand a chance, did he?”
To be continued
