Very few of us need reminding that The Prince and Princess of Wales’ famous love story began at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. The couple met during their first year when they were both living at St Salvator’s Halls of Residence, going on to live together in a shared house with other pals in their second year.
As you may imagine, when Prince William enrolled at the university he found himself quite the centre of attention when it came to advances from young women. This allegedly made William quite nervous as he was “too polite” and didn’t know how to reject their favour.
It is well-known that Kate and William were very close friends before they became romantically involved, so just as any good mate would do, Kate came up with a clever trick to help him out of awkward social situations.
Speaking to royal expert Katie Nicholl for her book Kate: The Future Queen, their mutual friend Laura Warshauer said: “Will was getting really hit on by this girl at a party and it was getting quite uncomfortable because he couldn’t shake her off.
“He was being really polite, but this girl just didn’t get the hint. All of a sudden Kate came up behind him and put her arms around him. He said ‘Oh, sorry, but I’ve got a girlfriend’, and he and Kate went off giggling.”
William was very grateful for her help, and according to Laura, he mouthed “thanks so much” to her afterwards. She said: “Kate was the only girl in the room who could have done that. And that was just a month after we started university.”
After their first year, the couple moved in with two other housemates, Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale, to 13A Hope Street which reportedly cost the four students £100 per week each. When Kate went for the viewings she soon heard that there may be an obstacle blocking her from living with William.
The landlord, Charlotte Smith, previously explained to ivillage.co.uk: “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?”
After some consideration, Smith and her husband relented and allowed William and Fergus to move in. She later described the prince as “very friendly, very charming… thoroughly nice man.”
In their third and fourth years, however, Prince William and Kate made a home together in a private house situated off-campus that belonged to one of William’s distant cousins.
The future Prince and Princess of Wales chose to move to Balgove House at Strathtyrum for their third and fourth years at university. It was a sprawling private estate located just outside of St Andrews. The estate is owned by wealthy landowner Henry Cheape, a distant cousin of Prince William and a close friend of the Royal Family.
The rural home was made safe for the young couple to live in as unmarked police cars patrolled the estate and the house itself was set behind a large wall and had bomb-proof doors and windows.
The young couple would also frequently stay at Tam-Na-Ghar Cottage on the Balmoral Estate. The home was left to Prince William by his great-grandmother The Queen Mother when she died in 2002 and it is said that they spent some of the happiest days of their lives there. While The Prince and Princess of Wales do frequently use the cottage, it is still owned by the Crown Estate and is rented out to third parties.
