Prince William‘s time at St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland could scarcely have got off to a worse start – and he had his family to thank for that.
Cameras flashed and royal fans screamed as the 19-year-old prince walked through the streets of the seaside town to start his History of Art degree on September 24, 2001.
So it is no surprise he arrived in a state of some anxiety.
‘I think he was really nervous when he arrived,’ Colleen Harris, Charles’s press secretary, told Robert Lacey for his book Battle of Brothers.
‘All the press were there – cameras from all over the world – and it suddenly hit him. He was very unsteady for a while after that.’
Fresh from his gap year, William, who only recognised one or two boys from Eton, instantly felt alone in the small Scottish town.
With just three main streets – North Street, Market Street and South Street, the future king had not quite anticipated how ‘boring’ St Andrews would be.
To add salt to the wound, a desperate female admirer pinched William’s bottom as he nursed a drink at a local bar soon after his arrival.
Prince William arrives with his father to St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland in 2001
William greets royal fans before starting his History of Art degree at the top Scottish university
The press agreed to would leave William to complete his studies in peace – aside from organised photo opportunities
‘He was not impressed,’ said one final year student who witnessed the incident.
The prince tried to busy himself with playing water polo and football on Wednesday afternoons.
‘As the term progressed,’ wrote Lacey, ‘the winter weather soon grew cold, grey and austere, and he found it difficult to make new friends.
‘He missed his brother too.’
So the prince left the small university town as often as he could, with the media reporting that he only spent two of his first thirteen term-time weekends in St Andrews.
Travelling more than four hours each way, William frequently visited Highgrove and London ‘in search of a social life’.
His course – History of Art – was not filling him with joy either.
Over the Christmas holidays of his first year, William told his father he wanted to leave St Andrews altogether.
The prince (pictured in 2004) busied himself with playing water polo and football on Wednesday afternoons
William runs with a rugby ball on the beach in St Andrews
The prince, who initially studied History of Art at the top Scottish university, prepares to surf with two friends
With just three main streets – North Street, Market Street and South Street, the future king had not quite anticipated how ‘boring’ St Andrews would be
William pays for stamps in a newsagents in St Andrews in 2003
William’s course – History of Art – was not filling him with joy either
‘He was miserable,’ wrote Lacey. ‘He had had enough of small town life – and all the travel arrangements that he needed to escape it.’
After asking his father if there was a possibility to transfer to the more ‘cosmopolitan’ University of Edinburgh, Charles put his private secretary Sir Stephen Lamport to work.
But Lampart and the royal spin doctor Mark Bolland argued that William would be considered a ‘quitter’, much like his uncle Prince Edward when he opted out of the Royal Marines after just four months in 1987.
Additionally, Lampart and Bolland believed that William’s decision to withdraw from one of Scotland’s top universities would be seen as a ‘snub by the Scottish people’, according to Lacey.
‘It would have been a PR disaster for St Andrews if he had left after one term,’ said Andrew Neil, the journalist and editor, who was the Lord Rector at St Andrews at the time. ‘We worked very hard to keep him.’
‘He got “the blues” – which happens. We have a lot of public-school boys who get up here, and by November when the weather gets grey and cold, wish they were back home.
‘William was a long way from home and he wasn’t happy,’ he added.
After a long heart-to-heart with Charles, William headed back to St Andrews after the Christmas break in 2001 with a new major in Geography.
After threatening to withdraw after his first term, William returned to St Andrews
The prince swapped from a degree in History of Art to Geography
‘I don’t think I was homesick,’ William later admitted. ‘I was more daunted. My father was very understanding about it and realised I had the same problem as he had probably had.
‘We chatted a lot and in the end we both realised – I definitely realised – that I had to come back.’
But things started to look up for William when he met Kate Middleton.
Both were residents of the same gothic-looking hall of residence St Salvator’s – or St Sally’s for short.
Famously, the prince was in the audience on the night Kate walked the runway in a see-through slip at the university’s charity fashion show.
He turned to his friend Fergus Boyd and whispered: ‘Wow, Kate’s hot.’
Not so famously, Kate had saved William from an awkward encounter weeks before the fashion show.
Just a month or so into his first term, William was getting ‘seriously hit-upon’ by a pushy female student.
William later that he wasn’t ‘homesick’ but ‘daunted’
Both William and Kate were residents of St Salvator’s Hall – or St Sally’s for short
In season six of The Crown, Ed McVey plays a young Prince William while Meg Bellamy plays Kate Middleton
Swooping in, Kate wrapped her arms around the prince. ‘Oh sorry,’ he told the girl, ‘I have a girlfriend,’ and he and Kate went off giggling together.
William had also placed a £200 bid to win a date with Kate at a charity auction weeks before the fashion show. Ah – the epitome of romance!
The pair, who ran in the same social circles, then agreed to move into a two-storey, top-floor apartment in the centre of St Andrews for £100 per week for their second year of university in 2003.
As well as playing water polo and football, William would swim with Kate most mornings at the Old Course Hotel.
Their blossoming romance intensified when Kate and Will moved to Balgove House near the famous St Andrews Golf Course for their third year.
Offering more privacy than their previous accommodation, William and Kate hosted dinner parties from the four-bedroom property owned by one of William’s distant cousins, with the well-prepared prince installing a champagne fridge as soon as they moved in.
Their new digs also allowed them to take romantic walks amongst the two acres of wild grassland behind the privacy of a six-foot stone wall.
It is understood William would take a picnic hamper and spend the afternoon with Kate relaxing on a blanket with a bottle of cold white wine.
Prince William studies in the main university library in 2004
Kate Middleton stands with two friends as Prince William plays at a Rugby Sevens tournament in St Andrews in 2005
The pair moved into 13a Hope Street for their second year
William and Kate then moved to Balgove House, on the private Strathtyrum Estate
In March 2004, news of the couple’s relationship finally broke as the pair were pictured together on a romantic ski getaway on the slopes at Klosters in Switzerland and William came under increasing pressure to disclose to the world’s media his plans for marriage.
With just a year to go until his graduation, the young prince shook off the shackles of his relationship to go on a ‘boys only’ sailing trip to Greece and, according to Lacey, the yacht was staffed by an all-female crew.
Kate was understandably unimpressed and the pair broke up.
But a friend of the prince’s was happy to reveal to Lacey that William did not stop ‘pining for Kate’ after their split. ‘He keeps saying she’s an amazing girl and the best thing to happen to him.’
Determined to get their relationship back on track, William took the romance up a notch.
The couple often enjoyed a cider at Ma Bells, the prince’s favourite pub which was the basement bar of the St Andrews Golf Hotel, and sat down to dinner at the popular curry house Jahangir, according to Hello Magazine.
Venturing further afield, Kate and Will were also ‘regular’ customers of the award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar in the coastal town of Anstruther – a short drive from St Andrews.
After four years at the top-rated Scottish university, both achieved an upper second class degree, William in Geography and Kate in History of Art.
After four years at the top-rated Scottish university, Kate graduated with an upper second class degree in History of Art
William left with an upper second class degree in Geography. Charles and Camilla attended his graduation ceremony
Kate Middleton and Prince William on their graduation day on June 23, 2005
In a photo later released by the Middleton family, the couple posed in each other’s arms on their graduation day on June 23, 2005, but at the ceremony itself, they were not seen together.
However, the Vice Chancellor Brian Lang gave a speech that would prove prophetic for the couple.
He told the audience, that included the late Queen, Prince Phillip, Camilla and William’s father Charles: ‘You will have made lifelong friends. You may have met your husband or wife.
‘Our title as the top matchmaking university in Britain signifies so much that is good about St Andrews, so we rely on you to go forth and multiply.’
Perhaps St Andrews was not so bad after all.