The Sun - William and Kate - A Royal Love Story

‘She was a model pupil...Her parents were really supportive of all three children.’

Sadly, the heavens opened and the day didn’t quite play out as many of the Marlborough girls had hoped. The school chum remembered: ‘In the end, we all got soaked and none of us got to speak to William. Looking back, it seems amazing that William and Kate would eventually end up together.’

Seeing the second-in-line to the throne in the flesh apparently confirmed the schoolgirl crush Kate had harboured for some time.

Another former school friend, Jessica Hay, who knew Kate as Catherine, said: ‘Another girl predicted Catherine would fall in love with a prince. She would tell Catherine that one day she would be the Queen of England - and she would shriek in disbelief.’

Jessica said that Kate was jokingly known to pals as ‘princess-in-waiting’ and insisted that William would be her first serious boyfriend. Racy Kate also occasionally joined in with wilder spirits by mooning out of the window as goggle-eyed lads strolled past. Jessica said: ‘One night I told her to just do it and she did. She would have been 14 at the time.’

Kate is now known to the public by her trademark glossy chestnut hair, stylish dress sense and confident manner. But this was not always the case. In fact Kate - known to some at school as ‘Middi’- was the most unlikely of girls to catch a prince’s eye. Plain but popular, she continued to excel at sport and was ‘solid’ academically but did not tick the boxes of a potential princess-in-waiting.

Other more suitable candidates were growing up in stately homes, polishing their nails along with their manners. But while they were learning how to behave within the upper classes, Kate was different.

It was only in her last year at Marlborough that Kate finally began blossoming into a confident young woman. She also hit her academic stride, following her high-grade passes in 11 GCSEs with three good A-levels. The friend said: ‘She went to a party just a few weeks before her A-levels and she was the one girl all the guys wanted to chat up. She was tanned, had an athletic body and lovely legs - basically they all lusted after her. Even the way she talked had changed. Her accent had become more posh and it was as though she was trying to shake off those middle-class roots.’

William, meanwhile, gained A-levels in geography, history of art and biology, respectively scoring A, B and C grades. Then - just like Kate and thousands of other well-heeled students - he embarked on a gap year. He would enjoy many memorable experiences, including a safari in Africa, volunteer work in Chile and grafting as a farm labourer in England.

He had no doubt long since forgotten about the hockey match against Marlborough. But while he may not have spotted Kate that day, he would get to see a whole lot more of her at his next educational waypoint.

‘Her accent had become more posh and it was as though she was trying to shake off those middle-class roots.’

GIRL ON THE BUS

Kate endeared herself to the public after she was spotted travelling on a bus. She took the number 19 from Chelsea into the West End on a shopping trip in October 2005. Six months later she was snapped waiting for the number 137 in Sloane Square after enjoying a lunch with her mum.

One onlooker said: ‘At the bus stop she completely blended in and certainly did not stand out from the crowd.’ She wore sunglasses for the second outing and wasn’t disturbed by other passengers.

Her lawyers Harbottle & Lewis were unhappy about the pictures and complained that her privacy was being invaded. But the British people were charmed – a possible future Queen free from airs and graces, and using public transport.

Maybe she should have stuck to buses for a little while longer. In October 2008, she was snapped talking on her mobile phone while driving – but wasn’t prosecuted.

Chapter 3 - Catwalk Queen

The air of excitement around the University of St Andrews was palpable as the new intake of first years arrived in autumn 2001. For the young men already attending the esteemed establishment in Fife on the east coast of Scotland, it meant plentiful supplies of pretty fresher girls ripe for chatting up. But for the female students it signified something else altogether: Prince William, the world’s most eligible bachelor, was about to hit town.

It was a matter of weeks since New York’s Twin Towers had collapsed in a shocking terrorist attack, but William’s imminent appearance still dominated many conversations. His decision to enrol on a history of art degree had sparked unprecedented interest in Scotland’s oldest uni. An incredible surge in applications - a 44 per cent increase on the usual number - thunked with deafening inevitability onto the admissions office mat. Many were from husband-hunting US society girls, each of them dreaming of landing a British Royal. All 130 places on the four-year course were snapped up within hours of the news that the young Prince had, somewhat unsurprisingly, been granted his place.

Kate Middleton - fit, fresh and ready to study after her gap year in Italy and South America - was amongst their number.

William skipped Freshers’ Week, the traditionally boozy opening days of university life, in a bid to avoid handing the press a field day. ‘It would have been a media frenzy and that’s not fair on the other new students,’ he said. ‘Plus I thought I would probably end up in a gutter, completely wrecked, and the people I had met that week wouldn’t end up being my friends anyway.’ He added with some candour: ‘It also meant I could have another week’s holiday.’

The casually dressed Prince was finally dropped off at St Andrews after being driven there by Prince Charles in a green Vauxhall Omega estate. He was greeted by the principal Dr Brian Lang, 4,000 well-wishers and a group of protesters venting their feelings over the looming war in Afghanistan. William shook the hands of those there to welcome him and seemed refreshingly convinced that the level of interest in him would rapidly subside. ‘It will be easier as time goes on,’ he said. ‘Everyone will get bored of me, which they do.’

Home for the next academic year would be a £2,273-a-year en-suite room in St Salvator’s hall of residence - affectionately known as St Sally’s - with protection officers in rooms on either side of him. As fate would have it, Kate had only just finished unpacking her bags inside her new digs on a different floor of the same mixed college.

As earnestly as William hoped that his peers would ‘get bored’ of him, it was a mere matter of days before controversy erupted.

Students complained of an uninvited and unwanted film crew lurking in the shadows of the old town’s streets. Palace aides had brokered a deal with the media that they believed would guarantee William privacy while he was in higher education. To hear that it was being flouted so flagrantly and so early in his studies enraged them.

Then, to the complete disbelief of all concerned - but especially to William and his dad - it emerged that the camera team had a Royal link. They had been sent by Ardent Productions, the TV company run by Prince Edward, Charles’s youngest brother and William’s uncle. Understandably, the young Prince was livid at the betrayal and rang his dad to complain. Charles made his feelings known to Edward in no uncertain terms.