After taking a gap year, in which he trained with the British Army in Belize and taught children in Chile, William enrolled at the University of St. Andrews in 2001. Initially he chose to study History of Art, and caused the number of applications to the university to swell considerably – a statistic put down to the number of females applying to the university in the hope to meet the Prince!
Whilst at University, although officially enrolled under the name William Wales, his friends referred to him as Steve – an ‘identity’ created to ensure if journalists overheard the conversation, they wouldn’t realise to whom the friends were referring to.
William was known to a close group of friends at university as living as normal (if privileged) life as possible. One friend said that when William was choosing leathers for a motorbike, he asked him ‘should I get this one in blue or that one in black?’. When the friend suggested he get both, William replied ‘Are you kidding? These cost £1000 each!’.
He was also known for being generous, often walking into the pub and buying a tray of 20 shots for his friends. William regularly invited groups of his friends to one of his residences for a party. One friend recalls that after drinking a little too much, William suggested he sleep in a ‘spare room’. The friend noted that when he woke up and walked to the staff entrance, a butler greeted him, asking ‘Would you like any breakfast, sir?’
Although he tried to keep a low profile, William always had bodyguards present – at least within a close distance. On one occasion, during a party, his bodyguards were situated in a kebab shop down the road (where else?!), when there was a fire alarm in the party building. The Prince switched off the fire alarm, but in doing so also switched off the covert surveillance cameras. Within seconds, the bodyguards burst into the room, surrounding William, and demanded to know what was going on!
Another instance of ‘over-zealous’ but perhaps prudent security was when William was walking home, drunk, and noticed a pellet gun in his friend’s jacket pocket. William took it, and held it up in the air. With amazing pace, two security guards appeared with a look of great alarm – so ‘Wills’ through the gun to the ground and just carried on walking!
United College at the University of St Andrews
It was whilst Prince William was studying his History of Art course at the University of St Andrews that he met Kate Middleton. She had also joined the same course, but was apparently first noticed by the Prince when she took part in a fashion show – where she modelled in her underwear!
Their friendship blossomed, aided by their closeness – not only on the course itself but the fact that they lived together at the University for four years. When William had what was described as ‘a wobble’ at the end of his first year – he was not convinced he was studying the right course at the right university – Kate was credited with convincing him to stay.
William did however change the course he was studying, taking up geography instead. He would eventually gain an upper second class honours Scottish master of arts degree – the highest ever obtained by a British royal). Kate Middleton also graduated with a 2:1, in her original choice of History of Art.
When he graduated, The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall all turned up to watch. William gave ‘special thanks’ to his grandmother The Queen, as she had been ‘a little under the weather’ at the time.
Regarding his graduation, William said ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at St Andrews and I shall be very sad to leave. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has made my time here so enjoyable. I have been able to lead as ‘normal’ a student life as I could have hoped for and I’m very grateful to everyone, particularly the locals, who have helped make this happen’
William even took the time to visit the local police station in Fife to thank local police for their ‘constant support’ during his time in the area.
Initially, the press kept to a similar agreement to that which had been held whilst William was at Eton – they would not intrude on his life as long as the royal family gave regular updates to the press about his progress.
However, it wasn’t long before it appeared that the press had reneged on this agreement. Despite efforts to keep their blossoming relationship secret (or at least low on the radar), the press announced them as a couple. Regular liaisons between the two of them alone at weekends at The Queen’s Balmoral estate were hard to keep too secret, and before long it was generally accepted that the Prince and Kate Middleton were an item. William and Kate were first pictured together in 2005 during a holiday to Klosters ski resort, to which photographers appeared despite the Royal Family’s efforts to keep it secret.