Princess Kate had a two-word nickname among her group of friends when she was studying at St. Andrew’s, a former university friend has revealed.
The Princess of Wales met Prince William in 2001 while they were both studying art history at the prestigious university. The pair began dating during their second year at St. Andrews and moved into the same apartment with two other classmates.
Helen McArdle, who was a fellow student in Prince William’s halls of residence, told Channel 5 documentary Harry and William: Rise and Fall that she was in the crowd watching the 42-year-old arrive for his first day of university.
She said: “Myself and some friends were behind the barriers, watching the spectacle of him arriving. He definitely looked self-conscious, obviously he’d been very much aware that all eyes were going to be on him.
“I do remember that there was a massive rush of people studying art history because that had been the publicity in the run up to him coming to St. Andrews, everyone knew he was going to be studying art history.
“There was a huge influx of girls applying to study art history and it also seemed to be popular with the American girls. He was just very normal, down-to-earth and did come across as quite a bit shy.”
The former university student told the documentary that a number of friends had been “hand-picked” and put in William’s halls of residence, in order for the royal to feel “comfortable”
Helen said that, within a few weeks, the prince had a “quite a solid group of friends” and that this soon included Kate Middleton. After realising they were on the same course, the pair reportedly built up a “platonic friendship”.
William and Kate would walk to university and attend lectures together. The “diligent” princess would also take notes for William if he was unable to attend a lecture due to a “timetable clash”.
Helen said: “Kate was the only girl that was in their group and that became apparent very, very quickly, within the first two or three weeks of halls.
“She was very much in that group with the, if you like, the posh boys. It was almost as if she was the only one that could make the cut to join their group of friends.
“She was absolutely stunning. Perfect hair, perfect figure, so attractive, so pretty. Her nickname was beautiful Kate.”
Despite breaking up for a brief period of time in 2007, William and Kate soon reconciled before announcing their engagement in October 2010 and marrying the following year.
