A former university friend has revealed that Kate Middleton had a two-word nickname among her friends during her time at St. Andrew’s University. The Princess met Prince William in 2001 while they were both studying art history at the esteemed institution.
They began dating in their second year and shared an apartment with two other classmates. Helen McArdle, who was a fellow student in Prince William’s halls of residence, shared the anecdote during the new Channel 5 documentary Harry and William: Rise and Fall, as she discussed being present when the future king arrived 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.”
She added: “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,” reports the Express.
She further revealed in the documentary that a select group of friends had been “hand-picked” and placed in William’s halls of residence to help the Royal feel “comfortable”.
Helen revealed that Prince William quickly formed a “quite a solid group of friends” at university, which included Kate Middleton. They discovered they were on the same course and developed a “platonic friendship” often walking to lectures together.
If William missed a lecture due to a “timetable clash” the “diligent” Kate would take notes for him. 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.”
Describing Kate’s appearance, Helen said: “She was absolutely stunning. Perfect hair, perfect figure, so attractive, so pretty. Her nickname was beautiful Kate.”
Despite a brief split in 2007, William and Kate reconciled, eventually announcing their engagement in October 2010 and tying the knot the next year.