Princess Kate is thought to have attended the same gap year program in South America just weeks before Prince William.

Many will know the story of how the Prince and Princess of Wales met during their first few weeks at St Andrew’s University in Scotland. During their engagement interview on ITV in 2010, Kate recalled how she went “bright red” and “scuttled off” when she encountered the young, dashing prince for the first time.

But it would appear the pair had a mystery link before they even met. After finishing A-Levels, Kate visited the Italian city of Florence to study art history before heading to Chile. In a bizarre coincidence, it also emerged that William attended the same program in South America just a few weeks prior.

 Tina Brown, who wrote The Palace Papers in 2022, said that Kate had a “Zelig-like ability to keep appearing on the edges of William’s life”. Nowhere was this more apparent than when the pair flirted around each other while at St Andrew’s.

According to Katie Nicholl’s 2010 book, William and Harry, the heir reportedly noticed Kate the moment he arrived at the prestigious Scottish university. The lads in William’s St Salvator’s dorm, which was nicknamed “Sally’s”, had hailed Kate as the prettiest girl in the first year. Both William and Kate were studying art history and would mysteriously bump into each other. Over time, the pair learned they had a lot of common ground, including swimming and skiing. A couple of weeks into the term, the pair had breakfast together, accompanied by their other university pals.

A romance didn’t bloom immediately as the pair were dating other people. William dated Carley Massy-Birch and also maintained a situation with a girl said to be his first love, Arabella Musgrave. Meanwhile, Kate was dating fourth-year student Rupert Finch, who was considered a major catch. It was at a student charity fashion show in March 2002 that romance finally blossomed. William stumped up £200 so he could sit in the front row. Kate strutted along the runway in a see-through dress by Charlotte Todd, and caught William’s eye. The young prince was enraptured by Kate, whispering to a pal: “Wow, Kate’s hot!”

A mutual friend, Andrew Sands, recalled seeing the pair smooching at a house party after the show. In Nicholl’s Kate: The Future Queen, he said: “They kissed at the end of the night. They were both standing up in the corner of the living room, and I recall seeing them out of the corner of my eye. It was dark, there were lots of people, and the music was playing very loud. Everyone pretended that they weren’t taking much notice, but it went round St. Andrews like wildfire afterwards.”

It wasn’t for several months before the pair became an official couple. At the start of their second year, they moved into the same apartment with two other friends, with their friendship erupting into a full-blown relationship. “We moved in together as friends because we were living together,” William told ITV. “We lived with a couple of others as well, and it just sort of blossomed from there, really. We just saw more of each other, hung out a bit more, and did stuff.”

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