Kate Middleton’s clever trick that stopped women flirting with Prince William at university

(Image credit: Anwar Hussein/Getty Images/Future)

published 30 October 2022

Before Kate Middleton and Prince William began their budding romance, best friend Kate developed a clever trick to get her future husband out of 'uncomfortable' and flirty conversations.

While the future Prince and Princess of Wales met at university, their romance took a while to develop from friendship but Kate was still sure to help out her 'too polite' friend when conversations got too flirty for his liking
Romantic attention reportedly made William quite nervous so Kate came up with a clever trick to help him out of awkward social situations
In other royal news, Queen Consort Camilla was reportedly supportive of Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2007 breakup, reveals royal expert

The fairy tale romance lived out by the now Prince and Princess of Wales needs very little retelling, with the famous love story being well loved and documented.

With the couple first meeting at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Kate Middleton and Prince William were close friends before their budding romance blossomed, so just as you hope any good friend would do, Kate always had William's back - and often had to help him out of awkward social situations.

As you may imagine, when Prince William, then an eligible young bachelor with the added draw of being a Prince, enrolled at the university, he found himself immediately at the centre of attention, especially when it came to young women.

According to a royal expert, this made William quite nervous as he was "too polite" and didn't know how to reject advances from women he had no interest in.

In her book, Kate: The Future Queen, which is available on Amazon, Katie Nicholl, spoke to the Prince and Princess' mutual friend Laura Warshauer who revealed, "Will was getting really hit on by this girl at a party and it was getting quite uncomfortable because he couldn't shake her off. He was being really polite, but this girl just didn't get the hint."

Being a good friend, and nothing more at the time, Kate Middleton jumped in to rescue the young Prince William. "All of a sudden Kate came up behind him and put her arms around him. He said 'Oh, sorry, but I've got a girlfriend', and he and Kate went off giggling," claims Warshauer.

Warshauer added that the Prince mouthed "thanks so much" to Kate after the swift save, claiming, "Kate was the only girl in the room who could have done that. And that was just a month after we started university."

After the pair completed their first year at university, during which they stayed in St Salvator's Halls of Residence, the couple moved in with two other housemates to 13A Hope Street. The house share reportedly cost the four students £100 per week each.

In their third and fourth years, Prince William and Kate made a home together at a sprawling private estate located off-campus just outside of St Andrews. The estate is owned by a distant cousin of Prince William and close friend of the Royal Family, Henry Cheape.

Unlike most university house shares, the rural home was made safe for the young couple with unmarked police cars regularly patrolling the estate's surroundings and with house itself having bomb-proof doors and windows.

Related articles:

Charlie Elizabeth Culverhouse is a news writer for Goodtoknow, specialising in family content. She began her freelance journalism career after graduating from Nottingham Trent University with an MA in Magazine Journalism, receiving an NCTJ diploma, and earning a First Class BA (Hons) in Journalism at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute. She has also worked with BBC Good Food and The Independent.