From Raisin Weekend to weddings: how St Andrews became the university of choice for royals….Read More

Prince William and Kate Middleton famously found love while studying at the prestigious Scottish university, and it seems that Lady Louise Windsor and Countess Luana of Orange-Nassau are following in their footsteps. So what makes it the go-to for a new generation of royals?

ways of the world – and, in some cases, to find love. From Prince William and Kate Middleton locking eyes during their first year at St Salvator’s Hall, to Lady Louise Windsor reportedly meeting her own beau in the heady world of student drama, the university is becoming quite the hotspot for young royals to come of age. Also among the illustrious students and alumnae? James Ogilvy, the son of Princess Alexandra of Kent; Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll; Prince Musa, son of HRH Princess Aishah of Brunei; and, a recent enrollee, Countess Luana of Orange-Nassau. From ‘Raisin Weekend’ to royal weddings, what is it about St Andrews’ famous red academic gowns that is so appealing to the new generation of blue bloods?

No doubt a lot of St Andrew’s royal appeal stems from its place in the nation’s history books. Back in 2011, it played host to the romance between Prince William and Kate Middleton, who would go on to marry and become the future king and queen of England. The pair met as freshers, living in St Salvator’s Hall – the one-day Princess of Wales was studying art history, as was Prince William, before switching to geography in his second year. Kate has previously shared her initial caution around meeting the future Prince of Wales. She said: ‘I think you said I actually went bright red when I met you and sort of scuttled off?’ she recounted to Prince William during their 2010 engagement interview. ‘[I was] feeling very shy about meeting you.’ But it is clear, the more time the couple spent together, the closer they became. As their friendship developed, Kate and William decided to move in together for their second year of university – a two-story, top-floor apartment, 13a Hope Street, in the centre of town for £100 a week.

They lived together with their friends, Fergus Boyd, later Prince George’s godfather, and Olivia Bleasdale. ‘We moved in together as friends because we were living together, we lived with a couple of others as well, and it just sort of blossomed from there really,’ Prince William explained in the couple’s official engagement interview.

Love clearly bloomed, despite the less-than-balmy Scottish temperatures, but it wasn’t until one fateful game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ that Prince William’s relationship with Kate Middleton was announced to the high society St Andrews set. The game requires players to list something scandalous that they themselves have never done. When it was the turn of William’s ex-girlfriend, fellow student

At least, so the story goes in Katie Nicholl’s 2002 book The Making of a Royal Romance, and it’s just been backed up in royal biographer Robert Jobson’s new book, Catherine, the Princess of Wales. ‘Perhaps unwittingly, Carly exposed William’s secret love affair with Catherine, much to the prince’s chagrin,’ Jobson writes, noting that the couple’s relationship was ‘an open secret’ among the student community. William and Kate were often seen walking together through the cobbled streets of St Andrews, grabbing groceries, and spending nights in, listening to music.

This year, one of Kate’s university friends shared a never-seen-before photo of the future princess during a flat party on Hope Street, now famed in St Andrews legend. Laura Warshaur, now a singer, shared fond memories of her university days with the would-be royal, calling her ‘the kindest, most caring, down-to-earth, genuine person’. Warshaur told the Mail in 2011 that she noticed the connection between William and Kate during a Harry Potter themed party, hosted in a nearby castle. There had, she said, been a charity auction, where you could ‘bid’ to ‘win’ a person for the day. The Prince reportedly donated £200 to have the honour of spending the party with Catherine. ‘No one else was winning Kate that night,’ Warshaur explained, ‘They already had that connection.’

Their love story became immortalised in season six of The Crown, with the help of actors Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy. In episode nine, the show recounts one particularly storied moment in their courtship. During a university fashion show in 2002, Kate Middleton walked the runway as Prince William watched on. Kate wore a sheer knit piece designed by her friend Charlotte Todd (the project, aptly, was named ‘The Art of Seduction’), and her glamorous strut is widely heralded as the moment that the Prince knew he had met his future queen – his response to her high fashion debut, so the story goes, was simply: ‘hot’. Even Princes are twenty-year-olds at one point.

Speaking of her own part in royal history, Todd later said that, ‘If it is true that my design helped changed the Prince’s interest in Kate from platonic to romantic as has been reported, then I am pleased to have played a part—however minor.’

Looking back on his time at university, Prince William once joked, ‘It’s often said by the undergraduates of St Andrews that you leave the university in either one of two states: either married or an alcoholic.’ Adding, ‘Fortunately for Catherine and me, we ended up married.’