As the two graduands sat in the grand Younger Hall, they heard a speech from the Vice Chancellor that would prove prophetic for the couple.

Vice Chancellor Brian Lang told the audience in 2005 that St Andrews prides itself on being ‘Britain’s top matchmaking university’ and that one in ten students would go on to marry. 

Mr Lang said: ‘You may have met your husband or wife. Our title as the top matchmaking university in Britain signifies so much that is good about St Andrews, so we rely on you to go forth and multiply.’

Little did Prince William or Kate Middleton know how ‘prophetic’ those words would become years later, royal author Katie Nicholl wrote.

The graduation day had been a success, and unknown to anyone in attendance, would follow with a royal wedding.

Katie Nicholl wrote in her bestselling book William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls, ‘According to one of her friends at St Andrews, Kate remained level-headed and kept both feet on the ground during the early months of their courtship.

‘She never got above her station, and even though she had secured the most sought-after boy at St Andrews, she never gloated. 

‘She was actually quite insecure about her looks and never considered herself pretty. She was very sweet and very shy.’

Four years before hearing the speech, fresh-faced William and Kate moved into St Salvator’s halls of residence, often called Sally’s, at St Andrews in September 2001.

The two had already crossed paths previously when William would come to Kate’s boarding school, Marlborough College, for inter-school tournaments.

This was during a time when both the media and teenage girls were obsessed with the young prince, a period dubbed ‘Willsmania’.

Despite crowds of students at Kate’s school swarming the young prince, Kate was apparently more interested in playing hockey.

It was reported that William’s decision to attend the University of St Andrews significantly boosted applications.

And it seems that Cupid’s arrow was set as hardworking Kate had just finished a gap year and applied to St Andrews, turning down her offer from the University of Edinburgh.

William and Kate both joined St Andrews as history of art students, although William later switched to geography.

William would frequently run into a brunette girl and took immediate notice of her – after all, the future Princess of Wales had been honoured as the ‘prettiest girl at Sally’s’ in freshers’ week, according to Vanity Fair.

Kate recalled in their engagement interview that she ‘turned bright red and sort of scuttled off’ when they met, ‘feeling very shy about meeting him’.

The future couple quickly started a budding friendship after realising how much they had in common – they both enjoyed skiing and had both been on a gap year travelling around the world.

William joined the water polo team and would swim with Kate most mornings at the Old Course Hotel.

He was wary of avoiding eye contact with strangers and pointedly declined invitations to join university clubs.

The young prince reportedly struggled with homesickness but found a listening ear in Kate, although there was initially no romantic involvement.

At the time, she had a boyfriend, Rupert Finch, a dark and handsome fourth-year student reading law. William also had a girlfriend, second-year English student Carly Massy-Birch, a Devon farmer’s daughter.

Meanwhile, meeting around the campus as friends, William and Kate were entirely relaxed in each other’s company. She soon became one of the group who joined William for breakfast at Sally’s before lectures.

Their close friendship was not unnoticed by friends, who joked to Kate: ‘Bet you’ll be wearing a tiara soon.’ 

Laura Warshauer, a former dormmate of Kate’s, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I wound up getting a front row seat to the very beginning of what would become one of the greatest and most iconic love stories of our time. 

‘It’s great to see Will and Kate, the same people they were then, on the world stage.’

Ms Warshauer, 41, said Kate and William had instant chemistry and fell for each other months before the now well-documented fashion show in March 2002 when William saw Kate modelling a see-through slip and described her as ‘hot’.

She said: ‘We went to a party at a castle. It was a Harry Potter theme and they did an auction for charity where people were bidding to win a date. Will bid £200 to win a date with Kate.’

While Ms Warshauer doesn’t know what they eventually did for their date, she remembered Kate’s reaction was effortlessly cool, showing she was unfazed by titles and comfortable around him.

Kate’s striking dress by designer Charlotte Todd is said to have prompted Wills’ much-quoted comment to Eton classmate Fergus Boyd: ‘Wow, Kate’s hot!’

And from that moment their burgeoning friendship became a blossoming romance – that night the pair were reported to have been seen kissing after sipping a few cocktails together. 

While still keeping their relationships under wraps, Wills and Kate moved out of their halls of residence in their second year to share a flat with some friends in September 2002. 

Nicholl wrote: ‘While some at the Palace snootily pontificated that Kate was not blue-blooded enough for the prince, she had other qualities that were far more important to William.

‘She was polite to photographers who now pursued her and quickly adopted the royal rule of never speaking out.

‘Like Diana, Kate quickly had to adapt to being in the spotlight, but her transition into royal life was much smoother’.

At their graduation ceremony, William’s guests included the late Queen, Prince Philip, Charles and Camilla.

He was reportedly too nervous to walk across the hall when his name was called and instead entered the stage through a side door, strolling with his head shyly bowed down.

Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, were also in the audience.

However, some questioned if the relationship would survive outside the safe world of the university. 

William enjoyed the privacy student life offered him, a royal source told the Daily Mail’s Rebecca English at the time. 

They said: ‘William is a very private young man and has relished the anonymity he has been afforded at St Andrews. It has been something of a sanctuary for him.

‘While he knows that times must change and that he has some wonderful opportunities ahead of him, he is, understandably, somewhat nervous about what the future holds.’ 

Christopher Wilson previously revealed in the Mail how both of the couple’s families sensed the relationship was reaching a crossroads.

Either their romance would go down in history as a ‘university fling’ or it would survive and turn into something much bigger. 

William reportedly told friends at his graduation, ‘I suppose it’s time to face the real world’. 

The ‘real world’ came with challenges as the couple navigated life in the public eye, and William working as a royal. 

After two short breakups, William and Kate announced their engagement to the world in 2010. 

They wed at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011, and now have three children together, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – eerily fulfilling the prophecy spoken by their university Vice Chancellor years before. 

Two decades after William and Kate fell in love at St Andrews, Lady Louise Windsor and Felix Da Silva-Clamp mirror their fairytale romance.

Louise, the daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, began studying English at the University of St Andrews in September 2022.

Once dubbed an ‘English rose that is blossoming’, it is believed that Louise and Felix struck up a friendship when they were cast in the first student-written play to be performed at the Byre Theatre at St Andrews.

The pair have been forging a strong bond over the past two years, with Felix, whose father is a solicitor, even travelling down to the Sandringham estate in Norfolk to see Louise at a driving competition.

Felix works in an ice cream parlour in St Andrews while undertaking his studies, according to the Daily Express, and Louise herself has experience of taking on a low-key part-time job despite her royal status.

In 2022, she spent the summer working at a garden centre before starting university.

Perhaps St Andrews will be able to claim another royal match made at their university.