Unlike in the past, when royal marriages were arranged, the members are now free to marry who they want, fellow royal or not. With that said, Prince William chose to marry a commoner back in 2011.
Prince William and Kate Middleton met at the University of St. Andrews when they were students in residence at St. Salvator's Hall. The pair became friends, which means that they spent some time hanging out at parties where the Duchess of Cambridge witnessed the prince getting hit on by girls.
Although Prince William and Kate Middleton were not together at the time, the latter would come up with a smart trick to help her very popular pal. "They had each other's backs and looked out for each other,” their friend Laura Warshauer said.
Despite their friendship still being fresh when the incident happened, Kate Middleton knew that she had to do something to help Prince William get out of the awkward situation. "Will was getting really hit on by this girl at the party and it was getting quite uncomfortable because he couldn't shake her off,” Laura continued. “He was being really polite, but this girl just didn't get the hint.”
Just like what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures; Kate Middleton felt that she had no choice but to do something extreme to free Prince William from the persistent girl. So, how will a person leave someone alone? When they realized that the person is taken.
"All of a sudden, Kate came up behind him and put her arms around him,” Laura shared. “He said, 'Oh, sorry, but I've got a girlfriend,' and he and Kate went off giggling." While Prince William and Kate Middleton found the moment amusing at the time, they didn’t know that they just predicted their future right there.
As for Kate Middleton, she didn’t have to be royal to get the boys’ attention. According to Laura, the Duchess of Cambridge was very popular with the boys. She was "very striking and beautiful" and "bubbly and open.”
In fact, these traits got Prince William’s attention, as well. In the YouTube documentary titled “Prince William at Thirty,” the narrator revealed that Kate Middleton was one of the models in a charity fashion show called “Don’t Walk.” When the prince saw her, things changed for him.
"She was on the catwalk and looked amazing. And suddenly this sort of butterfly emerged from the chrysalis,” Prince William’s pal, Jules Knight, said.
