But, keeping in line with his pattern of having girls as friends and then all of a sudden realizing one day that they had turned into swans, it was the fashion show, in March 2002, that made William see Kate as more than just a friend.

Kate, meanwhile, had been dating fourth-year student Rupert Finch, but Will swooped right in at the after-party.

“It was clear to us that William was smitten with Kate,” a friend who witnessed the moment (which included an awkward attempt at a kiss that visibly startled Kate) recalled to Nicholl. “He actually told her that she was a knockout that night, which caused her to blush.”

But Kate, not wanting to buckle just because the prince was all of a sudden interested, “played it cool,” the friend added. “She didn’t want to give off the wrong impression or make it too easy for Will.”

She also didn’t immediately break it off with Finch, but by the end of their first year at St. Andrews, Kate and William were obviously into each other. And then they decided to live together—with other people, but still an arrangement fraught with potential.