After growing up in one of the most famous families on Earth, you would be forgiven for thinking that Prince William could get almost anything he asked for. But his landlady at St Andrews University treated him as everyone else with her 'no boys' rule when he applied to live at her Victorian terraced house.
© GettyThe Prince of Wales was on the hunt for accommodation for his second year of University, alongside his three friends Kate Middleton, Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale. They had stumbled upon 13A Hope Street, a property with five bedrooms, one bathroom and one shower room that would set them each back by £100 per week (a total rent of £1,600 per month.) However, the owner Charlotte Smith was reluctant to rent it to Prince William and his friends – even when she found out his identity. Little did she know that her home would later become a crucial part of William and Kate's love story, as it is where they admitted their romance "blossomed."
© Getty"We’d had an unfortunate experience with some boys in the flat once before and we were determined not to have young men there again. Broken furniture, broken windows – there was a lot of damage, so that put us off really," Charlotte explained to ivillage.co.uk. "I said to this young lady we’d really rather not have more boys and she said, 'What if I were to tell you that it was Prince William?'
"I said, 'I still don’t want to do it, thank you. I’d rather not do that,' because I didn’t know how he was going to behave off the leash, as it were." Despite her reluctance, the landlady changed her mind after discussing it with the neighbours. "I said I’d talk to my husband about it and get back to her. My husband and I discussed it and he talked me round. We were really quite surprised that they should choose my flat, but it was very nice with ample living space in the centre of town and it had the reputation for being one of the best flats for comfort in St Andrews.
© Getty"We wanted to talk it over with our neighbours and they were all right with it. So we decided we would go ahead and let the flat to Prince William," she said.
The home offered William and Kate some much-needed privacy to spend time together and let their friendship develop into something more. After dating for eight years, they opened up about their early relationship in their engagement interview in 2010. While Kate said she was "very shy" when she met William, she added that they "become very close friends from quite early." William added: "We moved in together as friends. We lived with a couple of others as well, and it just sort of blossomed from there, really. We just saw more of each other, and you know, hung out a bit more and did stuff."
The Prince and Princess and their friends sought a more private residence in their final year, settling on a four-bedroom cottage called Balgove House on the Strathtyrum Estate.
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