Prince William’s transformative discussion with King Charles profoundly influenced his romance with Kate Middleton.

Prince William and Princess Kate famously met and fell in love as students at St Andrews. But their relationship very nearly didn’t happen – until King Charles intervened.

William joined the university in September 2001, but after just one term, he was having doubts. According to royal author Robert Lacey, uni life wasn’t quite what William had expected. The Prince “had not anticipated quite how ‘boring’ – his word – life in a small Scottish seaside town could be”. In his book, Battle of Brothers, Lacey noted that highlights were “shopping in the local Tesco “, while William’s nights out were “clouded” because all the other students were fascinated by him. The royal was also not enjoying his history of art course.

Unhappy, he came home for all but two of the weekends in his first term – and by Christmas, he was ready to leave altogether. When he arrived back in London for the festive break in 2001, William sat down to speak to his father, and told him of his plans to quit. According to Lacey, William asked Charles if he would work out a plan for him to withdraw and transfer to a different university, eyeing up Edinburgh as an alternative.

Charles then spoke to his most trusted aides, who knew it would be unwise for William to quit after just a few weeks. Lacey claims one of them said: “It would have been a personal disaster for William, he would have been seen as a quitter.” Furthermore, there were also concerns it could hurt relations with Scotland , given the excitement surrounding William’s initial decision to study there.

Upon hearing the news, his grandfather, Prince Philip , had a trademark direct response, reportedly saying: “William needs to knuckle down and not wimp out”. Charles’s spin doctor, Mark Bolland, told Lacey: “It was no different from what many first-year students go through. We approached the whole thing as a wobble, which was entirely normal.

“St Andrews had a flexible course structure and when they heard that William might be happier majoring in geography, they made sure there were no roadblocks.” After working out the new plan, the aides went back to Charles and suggested he should “demonstrate a more fatherly backbone”. So over Christmas, Charles did just that and sat his son down for a heart-to-heart. It worked, and William agreed to go back to St Andrews.

The decision changed much more than his education. Returning to Scotland meant William grew closer, and fell in love with, Kate, who he would go on to marry in April 2011. William has himself spoken about the “wobble”, saying: “I don’t think I was homesick, I was more daunted. “My father was very understanding about it and realised I had the same problem he probably had. We chatted a lot, and in the end we both realised – I definitely realised – that I had to come back.”