The Prince and Princess of Wales first met during their St Andrews University days where Kate was forced to chase other girls away from her future husband.

Kate has been forced to prise other women away from Prince William in the past (Image: Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)

It’s now been over 20 years since Prince William and Kate Middleton first laid eyes on one another at St Andrews University where they both studied together.

The couple both met at the prestigious university in Scotland and they quickly became close friends as they threw themselves into student life, the Mirror reports.

During their typical student lives, they started visiting some of the town’s famous night out spots where the Princess of Wales reportedly saw her future husband being hit on by other girls while they were out partying together.

Although they weren’t an item at the time, Kate was still very close to the prince and even came up with a sneaky trick to help him out when things got a little awkward when it came to unwanted attention from the opposite sex.

Speaking to royal expert Katie Nicholl for her book Kate: The Future Queen, their friend Laura Warshauer said: “Will was getting really hit on by this girl at a party and it was getting quite uncomfortable because he couldn’t shake her off.

Kate and William famously met at St Andrews University in Scotland (Image: Middleton Family/Clarence House via GettyImage)
“He was being really polite, but this girl just didn’t get the hint. All of a sudden Kate came up behind him and put her arms around him. He said ‘Oh, sorry, but I’ve got a girlfriend’, and he and Kate went off giggling.”

According to Laura, William was very grateful for Kate’s improvisation and mouthed “thanks so much” to her afterwards.

She said: “Kate was the only girl in the room who could have done that. And that was just a month after we started university.”

However, William and Kate did not stay close pals for long as their friendship blossomed into a passionate romance.

The royal couple dated throughout their university days and after their graduation before briefly splitting in 2007 which the late Queen was said to be disappointed by.

Their split did not last long as just weeks later, they were spotted kissing at an army party at barracks in Bovington, Dorset.

The Prince and Princess of Wales split several times before William proposed to Kate in 2010 (Image: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Later in July 2007, Kate and her brother James were seen at the Concert for Diana, that was held at Wembley to mark 10 years since the death of William’s late mother, Princess Diana.

It was not long before their relationship was confirmed to be back on and the Princess of Wales moved into the prince’s Clarence House flat where he would return from military duties on Friday nights for cosy weekends together.

The rest is history and the pair have now been happily married for over 12 years with their three kids, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.