Years before their marriage, Kate Middleton pretended to be Prince William’s girlfriend to save him from an unwanted admirer

It’s funny that, these days, the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage is the one the world thinks is on the rocks when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had a much more harmonious road to the altar than Prince William and Kate Middleton. While Harry and Meghan met in 2016, immediately hit it off, and married two years later, the future Prince and Princess of Wales once had an on/off-again angst-ridden romance worthy of a CW show.

William and Kate memorably met at university in 2001, a full decade before they eventually tied the knot. They didn’t even become a couple at first, as the pair were just good pals and roommates before things went in a romantic direction. One old friend of the pair has revealed one amusing bit of foreshadowing for the future, though, which saw — again, in a plot ripped straight from film and TV — Kate pretend to be William’s girlfriend in order to save him from an awkward situation.

William and Kate’s old friend reveals the time Kate swooped into save him from getting hit on by another woman

Laura Warshauer attended St. Andrew’s University in Edinburgh, Scotland at the same time as William and Kate and it sounds like she may have been one of the first people to see a hint at what was to come. The singer and songwriter revealed to Fox News Digital all about the time she witnessed Kate swooping in to save the prince by pretending to be his girlfriend.

“I remember someone was chatting Will up… [It was] this girl at a birthday party,” Warshauer explained. “He was being very polite, but it was obvious he was trying to figure out how to get out of the situation.” Enter his future wife to the rescue. “Kate just walks across the room and puts her arms around him. It enabled him to turn to this girl, and he was just like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I have a girlfriend.'”

Warshauer went on to stress that this was very early on in the couple’s timeline so she’s pretty sure they were only friends at this point. That said, looking back, it was already obvious that the pair had a “natural” chemistry. And Kate may well have already been feeling territorial about William, hence why she felt compelled to intervene.

“That was so early on in the year, I don’t even think they were dating,” Warshauer added. “They had pretty much just met and formed a friendship. But I remember even thinking at that moment that was just so natural the way that she did that.”

Warshauer gushed over her old university chum Kate, calling her “beautiful inside and out. I feel like that’s what the world has gotten to experience.” As for William, she stressed, “I knew Will and Kate as extremely down-to-earth, relatable people that you could talk about anything with.”

Luckily for the Waleses, none of their old friends have chatted to the press about the less adorable moments from their past. Like the time William allegedly dumped Kate over the phone while on a night out and celebrated by yelling “I’m free!” and doing a robot dance (all so that he could pursue another woman he had become “obsessed” with). Can’t wait to see that scene dramatized on The Crown reboot!