The early days of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s relationship seem like something out of a storybook, based on what we’ve always heard about their time at St Andrews.

However, their romance got off to a “terrible start” as the prince literally “tripped” as he approached her, royal biographer Tom Quinn reveals.

According to William & Kate: Too Good To Be True?, a Channel 5 documentary, Their first encounter was rather humiliating for the future monarch.

‘One of the funny stories is he was so desperate to meet her that as he walked towards her, he apparently tripped and said, “Oh that’s a terrible start, you’re going to think I’m a complete clot”,’ recalled royal author Tom Quinn.

Kate allegedly laughed it off, and they became close friends, taking the same courses and spending more time together.

Kate was smitten with William, and he went on to wow her with his student cooking, according to People. “In our university days he used to cook all sorts of meals. I think that’s when he was trying to impress me,” Kate told Mary Berry in their holiday show A Berry Royal Christmas. “Things like bolognese sauce and things like that.”

William and Kate both took gap years before enrolling in the same halls of residence and studied Art History at St Andrews University in 2001, but William subsequently switched to a Geography degree.

But it wasn’t until Kate walked the catwalk in THAT through-through dress at a charity fashion event a year later that William allegedly began to view her romantically.

The Prince reportedly turned to his buddy Fergus Boyd as Kate walked down the runway and said, “Wow, Fergus, Kate’s hot!”

According to royal reporter Simon Vigar, William was being “chased” by plenty of females but not Kate.

“When they were at University at St Andrews, I have it on good authority that one of the few girls not chasing William was Catherine,” he added.

“If that’s true, she played an absolute blinder.

“He was definitely the target of lots of Sloaney girls there at university, but it wasn’t until the infamous fashion show that William noticed Catherine.”

Kate remembered feeling uncomfortable the first time she saw her future husband during their engagement interview in 2009.

“I actually went bright red when I met you and sort of scuttled off feeling very shy about meeting you,” she said.

“William wasn’t there for quite a bit of the time initially, he wasn’t there from Fresher’s Week, so it did take a bit of time for us to get to know each other, but we did become very close friends from quite early on.”

William added: “Well from my point of view I you know… when I first met Kate I knew there was something very special about her.

“I knew there was possibly something that I wanted to explore there.

“We ended up being friends for a while and that just sort of was a good foundation.

“Because I do generally believe now that being friends with one another is a massive advantage. And It just went from there.

“And over the years, I knew things were getting better and better and we went through a few stumbling blocks as every relationship does, but we really picked ourselves up and carried on.”