LAURA WARSHAUER SHARED SNIPPETS FROM HER TIME AT ST ANDREW'S WATCHING WILL & CAT FALL IN LOVE ♡
Laura Warshauer had a front row seat as a result of her close friendship with the pair. Whether it was William helping to carry her luggage, Kate comforting her on a night out, or just having a quiet drink in a cosy corner of a pub together, those memories live on.
Her interactions with them are something few can share – teaching Kate how to play the guitar, William buying her first ever Jack Daniel’s and Coke, eating takeaway food together or laughing and joking during road trips.
Speaking about her time at uni she said :
‘I graduated from school a year early and then spent what would have been my senior year at high school in St Andrews. It was a beautiful moment in time.
I wound up getting a front row seat to the very beginning of what would become one of the greatest and most iconic love stories of our time. It’s great to see Will and Kate, the same people they were then, on the world stage.’
Talking about their form life, she recalls that she'd her mother’s lasagne recipe and her aunt’s toffee – for William and some of his friends as well as chatting with him during meal times in the ‘Harry Potter-style’ dining hall.
William & Laura sitting together for the art history 02 class photo (fun fact william changed his course like 2 weeks later to geography)
She said:
‘Will lived down the hall with two of his friends from Eton. Kate lived on the floor below.
‘I met them the same week they met each other. I was struck by how normal Will was. You could talk about anything – the most mundane things.
'Coming back from a trip home to New Jersey with my big luggage, Will would grab my bag and take it inside the dorm.
‘We were all just trying to find our way. Even if you’d been at a boarding school like Eton, people were still in a new environment.’
‘I remember I made dinner for everyone on my birthday in December and Will brought me a gift – a stuffed animal from Tesco.
It’s a seal with a blue backpack with stars on it. It’s in a place where I can see it every day and I’m like, “How cool”. It’s adorable.’
Laura said Kate and William had instant chemistry and fell for each other months before the 2002 fashion show where Will saw Kate modelling and described her as ‘hot’ :
‘We went to a party at a castle. It was a Harry Potter theme and they did an auction for charity where people were bidding to win a date. Will bid £200 to win a date with Kate.’
This is the Glamis Castle Birthday party from 01 where Catherine was pictured with Olivia Bleasdale
While Ms Warshauer doesn’t know what they eventually did for their date, she remembered Kate’s reaction was effortlessly cool – showing she was unfazed by titles and comfortable around him.
She spoke about Kate extricating William from an uncomfortable encounter:
‘It was early on when Will and Kate were getting to know each other. This girl was talking to Will, and he was being polite, but it was obvious he needed a way out .
‘All of a sudden Kate walks up from across the room, puts her arms around him and enables him to turn to this other girl and be like “I’m sorry, I have a girlfriend”.
‘And then he turned to Kate and silently mouthed the words “Thank you”. I remember thinking at that moment that no one but Kate could have done that.
‘They had just met each other but it was clear they had a connection.’
Speaking about her friendship with The Princess of Wales she said :
‘Kate saw that I was upset one night while we were out. I was walking ahead so people couldn’t see that I was upset and she came up and put her arm around me and said “I hate seeing people I care about upset”. You remember these moments.’
A photograph of Kate and Laura taken in the town’s camera shop in 2001 shows their friendship. A trip taken to find equipment for Laura's CBS audition tape filming:
‘As you know, Kate loves photography, she loved it then. Even in her dorm room I remember the beautiful photos.
‘She and I went to the camera shop together to get everything we needed and then she filmed the audition for me.’
Laura had shared a photo on social media of herself and Kate – taken at a 19th birthday party during their time in St Andrews – in a show of support for the Princess following her treatment for cancer.
This party seems to be Oliver Baker's birthday. He's one of W&C's close friends and one of George's godparents.
Speaking about it she said:
‘The interest is even greater now than it was the first time.’
Reminiscing about the party where the photo was taken, she remembers that she had just been to Paris to visit her sister who was studying there. The outfit she has on in the snap is one she bought during that French adventure.
Even that trip to Paris had started with another cherished moment with WillCat. She said:
‘Kate and I were supposed to ride a taxi to the airport together but then Will gave her a ride so I got in on it. I love how he offered her a ride and that’s how I got to go.
‘It was so cool to arrive in Paris and be like, “So guess who gave me a ride to the airport?”
‘The radio was on and Will was like, “Laura, you can sing with the radio”. It was just like popular music. It was sweet that he made that reference to me as a singer.’
Ever since those first tentative signs of Kate and William's relationship emerged, a global audience has devoured stories about their love a