Before the Fairytale: Kate Middleton and Prince William's Pre-College Missed Connection Revealed

Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales have been a couple since early 2002, but long before they met at the University of St Andrew's in 2001, fate seemed to be destined for the pair.

"Princess Kate is thought to have attended the same gap year program in South America just weeks before Prince William," a publication revealed.

Their Royal Highnesses first met at the Scottish college during the fall of 2001, and according to singer-songwriter Laura Warshauer, there was a connection between the two from day one.

"Whenever Kate was in the room, Will was obviously paying attention to her," the singer told an outlet. "When we'd be sitting at lunch in the dining hall and the two of them would be talking, it was amazing to see how natural it was, how they had so much to say to each other. Looking back, there were all these small moments — certainly moments where I was like, 'Wow, this could really be something.'"

The millennial generation, modern future king and queen got to know one another "for months" before finally starting dating in the first quarter of 2002. The Princess of Wales revealed in her and William's 2010 engagement interview that she was "shy" when she first met the "strikingly good-looking" prince destined to wear St Edward's Crown.

"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," her future Royal Highness spilled.

During the 2000s, William and Kate became popular figures in popular culture that decade — and this is without Kate so much as uttering a word to cameras or reporters. The duo underwent a brief breakup in early 2007 but were back together by the time the future queen attended the "Concert for Diana" event at Wembley Stadium that summer.

The pair married on April 29, 2011, nearly a decade after first meeting, in a lavish, pomp-filled ceremony at London's Westminster Abbey befitting a future king and queen. Despite some mishaps in the early years of their marriage, namely, Kate's topless photo scandal, which RadarOnline reported on in 2012, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge became beloved by many.

"[The couple’s] love story is really epic in its own way," William and Kate: A Royal Love Story author Christopher Andersen shared. "It really signifies the royal family’s leap from the 20th century into the new millennium."

He concluded: "The press went crazy, just as it had when Charles started dating Diana. So many women have fallen victim to palace intrigue, and from the beginning, knives were out for Kate; many high-place aristocrats and their handlers did not want to see the future King of England involved in a serious romance with a middle-class commoner, no matter how intelligent, beautiful or capable she was."

Marie Claire reported on William and Kate's missed encounter.