Kate Middleton plotted to study alongside Prince William by dropping a year to land at St Andrews University after his choice for the academic institution was made public, a new book has claimed.
Kate Middleton, 31, rejected her first choice of university and took a gap year so she would be an undergraduate at the same time as her future husband, according to the book 'But Kate: The Future Queen' by newspaper journalist Katie Nichol.
Previously it had been claimed Kate was told to apply for a place at St Andrews University by her "pushy" mother Carole Middleton.
The book claims that Kate snubbed an offer to study at Edinburgh University and plumped for St Andrews after the Prince's choice was made public, the Daily Mirror reported.
She gambled on getting a place at St Andrew's by taking a gap year at the same time as the Prince in the hope they would arrive at the same time, the book claims.
Jasper Selwyn, a careers adviser at Kate's former school, Marlborough College, and Joan Gall her house tutor, confirmed to Nichol that her first choice of university had been Edinburgh.
They said that despite achieving the required grades for Edinburgh she turned it down and decided to take a gap year, just as William was doing, and reapply for St Andrews.
William and Kate's romance flourished shortly after they both arrived at St Andrews in 2001 to study art history.
The book also reveals how Kate's "jittery" mother later confronted William over his intentions towards her daughter.
It said she was worried about the absence of a ring on Kate's finger and cornered the Prince when he visited her family just before Christmas 2009.
The couple had briefly split in 2007 before getting back together.
A family friend quoted in the book told how William reassured Carole that there would be an engagement and marriage.
The couple were engaged the following November and married on April 29, 2011.
Since their first child George was born on July 22, Carole has become the most famous grandmother in Britain.
She and her husband, Michael, were the first family members to visit the new baby after his birth, ahead of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Another of the Middletons' friends, former neighbour George Brown, is quoted in the book as saying: "It was a condition when Kate and William got married that Carole and Michael would be a part of the grandchildren's lives".
