Why Prince William's College Girlfriend Carley Massy-Birch Thinks They Got Along

Prince William's attendance at St. Andrews University was a huge deal in 2000. "Tall, handsome, and regal, William will undoubtedly turn heads when he joins the 5,000 students at St. Andrews," reported ABC News. Undergrads worldwide began trying to decide if they, too, could enroll at Scotland's oldest University — Kate Middleton and her mother, Carole Middleton, being among them.

But the future Queen Consort wasn't the only coed interested in meeting the prince. William actually dated quite a few women while studying for his art history degree. His ex-girlfriends include Olivia Hunt, Arabella Musgrave, and Carley Massy-Birch, to name a few. The latter is believed to be the prince's first girlfriend at St. Andrews after they met during his first semester on campus. Massy-Birch (whose first name is sometimes spelled Carly in media reports) already had a year of university under her belt, heading off to Scotland shortly after she graduated secondary school (high school in the U.S.) while William took a gap year.

Her parents, Hugh and Mimi Massy-Birch, confirmed the relationship to the Daily Mail in 2008. "She went out with William for six or seven weeks when they first arrived at St Andrews," they said. The couple reportedly lived in Axminster, Devon, three hours into the countryside from Buckingham Palace, and own a farm and a camping park. It was this rural upbringing that Massy-Birch believes endeared William to her.

In an interview for Vanity Fair, the Prince of Wales's former girlfriend, Carley Massy-Birch, confessed, "I'm a real country bumpkin, I think that was why we had a connection." There are a few reasons why some believe that William was partial to country girls rather than city socialites. Some of his fondest childhood memories were of the days he spent in the green landscape of Gloucestershire (via Newsweek). When he and Massy-Birch became an item, he would sneak away to her family home for dinner, often having to dodge muddy boots in the hallway, Vanity Fair reported.

One of Massy-Birch's friends admitted to Vanity Fair that "William was very taken with her, which was completely understandable. Unlike the hordes of made-up, pashmina-clad undergraduates who devoted their time to stalking William, Carley was happy to stay in and cook for him." Similarly, Kate Middleton, who also attended St. Andrews, is known for being a country girl, and today, the family loves spending time in her childhood stomping grounds in Berkshire. 

Interestingly, it wouldn't be Middleton who came between Massy-Birch and the heir to the throne. Reportedly, the Devon native gave him an ultimatum when he began taking an interest in another girl: Arabella Musgrave. The two had had a summer fling before his first semester, according to Vanity Fair.

In her book "The Making of a Royal Romance," Katie Nicholl divulged how Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Carley Massy-Birch attended a dinner party with their university friends. Massy-Birch and William were old news, and Kate and William were a couple (though some say they were not yet out at the time). The group decided to play a college classic, Never Have I Ever, when Carly claimed on her turn, "'I've never dated two people in this room,' knowing full well that William was the only one who had because Kate was sitting next to him," a partygoer revealed later, via Express.

The attendee confessed that the heir to the throne "shot a thunderous look" at Massy-Birch and huffed, "I can't believe you just said that." Apparently, the Prince of Wales was not only worried that Kate was offended but also trying to keep their newly budding romance under wraps as it hadn't yet been made official. Fortunately, the drama between the women was relatively kept to a minimum. One source claimed to Express that Massy-Birch would knit by a certain window in her dormitory, as she lived in close proximity to William, and this "grated" on Kate.

The two aren't known to have spoken or interacted much post-dinner party, but had it not been for William, they might have become good friends at St. Andrews thanks to their similar backgrounds.