The story behind the romance as Prince WIlliam and Kate Middleton get engaged

(16 Nov 2010) PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON ENGAGED
Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton are engaged and will marry in London next year, royal officials said Tuesday (16 Nov 2010).
It's believed the pair will marry next spring or summer in London in a royal wedding that Britons have been eagerly awaiting for years.
The announcement by royal officials ends an on-again, off-again romance that began after the two met more than eight years ago as students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Scotland's most ancient university, St Andrews, was buzzing on the first day of term in September 2001, with people lining the streets for a glimpse of the new student in town.
In the event they needn't have worried.
Prince William, accompanied by his father, plunged straight into the crowd, provoking cries and screams from hundreds of teenage admirers.
It was good that they took their chance when they did, because this was to be William's only public walkabout during his entire three years as a student.
With the agreement of the media and the support of local people, William was allowed to lead a relatively normal life in St Andrews, going to the shops and hanging out with his friends.
One friend in particular.
Kate Middleton started university at the same time as Prince William, and the two became close friends.
Royal author Katie Nicholl recounts how the relationship started.
"Kate would go running in the morning and then turn up in the canteen, and make sure William had caught her eye. By the end of the first term they were breakfasting together. By the end of the first year, they had something of a very close friendship. And by their second year they'd moved in together."
They started as flatmates, William presumably keen to impress Kate with cooking skills he'd picked up at Eton.
Then it turned into romance, the couple leading an idyllic existence far from the prying lenses of the media.
"They would tuck themselves away with curries from the corner shop and watch DVDs together," says Nicholl. "And for the best part of a year, their relationship was known only to their closest friends."
And once the secret was out, they were still safe in St Andrews, protected by the pact between royal officials and the media that left them free from press intrusion.
They may look back on their graduation, 23 June 2005, as their last day of freedom, because once that day was over, and their university life was past, the deal was over - and the media were keen to get back into the game.
For well over a year the couple managed to evade the worst attentions of the press, but it all boiled over at the beginning of 2007 when scores of photographers gathered outside Kate's flat in London to mark her 25th birthday.
She was surrounded as she walked stone-faced down the street towards her car.
William was furious.
Given the role of the papararazzi in the events that led to his mother's death, he was determined to protect Kate from the most extreme pressures that go with being a royal girlfriend.
The couple kept a low profile, and royal lawyers came down hard on photographers who got too close.
At one point the couple were said to have split up, but by the time William was awarded his wings as a military pilot in the air force, Kate was back in the picture.
The perils of living life in the public eye had already become clear to Kate before their reported break-up.
Her family had been invited to watch his passing-out parade from Sandhurst, the elite college for army officers.
There was speculation this meant that the family had been 'accepted' by the Queen and that Kate herself had been deemed suitable to marry into the Royal Family.
Then came a setback.
The venue for the wedding was not announced on Tuesday.
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