Finally, Kate Middleton and Prince William’s contemporary royal romance has been revealed on The Crown.

Since its 2016 premiere, the popular Netflix series has recounted decades of the highs and lows faced by the British royal family, from the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign to the dissolution of King Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage. The Crown, currently in its sixth and final season, is exploring the early years of Prince William and Kate’s romance while they were students at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews.

Part 2 of the last season, which premiered on December 14, features Ed McVey and Meg Bellamy reenacting William and Kate’s college years. However, how true to life is The Crown’s portrayal of their fabled romance? The Prince and Princess of Wales did, in fact, meet during their first year of college, but the television show took some artistic license in telling the story.

This is the real tale about how Prince William and Kate Middleton met, from their initial meeting in Scotland to Kate’s memorable catwalk moment that drew Prince William’s attention.

Did Kate Middleton and Prince William truly cross paths when they were teenagers?

The opening scene of “Alma Mater,” the seventh episode of The Crown, has a young Kate and her mother Carole Middleton stumbling into Princess Diana and Prince William while out Christmas shopping. However, that scene is all made up.

Actually, in 2001, Prince William and Kate first crossed paths as first-year students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Kate revealed to William, during their 2010 engagement interview, how they first met. “I suppose you said I genuinely went bright red after I spotted you and almost scurrying off,” remarked Kate. I was quite nervous to meet you.”

However, the future Prince and Princess of Wales may have first met in their high school years in the 1990s, according royal writer and author of Kate: The Future Queen Katie Nicholl. “I was talking to some of her buddies at Marlborough [College], which is were she went before St. Andrews, when they said, ‘Uh-uh, she didn’t meet him at St. Andrews, she met man before she got there, while she was at schooling during her sixth form through some of her friends,'” Nicholl revealed this to Katie Couric on a 2013 Katie show.

The Princess of Wales has denied having images of her future husband on her walls, despite the fact that The Crown also depicts a young Kate putting Prince William posters in her childhood bedroom. “He hopes! No, during her engagement interview, Kate acknowledged that she had the Levi’s man on her wall. I’m sorry, but this isn’t a photo of William.

Before entering St. Andrews, did Prince William and Kate Middleton take a year off?

Yes, William and Kate had a year off following their 2000 degrees from Eton College and Marlborough, respectively, before enrolling at St. Andrews in the fall of 2001.

Prince William educated with the Welsh Guard in Belize, working for Raleigh International on construction projects in Chile, and gained knowledge of the protection of African wildlife and game during this period. Kate studied at the British Institute in Florence, rowed crews with Round the World Challenge around the Solent strait, and performed charitable work in Chile with the same organization (albeit they were in the nation at separate periods).

William and Kate, who are portrayed in The Crown, became close since they both took a gap year while attending St. Andrews. The show also implies that Kate had no intention of attending St. Andrews or taking a gap year. The Crown claims that Kate had originally intended to enroll in the University of Edinburgh, which is located in Scotland, as soon as she graduated from Malborough, but she abruptly changed her mind at her mother’s persuasion.

Although the Princess of Wales has never discussed her intention to attend St. Andrews, Jasper Selwyn, a career consultant at Marlborough, told the Daily Mail in 2013 that Kate was admitted to Edinburgh, “and that was confirmed.”

Before they were married, did Prince William and Kate Middleton time other people?

Kate and Prince William dated other individuals before their friendship grew amorous, despite the fact that they were “very close friends” during their first year at St. Andrews.

Nicholl claims that during his first semester, Prince William had a brief romantic engagement with another student named Carley Massey-Birch. In her 2011 book The Making of a Royal Romance, Nicholl writes, “Carley was also a country girl, which appealed to William — he had been brought up in the Gloucestershire countryside.” The Netflix drama had a romance between Prince William and a girl named Lola Airdale-Cavendish-Kincaid, but it did not involve Massey-Birch.

Rupert Finch, a fourth-year student at St. Andrews, was also dated by Kate. Oli Green plays Finch in the movie The Crown.

After Kate Middleton wore a transparent outfit during a fashion event, did their friendship become romantic?

While attending St. Andrews, Kate, at 20 years old, did indeed walk the runway in a revealing black dress, and Prince William did indeed sit in the front row!

That was in 2002, at St Andrews during a fashion presentation called “The Art of Seduction.” Although Kate had several looks on the runway, the prince is said to have been drawn to the lingerie-style outfit, which was created by fellow student Charlotte Todd and was initially meant to be a skirt.

“Everybody says that the fashion show was where the romance got started, so a small part of me continues to be a part of royal history,” Todd said to PEOPLE in 2020. “It’s madness!”

In 2011, the slip, which only cost $50 to produce, brought $125,000 at auction.

In the last season of The Crown, Bellamy imitated Kate’s iconic catwalk sequence, where she walked the catwalk in an almost exact replica of Kate’s sheer numbering.