According to documentary Kate Middleton: Working Class to Windsor, Prince Charles was shocked at the thought of his son abandoning university life but was sympathetic enough to devise a “withdrawal strategy”.
Royal aides were not so sympathetic, though, with one noting: “It would have been a personal disaster for William – he would have been seen as a quitter.”
Speaking on the show, former Sunday Express political editor Camilla Tominey said: “They were friends at St Andrews before they went on to start going out with each other.
“Kate, at the time, counselled William with changing his course – she encouraged him not to leave and go back down to London but to stick with it and do something a little bit different.”
In the documentary, it's revealed that after speaking to Kate, William swapped Art History for Geography and later earned a second class honours degree.
William and Kate were engaged by October 2010 and they married in Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011.
The couple now have three children together – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.