Prince William and Princess Kate's iconic runway moment gets surprise twist

Princess Kate’s iconic runway moment may not have been the real start of her relationship with Prince William after all.

Royal author Sean Smith claims in his new book, Sophie: Saving the Royal Family via Daily Mail that Prince William and Kate Middleton — now the Prince and Princess of Wales — were already secretly dating long before her sheer dress made headlines at a 2002 charity fashion show.

Kate, then a student at St Andrews, turned heads at the DONT WALK charity gala when she walked the runway in a transparent dress by Charlotte Todd. William, who was also attending the same university, reportedly slipped into the crowd with a £200 ticket he had quietly paid for through a friend. Many have since described the moment as the night he fell for her.

But Smith says their relationship had already been bubbling away.

“They started dating in the Christmas holidays and were already a discreet item by the time William publicly commented on how fit she was at the now-famous charity fashion show,” he wrote.

The couple, who tied the knot in 2011, first bonded over rugby chats in their shared History of Art course. They officially met in 2001 while living in St Salvator’s halls of residence.

Though reports have often suggested they were seeing other people at the time, Smith’s account paints a different picture.