When Prince William first met his future wife Kate Middleton at St Andrews University in Scotland, he was known as a somewhat shy and distant character, a far cry from the charismatic, prominent royal we know today.

After tragically losing his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, at the age of 15, the prince had to deal with an impossible amount of trauma at such a young age.

But after meeting Kate, a royal expert said he came out of his shell and became the charismatic and devoted husband and father we know so well today.

Duncan Larcombe, royal biographer and former newspaper editor, explained that he fell in love with one specific thing about Kate, and it wasn’t what you might expect.

“It’s easy to underestimate the role the Middletons played in William’s life,” he told OK!. “Yes, he fell in love with Kate at university, but honestly, he also fell in love with the Middleton family.”

He added: “They were the family he never had – the mother, father and three children spending time together and going on family holidays. It was a new world he had never experienced before.”

It was William’s willingness and strong desire to curry favor with the Middletons that first caught Kate’s attention. It showed that he wanted to accept both the woman he loved and her family, who were very dear to her.

This helped strengthen their bond, as William and Kate brought out the best in each other.

Duncan added: “William was really, really positive about Kate and they brought out the best in each other in a lot of ways. William is quite shy and can be reserved with new people. He’s very cautious and they’re very similar in that way. Their relationship blossomed over spaghetti Bolognese and on rainy beaches.”

This taste of normality also appealed to Prince William, as it was a stark contrast to his own upbringing, where he shared the spotlight with King Charles and Princess Diana.

Reflecting on the way the Middletons provided the prince with a stable form of normality, royal expert Hugo Vickers told OK!: “We’ve always been told that Prince William found the Middleton household very convenient, in the sense that he found it had a kind of normality that his own upbringing didn’t really have.”

The couple wants to continue their tradition of staying out of the spotlight for the sake of their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. In their private lives, the couple has also adopted a similar approach to shield them from the public eye.

As in Anglesey, the Welsh try to maintain an ‘informal’ household with as few staff as possible and more focus on things they do as a family.