Prince William Apparently Used a Fake Name to Go Under the Radar So He Wouldn’t Be Recognized

When Prince William was a student at the University of St Andrews, like any student he simply wanted to have a normal experience – or as normal an experience as possible for the future king. The mirror remembers William using a fake name to stay under the radar — and his alias is as common as it gets: Steve.

Although he officially enrolled at college under the name William Wales, “it is suspected that his classmates used the nickname so that he would not attract unwanted attention”. The mirror reports. “There’s also a good chance his now-wife Kate called him that, as they were close friends at university and lived in the same student accommodation.”

As is old by this point, William met Kate Middleton when he was a freshman at university, developed a close friendship (even becoming a roommate at one point) and eventually began dating. Using the nickname “Steve” allowed friends to talk about William without the media picking up on the fact what they were talking about The William – now the Prince of Wales.

And Steve isn’t the only nickname William has had throughout his life. His mother, the late Princess Diana, used to call him “Wombat,” he revealed in a 2007 NBC interview. The name stuck, as he said at the time: “I can’t get rid of it now.”

“It started when I was two,” he said The Daily Express. “I was rightly told because I don’t remember that far, but when we went to Australia with our parents and the wombat is, you know, the native animal, I was basically called that – not because I looks like it like a wombat. Or maybe I do.”