Prince William Used an Extremely Common Fake Name to Hide His Identity in College

Prince William sits on a stone bench in St Salvator's Quad at St Andrews University where he is a student. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

A new book is revealing the extremely common name Prince William used while in college to avoid the media.

In the new book Catherine, The Princess of Wales, author Robert Jobson writes that the Prince of Wales used the pseudonym "Steve" to, as the Daily Mail reports, "avoid the attention of the media and experience som normality during his studies."

According to Jobson, the "media" reportedly "struck a deal" with senior members of the royal family in order to give Prince William "privacy for the duration" of his time at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

Prince William did, however, "consent to some photos and interaction," including photos taken on his first day at school in September 2001.

"Among friends, he decided to use the pseudonym 'Steve' in a bizarre attempt to stay under the radar," Jobson writes, adding that the Prince of Wales did officially register for school under the name "William Wales."

Jobson went on to write that Prince William avoided people while at school who "just wanted to know him because of his background."

"People who try to take advantage of me and get a piece of me, I spot it quickly and soon go off them," Jobson claims William said at one point. "I'm not stupid."

According to the author, "Steve" was not the only fake name the Prince of Wales used while in school to hide his identity and avoid the intense media scrutiny that has historically befallen the monarchy.

"For weekends and holidays, he'd often whisk Catherine off to Highgrove or Sandringham or to a cottage on the Balmoral Estate," Jobson wrote. "Occasionally they checked into hotels, using the names Mr. and Mrs. Smith—which doubtless fooled no one."

Prince William talks to Dr Charles Warren (unseen) in his office in the Geography department of St Andrews University.

As the Daily Mail reports, the Prince and Princess of Wales also used the fake names Martin and Rosemary Middleton when checking into hotels after they rekindled their romance in the wake of their brief split.

And in 2011, after the pair married, their royal aids and security teams reportedly used the names "Danny Collins" and "Daphne Clark" to refer to the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the initials "DC" used as a reference to their new royal titles.

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Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.