Does Anyone Else Remember When Prince William Almost Dated Britney Spears?

Rae Batchelor
A still of Britney Spears from the Oops I Did It again music video.
youtube | BritneySpearsVEVO

What if Britney Spears had been the Queen of England? Well, the Queen-Consort, anyway.

With the Royal Family being in the news this week after the tragic passing of Queen Elizabeth II, there has been a lot of reminiscing about the Royal Family over the years. In all this reminiscing, it's been pointed out that long before the Free Britney movement and long before Kate Middleton won our hearts as Prince William's bride, there was almost an unlikely coupling involving the princess of pop and the Prince Of Wales.

Let's travel back in time to the year 2002.

 Prince William Smiling After Watching The Parade To Mark The Queen's Golden Jubilee From The Queen Victoria Memorial .
Getty Images | Tim Graham Photo Library

Britney was at the absolute top of her game, with hits like Baby One More Time and Oops! I Did It Again dominating the radio. She hadn't started dating Justin Timberlake yet, and was a pretty hot commodity on the market for obvious reasons.

Prince William was also single, and pretty much the most eligible bachelor in the world, with his blonde hair and boyish good looks. They both were around 20 or 21 years old, and it turns out there might have been a little bit of an online romance between them.

In an interview that year, Britney revealed the two were online pen pals and almost met up for a date.

Britney Spears In The One More Time music video.
Giphy | Britney Spears

"We exchanged e-mails for a little bit and he was supposed to come and see me somewhere but it didn't work out," she told talk show host Frank Skinner about the prince.

"You were blown off by Prince William?" he asked her, to which she replied casually, "Yeah."

This story was corroborated by a royal biographer.

Prince William and Prince Harry glancing around.
Giphy | BBC

“[William and Spears] tried to get together back when they were young, and he also had a kind of similar cyber relationship with Lauren Bush, the model and the niece of President [George W.] Bush," Christopher Andersen revealed to Us Weekly.

“There may have been phone conversations, but I don’t recall that they ever actually managed to get together during that period,” he added.

So there you have it. Maybe Britney Spears would've been in line to become the Queen-Consort if things had worked out a little bit differently twenty years ago!

I don't know about you, but I think they're both probably pretty glad that things worked out the way they did instead!

h/t: Daily Mail