It's a picture guaranteed to set tongues wagging – Prince William's girlfriend leaving a nightclub in a taxi at 2am alongside a decidedly dashing young man.
What makes the scene even more intriguing is that 26-year-old Willem Marx was, according to friends, Kate Middleton's first love.
And, The Mail on Sunday can reveal, Willem has a pedigree as a swashbuckling – and scandal-tinged – adventurer to make the Prince's military exploits seem tame.
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Old flames? Kate and Willem share a taxi after leaving Boujis in the early hours of Thursday
Strapping with fair hair Willem bares a remarkable resemblance to Kate's royal boyfriend
Three years ago, while working in Baghdad, he was caught up in a furore over the planting of US propaganda in Iraqi newspapers.
He also found himself in possession of an MP5 sub-machine-gun and $3million in cash – and unwisely posed for a picture with both.
On Wednesday Willem and Kate, who were at school together, enjoyed an alcohol-fuelled night out at the Royals' favourite nightclub, Boujis in South Kensington.
Party Girl: Kate MIddleton took Willem to William's favourite club
William was nowhere to be seen as Kate ordered rounds of her favourite Crack Daddies cocktail and danced with Willem and her friends from St Andrews University until the early hours.
Served in a crystal tumbler, the drink comprises a shot of Chambord, a French raspberry liqueur, passion-fruit coulis and a shot of vodka on ice, all topped up with Dom Perignon champagne.
"Kate arrived with Willem and was very much in charge," said one Boujis insider. "She was ordering drinks for everyone. They got through quite a few rounds and they were all joking about the fact that Prince Harry likes Crack Babies, but Kate goes for the bigger version, a Crack Daddy.
"The babies are served in a shot glass but the daddies are much bigger drinks and stronger. Kate was very relaxed and spent much of the night on the dance floor with Willem and her other friends.
"She asked the DJ to spin a few tracks, but unlike William, she is not an R&B fan. She actually quite likes the old stuff and asked for some Rolling Stones.
"Kate was in her element and definitely in the mood to party."
The occasion, The Mail on Sunday has been told, was that Willem – who worked until recently for the American television network ABC and is said to regard himself as a "superior type of reporter" – is due to fly to the Congo on assignment.
Said our source: "Kate wanted Willem to have a great night before he leaves. He doesn't live in London and he doesn't get to go out much, so Kate wanted to show him her favourite club.
"Kate had no protection officer and arrived and left by taxi."
Kate and Willem met at school – Marlborough College in Wiltshire – and friends have speculated that Willem, who bears a strong resemblance to the future King, may well be the boy who famously "broke her heart ever so slightly".
More recently he is said to have romanced Lancome model Elettra Wiedemann, the granddaughter of Hollywood legend Ingrid Bergman.
Despite his Teutonic-sounding name – his father is Dutch – Willem Marx is British, born in West London.
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Despite the late hour of Willem's birthday festivities, Kate emerged looked shiny-haired and dewy-skinned
After Marlborough, he studied at Oxford where his penchant for adventure first manifested itself. During one Easter break, he cycled from Switzerland to Damascus, where he tried out the Arabic he had studied at school.
Two years later, instead of relaxing after his finals, he immediately started work for a controversial Washington-based company, the Lincoln Group.
It had advertised for an intern who would "monitor and interact" with local media in Iraq.
Willem ignored the advice of his father who warned him – correctly as it turned out – that it sounded like a "ridiculous Pentagon operation" and packed his bags.
As Willem explained: "The idea of tasting life in Baghdad, chaotic and dangerous though it was, was irresistible."
So, aged 22, he spent the summer in the Iraqi capital paying local newspapers to run pro-American stories secretly written by the American military.
When it was later publicly revealed that the Lincoln Group had been awarded a Pentagon contract to plant stories in the Iraqi Press it prompted a furore among Republicans and Democrats. Even President Bush said he was "very troubled" by it.
But a subsequent investigation – by the Pentagon – cleared the Lincoln Group of any wrongdoing. Willem wrote about his job: "I was told that the company's job was to place as many friendly stories in the Iraqi media as possible.
"On my first day, I was emailed five stories. 'Mourning the dead' reported and analysed a massacre of Iraqi children, blaming a foreign terrorist – a 'treacherous monster' – for an attack and urging readers not to retaliate violently but through the courts.
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Living dangerously: Willem in Iraq with a sub-machine-gun and $3million in cash
"All the stories blamed terrorists for Iraq's problems and lauded the work of the coalition troops. I had never encountered 'journalism' like this before.
"I chose two out of the five and passed them on to an Iraqi named Majid to translate into a form of Arabic, which neither my American colleagues, military officers nor myself could understand.
"A messenger took the translated copy to the leading Baghdad newspapers. I was told by colleagues that the Lincoln Group's role was to leave no military fingerprints on the stories, but the price charged by Baghdad newspapers rose so steeply in a matter of weeks that they seemed to cotton on quickly as to where the stories, and the money to pay for them, was coming from.
"When I started pushing out stories the cost would be about $500; six weeks later it was $1,500. The Lincoln Group charged the US military about $80,000 a week for this.
"One of our go-betweens, Farouq, was suspected of being on the take. It was my task to interrogate him. I found myself, flanked by two heavies, accusing him of dishonesty with a loaded Glock pistol inches from my right hand. Farouq was furious and scared. I was, too. He was sacked soon after."
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Willem at a party with model Elettra Wiedemann in 2005
When the Lincoln Group decided that it needed more money, the American military advanced a portion of the new contract fee in cash.
"Thus I found myself with two colleagues in a car waiting impatiently for an armed Iraqi escort," wrote Willem.
"I had an MP5 sub-machinegun on my lap and $3million in cash in the back of the armoured BMW.
"I've never felt more like a sitting duck. Other drivers circled the dusty area eyeing us suspiciously.
"It could have been a scene from a Hollywood thriller. But it was too much for me. I decided to leave Baghdad. A few days later I was back in Britain."
Now, after Kate's fond farewell, Willem is on his travels again. But he won't find any Crack Daddies in the Congo.
The spy who loved Kate Middleton: Her first love, the adventuring swashbuckler | the Daily Mail
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