Our story is one that still brings smiles. Harry is the eldest son of Lord Bingham. I am the daughter of a book keeper from a poor and ordinary part of north London.

BUT WE WERE BORN IN THE SAME HOUR, on the same day, in the same hospital and are virtual twins (with consecutive birth certificates). But we never met, of course.

Because, even in the 1980s, Oxford sought to be a fair and egalitarian seat of excellence, it enabled me to come up to study PPP at Christ Church in 1985.

Harry was at Balliol reading PPE at the same time. I knew every one of the Balliol PPE ists of his year (I had as many friends there as at Christ Church) but did not meet Harry for some mysterious reason. The stars had not yet aligned, I guess.

At age 21, Harry was in New York on a training programme. My dear friend Dr Fiona Hollands (1985, Biology) invited me to stay.  And she finally introduced  the "nearly twins."

But nothing more occurred. "We were in each other's orbit, but lightning took a little longer to strike. That had to wait for 23 June 1990 and that first date and my adorable, brilliant, daring husband who was nearly terminally shy with girls until that night(!) - held me tight on the carousel and dared to cross the Rubicon to the next 35 years.

So it is a story of a "Prince and the Pauperess".  And of twinship and stars finally aligned.

Thanks to Christ Church in so many ways. First, for giving a wayward waif (I attended a school where no one ever went to universities like Oxford but still they helped me) a chance and, second, for creating a magical midsummer's eve.

The final beauty of it? Harry's mother and sister (Dame Kate Bingham, 1983, Biochemistry) always referred to me and Harry as "the twins": one present at Christmas and birthdays to "the twins".

At our wedding, Lady Bingham (Harry's mother) joked that as we were twins we must be destined to make "quads".

Well ... nearly, but not quite. We did have four children, and they were two sets of twins a year apart. So darn near quads. 

It's not a story I often tell. But the 500th Anniversary Ball has made it all vivid again.