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Deleted Deleted Member Posts: 0	Royal Gossip 2011 Archive: Middleton Family Past Articles On Aug 8, 2023 19:24:41 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2023 19:24:41 GMT Royal Gossip The British Royal Family Windsor => The Middletons => Topic started by: Penelope on April 23, 2011, 05:16:05 pm

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Royal Gossip 2011 Archive: Middleton Family Past Articles On Aug 8, 2023 19:25:04 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2023 19:25:04 GMT

Title: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: Penelope on April 23, 2011, 05:16:05 pm
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The Times have their 32-page leaflet guide to the wedding with the Saturday paper inserts today.

A column is dedicated to the butcher, Martin Fidler, who we know is happy to talk to the press whenever asked re Midds.
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Fidler, right, who has run Bladebone Butchers in nearby Chapel Ash for 30 years, has watched Kate and her siblings grow up - and their parents build their business.
"We've known Kate's MOTHER for years, since before she married." Fidler says

I'm quite interested in why the gabby butcher, invited to the wedding, has known Carole for so long before she even moved to Berkshire?

Does anyone else get vibes of 'Hilary Briss the butcher' about this bloke?

Didn't someone have a nosebleed recently? Or are the British media laying in- jokes wherever they can this week? I think they are, and a lot of people are
going to be F***ed when we loon back at the clues laid.

leagueofgentlemen.wikia.com/wiki/Hillary_briss

What do you lot think?

8)

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Title: Re: Where Does The Butcher Fit In?
Post by: Yooper on April 23, 2011, 06:13:48 pm
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WTH? Too bizarre for me today.

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Title: Re: Where Does The Butcher Fit In?
Post by: Alexandrine on April 23, 2011, 06:18:23 pm
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So interesting Penelope. I love how you link things that appear so unconnected at first.

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Title: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: Varya on June 17, 2011, 04:41:17 am
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Here is my collection of Middleton articles from the time they were dating... there are a lot, so I am only using this thread to post the articles and I'm going to ask that people do not discuss the articles here, I will start another thread for article discussions were you all can feel free to quote the articles if you wish and discuss them there. Thanks! :BFF:

Also I will leave this open, not locked, so others can post their articles as well, please do! :thumbsup:

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Title: Re: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: Varya on June 17, 2011, 05:07:46 am
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Ok here is the first one, I'm going in chronological order for the articles that I have the date for.
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The It girls in search of a prince
Both single, both immaculately turned out and impeccably mannered – the Middleton sisters, Kate and Pippa, have what it takes to woo high society.
Daily Express Weekend
June 03, 2007
CAMILLA TOMINEY sees the charms of a formidable double act

THE speculation about Kate Middleton’s mystery men shows just how far the air stewardess’s daughter has come since breaking up with Prince William. While the second in line to the throne has barely appeared in the papers since the split, his 25-year- old former flame has commanded more space than ever.

OUT AND ABOUT: Kate, left, and Pippa Middleton are said to be impressive networkers

Her exit from Mayfair’s Mahiki nightclub on Wednesday set a new precedent in the flashbulb stakes. Entering on the arm of mystery man No1, and leaving in a taxi with mystery man No2, Kate once again secured pride of place on the front pages. Her pink gingham-shirted companion has since been identified as Charlie Morshead, a 25-year- old Amplefortheducated estate agent. He denies being her new boyfriend, insisting he is one of William’s mates and he and Kate are “just good friends”.

But it goes to show that the sassy brunette still has that special something that sells newspapers.

And now there is a new Middleton on the block. Kate’s younger sister Pippa was also there on Wednesday night and, according to friends, caught the eye of another of William’s confidants.

The millionaire entrepreneur Jamie Murray Wells, who bizarrely was at one point spotted holding Kate’s hand, has apparently taken a shine to her equally striking sibling. So what is it about the Middleton sisters and just how are they managing to outclass the Wales brothers in high-society circles?

Kate and Pippa, 22, were recently described as “the Wisteria Sisters” – highly decorative, terribly fragrant and with a ferocious ability to climb. The nickname, while probably thought up by journalists, is undeniably apt.

For the Middleton sisters might also be likened to a latter-day version of the Bennet girls from Pride And Prejudice. Much has been said of their mother Carole’s determination to marry her daughters off to the highest bidders, as Mrs Bennet did in Jane Austen’s novel. But Kate and Pippa deserve a great deal of credit too.

Since Kate split with William, the Middletons have formed a formidable double act. It helps that Kate has remained close to members of William’s circle, particularly his “court jester” friend Guy Pelly, who gets them entry into all the trendiest nightclubs.

Since finishing her English degree at Edinburgh University last month, Pippa has moved into Kate’s £800,000 Chelsea flat. Their plan for the summer? Networking, of course. The pair rubbed shoulders with the likes of Tara Palmer-Tomkinson at Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book launch recently but that was just the start.

According to one insider, the Middleton sisters are here to stay. The source, who witnessed Pippa “in action” on a shoot recently, revealed: “She was working the room like I’ve never seen anyone do before. Do not underestimate these girls. I don’t know Kate as well, but Pippa absolutely knows what she wants and she’s out to get it. She makes no bones about being a highly ambitious social climber. She is out to marry as well as she can.”
the Prince of Wales Cup in a couple of weeks, not to mention Ladies’ Day at Ascot. They have also been invited to Richard Branson’s pre-Wimbledon party.

Expect to see them immaculately turned out in the latest designer fashions, smiling for the cameras. Both have had practice, taking the starring roles in their university fashion shows.

Moreover, both have learned the secret to getting into the press without compromising their connections. Their sophisticated model looks are perfect not only for the tabloids but glossy magazines from OK! to Tatler. Both are slim without being scrawny and beautifully groomed, thanks to celebrity hairdresser Richard Ward.

Newly single Kate has cut a sassier figure of late, showing off a little more leg than usual, but she never crosses the line into inappropriateness. In turn she has passed on her wisdom to Pippa, who, although considered the chattier of the two, knows the importance of keeping schtum when it counts.

The sisters were both educated at posh Marlborough College and have impeccable manners. Kate, who prefers to be called by her full name, Catherine, even managed to maintain a dignified sense of togetherness when she was hounded on her mobile after news of her break-up with William.

I know this because I called her myself that morning. I couldn’t believe how polite Kate was, thanking me for my interest but explaining that as she’s never spoken to the media in the past, she’s not going to start now, thank you. She was so nice that by the end of the call I regretted invading her privacy and felt myself telling her, woman to woman, to “take care”.

Pippa is equally polished, which may be a reflection of their mother’s influence. A former air stewardess who married well herself, Carole Middleton was trained in the art of obsequiousness. The result is that her daughters are certainly “fragrant” but arguably not particularly exciting, which has been cited as one of the reasons why William dumped Kate.

A well-placed royal source said: “Kate and Pippa are charming girls – beautiful looking and with immaculate manners – but that also makes them quite dull. Pippa’s got more spark than Kate but they are very… safe.”

It is worth noting that, despite being pilloried for being too common and too pushy, Carole has also maintained a dignified silence. (It’s been suggested that William’s stuck-up friends used to giggle “doors to manual” in reference to her trolley-dolly past.)

It appears it simply isn’t the Middletons’ style to spill the beans. But if the sisters continue to climb the social ladder then celebrity, with all its trappings, will beckon. Kate is already believed to have turned down multimillion-pound deals to star in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and cookery show Hell’s Kitchen.

What remains to be seen is whether either will be content with marrying millionaires when they may well receive even more lucrative offers.

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Title: Re: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: Varya on June 17, 2011, 05:11:09 am
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The Sizzle Sisters: Kate and Pippa are one of the hottest double-acts in town
By VICTORIA MOORE and REBECCA ENGLISH - More by this author »
Last updated at 09:36am on 10th June 2007
Comments (6)
She's the cover girl of this week's Hello! magazine, which describes her as the "hottest girl of the summer". Professional party organisers say she is a more sought-after guest even than Kylie or Kate Moss.

And, in the past few weeks, her saucy smile and long bronzed legs - usually displayed in eye-catching duplicate as she glows beside her younger sister, Pippa - have been as ubiquitous as the paparazzi who follow her every move.
Yes, if Kate Middleton's aim is to take revenge on her former boyfriend for dumping her, things could hardly be going more according to plan.
With considerable panache, and the all-too-willing complicity of the photographers, she is following the tried-and-tested route of showing him exactly what he's missing.

So Kate might like to know how Prince William reacts in private to pictures of her looking so gorgeous and happy without him. The good news - for her - is that they are "driving him up the wall", according to one friend.
"He keeps saying he just wishes you lot would stop writing about her."
The bad news is that he is neither heartbroken nor tormented by romantic jealousy.

"He is horribly annoyed about all the attention she's getting," says another. "He groans when he sees anything in the paper about her."

But that's not because he's pining. Far from it. It's because William himself hates being photographed and doesn't understand why anyone else would want to be.
He has always been wary of people milking their connection with him to promote themselves, and now he can't believe how much Kate is revelling in the limelight.

Of course, William himself is not notably averse to the adulation of all the social climbers who cluster closely round him, so there is an element of hypocrisy in this.

Nonetheless, says his friend, Kate's accession to celebrity status has made William even more careful about anyone he might consider becoming close to.

"He really doesn't like having any woman around him who enjoys the whole circus. But, then again, he doesn't like it when they complain - it's a Catch 22 situation."
William's response to the break-up has been to party harder than ever (this week, before England's televised game against Estonia, he spent £850 on four trolley-loads of Pimm's and lager) and to feast his eyes on the never-ending parade of pretty girls who view him as the ultimate catch.

Indeed, we understand he has had at least two flings since parting from Kate.

On Kate, the split has had an unexpected effect. It should have made her an instant has-been, consigned to the great war chest of women remembered only as an appendage to someone else.

Instead, it has transformed her into a celebrity in her own right - and swung the spotlight onto the entire Middleton clan.
In younger sister Pippa, 25-year-old Kate has found a red-carpet partner far more willing, photogenic and, frankly, complementary than William ever was.

A racier, more knowing and far less restrained version of Kate, with the same sheets of glossy brown hair, Pippa, 22, has also recently split from a boyfriend - Old Etonian J.J. Jardine Patterson, wealthy heir of the Hong Kong banking family.

She has also just finished her final year reading English at Edinburgh University, leaving her free to embark on a vigorous social attack on the capital, alongside her better-known sister.

Together, the girls are proving the old PR maxim that a double-act has far more explosive impact. Tatler, the society style bible, has already dubbed the pair The Sizzler Sisters, warning that they are a pair of "very determined" (i.e. "socially ambitious") young women, and adding: "Who can imagine what they'll move on to next?"

Among the smart set - to which even Kate's Marlborough education would not have given her access without the cachet of dating a prince - there is already catty talk about these two girls having ideas of marrying above their station.

"Several mothers I know are warning each other about the Middleton girls," says one source from the aristocratic country set. "This might sound amusing to outsiders, but the aristos still can, and do, close ranks when required.'"

To which the correct retort must be that no girl in her right mind, and certainly no one with as much going for them as the Middleton girls, would choose to spend the rest of her life in such snobbish company.

However, the sisters do seem to be spreading their wings and flying beyond the usual landed-toff territory. It's understandable that Kate should want to stake her claim on the clubs - such as Boujis and Mahiki - which she frequented regularly when she was William's girlfriend.

But what on earth was she thinking of when she joined busty D-list celebs at last Thursday's launch for the DVD of Rabbit Fever - about women addicted to Sex And The City-style sex toys?

Most of the female guests wore Playboy-style bunny ears, and Kate enthusiastically took to the dance floor. This, more than any of her outings since the split, seemed to be sending the message to William: I can go anywhere, do anything - and there's nothing you can do about it.

However, Kate has also been mixing with the intellectual set.

Last month, she turned up at the party for Simon Sebag Montefiore's new book on Stalin, where journalists and publishing staff mingled with historians and the odd celebrity. And Pippa's announcement that this was "our first book launch" suggested there would be more to come.

As always, both girls were groomed to perfection and dressed to impress; Pippa, the shorter of the two, in a bright satin print dress and black bolero cardigan; Kate in a flesh-coloured lace sheath.

Indeed, over the past few months, there has been a marked change in Kate's dress sense: she is quite the glamour-puss now, often sporting sexy Sixties prints and low-cut tops.

Some say it's Pippa - a smart operator with a good game of tennis and vivacious line in dinner-party chat - who has helped ease her out of her Patron Saint of Waitrose look.
But others point out that what's emerging is the "real" Kate, no longer subdued by the royal requirement to appear demure. This is, after all, the girl we first met, pre-William, when she sashayed confidently down a university catwalk in nothing more than underwear and a transparent frock.
We have almost certainly seen the last of the prim and tweedy Kate Middleton who, as a potential Queen-in-waiting, so feared putting a foot wrong.

Back then, when it was reported that she had indulged in a pampering session at a beautician's, she was sufficiently alarmed to ask a senior royal aide to phone a journalist with the message: "I have been asked to convey to you that she has never had a manicure in her life."
There were echoes of Diana, Princess of Wales in the tension between her anxiety to please her royal lover and her evident adoration of the limelight.

But, apparently, far from emulating the late Princess of Wales, Kate always used to say that she would have preferred to be like the Queen Mother - someone who was spoilt but loved, and whose voice was never heard.

All these fine intentions are behind her now, of course. Her critics believe that she is actively courting publicity - for example, by going ahead with a visit to Mahiki, a royal watering hole, last week even though her "private" night out had been trailed in a newspaper three days earlier.

At the door of the club, she brazenly - or bravely, depending on your viewpoint - offered a cheery smile to the waiting photographers.

Inside, she was later seen dancing cheekily close to one of William's friends, Glasses Direct founder Jamie Murray Wells (though those in the know say he has his eye on Pippa). Possibly, she genuinely hadn't realised that the place would be heaving with not-very-undercover reporters from the red-tops.

She had arrived with another of William's friends, suave 25-year-old Henry Ropner, who used to date Kenyan-born Jessica Craig, also an ex of the Pince, and whose family owns a multi-million-pound shipping management firm.

And she left with yet another - Charles Moreshead, dressed in the pink check shirt and brown suede slip-on shoes that are the uniform of William's set.

Despite reports in the past week that have linked her with both men, Kate is not actually seeing anyone at the moment. Nor, if William's dismissive behaviour is to be believed, is there any truth in the rumour circulating that there is any hope of a reconciliation.

"Even though he's still very fond of Kate, William is getting a fair bit of ribbing about her stalking him," says one of his circle. "One of the reasons he's asked his friends to keep an eye on her is so that he can avoid her."
Which all seems rather cruel. After all, what is Kate supposed to do? As William's partner, she had to accept constraints that limited whom she spoke to and where she worked.

Now that he's gone, her options are sparse. She still has her part-time position as a fashion buyer for Jigsaw - but this was generally viewed as a sinecure to keep her occupied after William complained that she was spending too much time shopping on the King's Road in Chelsea.

Her friends of the past few years are mostly William's, so she also needs to reinvent her social life. Considering the strain of the past few weeks - during which she has noticeably lost weight - it's only natural that she should turn to Pippa for support and enjoy a bit of fun on the town.

And they are not the only Middletons who have lowered the drawbridge now that they can no longer be accused of cashing in on a royal relationship.

Their mother, Carole, has recently added a smiling, yummy-mummy-style picture of herself, plus autograph, to the redesigned home page of her Party Pieces website - an online business that sells fun hats and balloons for children.
In the next few years, yet another member of the family is poised to burst on to the social scene - the Sizzler Sisters' younger brother Jim, who followed Pippa to Edinburgh University. One who knows the family well says he is "a lovely boy, a real sweetie, and the only one in the family not obsessed with moving up the class ladder".
So popular that he has 352 friends signed up to his Facebook account (a social networking website), Jim has been tipped as the sisters' prize asset - the sweet, younger brother who will be "an essential prop and sounding board" as he matures.

For the foreseeable future, the famille Middleton are not likely to slip back into the anonymity of ordinary middle-class life. As one society figure puts it: "There's washing a man out of your hair - and doing it Kate Middleton-style. You know, William or no William, I just don't think this girl's going to go away."

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Royal Gossip 2011 Archive: Middleton Family Past Articles On Aug 8, 2023 19:25:33 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2023 19:25:33 GMT

Title: Re: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: mousiekins on June 19, 2011, 01:00:04 pm
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Girl, interrupted The Observer, Sunday 18 March 2007

When Kate Middleton met fellow student William Wales, her life changed in an instant. Oliver Marre talks to friends and insiders about her journey from a Berkshire village to Buckingham Palace
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Despite the hundreds of thousands of words written about her in the press, hours of airtime on TV and radio, and 1.5m results on Google, Kate Middleton remains something of an enigma. Some people have fallen in love with her; others wonder what the fuss is about; anyone with even a passing interest in current affairs would find it hard not to recognise her face, so widely is it featured. She has become a one-name brand - in conversation and in print, people are referring to the 25-year-old simply as 'Kate', in the style of Madonna, Elvis and Marilyn, encroaching on territory belonging once to Kate Moss. She is being credited with kicking off a 'Sloane revival', with creating instant bestsellers of the clothes she wears, and, of course, with having captured the heart of a future king.

So how did a girl from Berkshire wind up at the centre of this high-voltage furore, and how will she cope? What is life like for Kate Middleton, celebrity and fashion icon? And is Prince William's girlfriend really going to be the royals' saviour, as some have breathlessly suggested?

This month, the Middleton roadshow reached Parliament. MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport select committee were conducting an inquiry into the self-regulation of the press - and how best to protect Kate from aggressive photographers. Post-Diana, newspapers and politicians are keen to be seen protecting the young royals - and putative royals - from the extremes of journalism. To that end, Rupert Murdoch has banned paparazzi shots of Middleton, instead publishing only photographs of her taken by reputable snappers who abide by a code of conduct.

But it wasn't the details of press regulation that made the front pages. It was the words of royal photographer Arthur Edwards, who told MPs he'd spoken to William and, 'He's made it clear he wants to get married.' Within 24 hours, bookmaker William Hill - a company driven by financial realities rather than romantic sentiment - stopped taking bets on a royal engagement. (Although officially, the line remains that no such announcement is imminent.)

The young men and women who surround the Prince and Kate were largely unwilling to be named by The Observer, but several were prepared to speak anonymously about the couple. 'William and Kate have talked about the future and intend to spend it with one another,' says one. 'William is in no hurry to propose, and while Kate would obviously like a ring, she's prepared to wait. They're in love.'

The prince and his girl were first pictured together in April 2004, on the slopes of Klosters. Since then she has evolved from a figure of fleeting, flirtatious interest ('Dinners at Highgrove, trysts at Balmor@l'... 'Finally, Wills gets a girl!') to a fully-fledged obsession ('Kate Can Save The House Of Windsor!'). Right now, her fame is reaching tipping point. She can no longer leave a nightclub without a police escort charged with protecting her from the paparazzi, who list her high among their most desirable subjects. 'She's of huge public interest,' says Alan Williams, who runs the Big Picture Agency. 'She's young, good looking and dating a prince. It must be pretty obvious to everybody that she's an interesting subject for the press.'

The red-top newspapers and celebrity magazines have been in search of a young, glamorous royal since the Princess of Wales was snatched away from them. Sally Cartwright, director-at-large at Hello! magazine, says Kate can add thousands to circulation, and that, 'If she were to become engaged to Prince William we'd expect to see sales rising by more than 100,000 when she is featured.' The author Peter York, meanwhile, says that interest in Kate has prompted him to prepare an updated edition of his totemic 1982 book, The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook (the cover of the original featured a recently married Princess Diana). She even has an unofficial fan club. Two months ago, 20 die-hard representatives gathered on the pavement outside Boujis nightclub in South Kensington - Kate's favourite - to celebrate her 25th birthday. Each came dressed as their 'favourite Kate': business seductive Kate, aspirant royal Kate, evening Kate, athletic casual Kate. The fan club's organiser, who communicates by email and declines to give his name, explains: 'William and his effervescent bride-to-be embody the spirit of a community based on traditional values, but thoroughly modern in outlook. Kate, with her resolutely bourgeois origins, can truly be said to be one of us.'

Dylan Jones, editor of GQ, calls Kate the ultimate cover girl. 'She is probably the most intriguing woman in Britain right now, principally because we know so little about her,' he says. Indeed, in the absence of an authorised appearance in the magazine, April's GQ carries an approving analysis of her style, with a leggy, mocked-up illustration.

Anyone looking for an insight into Kate's life should start at Boujis, where she likes to hang out, particularly on a Tuesday, its big night. Boujis has been at the centre of London's young Sloane scene for the past few years. 'It's safe to come here. You know you're not going to get a hard time and you're likely to meet people like you,' says a regular. 'Army boys up for the weekend, a smattering of Eurotrash types, locals.' Kate and her boyfriend, the recently commissioned Second Lieutenant William Wales, go to Boujis because it is a sensible place for people like them to drink and dance. The club's manager, Jake Parkinson-Smith, is happy to talk about how well he protects his members' privacy but unwilling to discuss the regular royal clubbers.

As Geordie Greig, editor of Tatler, which keeps a close eye on Prince William's set, explains: 'They may party late, but they aren't going to break the law.' According to friends of the Prince, Kate is the most sensible of his crowd and the least likely even to get tipsy. Another Boujis regular remembers finding Kate applying make-up in the loo in the middle of the night, before leaving to face the media scrum. 'It's a rough, tough rite of passage,' says the Queen's biographer, Robert Lacey. 'But she seems to be surviving it well.'

Boujis serves as a focus for much Kate-related activity. It was here, for example, that she was snapped at the start of the year wearing a £40 monochrome-print Topshop dress. The following day, when those snatched images found their way on to the front pages of the papers, the frock promptly sold out. This was a significant moment in the course of Kate's fame trajectory - the first time she had exercised a palpable influence over the country's look. This, of course, would be exciting for any twenty-something woman. But, a former courtier warns: 'The pressure of expectation becomes a burden very quickly. What can be fun one day is a strain the next and she has no power to switch this attention on and off.'

Proof comes from the more mundane images of Kate that have caused such a stir. Last November, paparazzi shots showing her putting out her rubbish appeared in almost every national paper ('Bin there, done that. William's Girl Mucks In,' said the Evening Standard). Seven months earlier, film of her waiting for a bus made it on to the TV news. And when, last December, she turned up at Sandhurst for William's passing out parade, ITN hired a lip-reader, who reported that she'd confided in her mother that she thought the uniforms 'sexy'.

The general consensus is that Kate is handling the media attention pretty successfully. She often smiles for the camera. And when she was given a parking ticket, she reacted with a dignity we'd all aspire to. TV's Richard and Judy commented that 'she showed grace and beauty fit for a queen'. The Standard, meanwhile, noted Lady Diana Spencer had received a parking ticket months before her engagement to Prince Charles - as if it were an ancient royal pre-engagement rite. But the situation in which Kate finds herself was defined by Diana, who created the concept of royal superstardom. The paparazzi believe Kate is not only natural in front of the camera - she's actively playing their 'game'. According to one veteran stationed outside a London club: 'She dresses for it. She makes a special effort.'

Kate Middleton left St Andrews University in June 2005 at the age of 23. She'd met William there four years earlier, while she was reading for a degree in Art History. She moved to London, where her parents Michael and Carole bought her a flat in Chelsea, now worth £1m. Kate has always spent a lot of time with her mother, and they speak every day. But she also devoted herself to William. 'When we first came down from St Andrews, it was exciting for us all to be in London together,' says an old university friend. 'But as it turned out we didn't end up seeing much of Kate. She spent a lot of time with William's friends and sort of stopped coming to our girls' suppers. I don't even think she dropped us deliberately. But she has to be so careful about where she goes now and all the arrangements that it became more trouble than it was worth.'

The need to justify her lifestyle to an anonymous public must have come as a nasty shock to someone unused to such demands. Sources close to Kate put it about that she was considering setting up a mail-order firm selling children's clothes. But the company never materialised. 'Kate seems at a loss over her future and just seems to be waiting for Wills to pop the question. She has not settled on a career path,' said a friend at the time. Aware that the press and public were beginning to get fractious, William suggested Kate ought to find employment. Last May, shortly after he had taken her to stay in Mustique, at the hideaway owned by John and Belle Robinson, friends of both his and her parents, The Observer reported she was going to start working for their clothing chain, Jigsaw. Initial rumours suggested Kate would be a 'brand ambassador' for the label; she was, in fact, employed in the more defined role of buyer for Jigsaw's accessories range.

Kate and the chain's signature aesthetics match perfectly: she is the embodiment of the Sloane revival and wore Jigsaw clothes long before she started working for them. Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, says Kate owes much of her style to Princess Diana. 'Her legacy has been to break the mould of royal dressing and pass her look on to a new generation of young royals whose blood is not aristocratic like her own.' Peter York, meanwhile, identifies a 'Sloane revival' for which, in part, he holds Kate responsible. 'Being more of a middle-class Sloane than Diana, she's less flakey. We're not going to see her turn Euro-fabulous,' he says.

While Kate's look relies on high-street labels far more than designer pieces, she does demonstrate an extravagant streak where handbags are concerned. She has 'the biggest collection of Longchamp I've ever seen', according to one fashion writer. Longchamp bags - chic but square, elegant but practical, unobtrusive and yet, at £400 a pop, not exactly cheap - could not have been better suited to Kate's brand if they'd been chosen by an image consultant, which they may have been. She has reportedly enjoyed a degree of media coaching from royal helpers, and sources suggest she's used a personal shopper. Her wardrobe is definitively sensible. But, though the clothes are seldom ostentatious, the sheer number of outfits suggests she has plenty of disposable income.

If this spending is financed by any royal money, it comes from the Prince of Wales's private income, derived in turn from the Duchy of Cornwall - but nobody is owning up. Were William and his father found to be funding Kate's lifestyle, marriage expectations, which already run higher than desired, would get out of hand. So it is widely assumed that Kate's parents are stumping up. Much was made of her coal-mining ancestry when it was revealed at the end of last year that, four generations ago, her family worked at the Low Moorsley pit in County Durham. The medieval knight who lurked somewhere further up her family tree also sparked amusement.

In truth, however, her background is fairly unexciting. Carole and Michael, both previously employed as airline cabin staff, now run a mail-order company which supplies cheap party toys. Although they have registered Party Pieces as a limited company, they have left it dormant, operating instead as a private partnership, thus avoiding the need to file public accounts. It is a canny move for people who want to avoid public scrutiny - as is their decision to retain Harbottle and Lewis, a firm of lawyers which specialises in keeping privacy-seeking celebrities out of the tabloids.

'Kate has never been hard up. Her parents packed her off to St Andrews with a generous allowance,' says another friend who does not want to be named. 'The money to buy the London flat was obviously found from somewhere, but it's not as though her parents have a pad there of their own. You're not looking at trust funds and vast amounts of inherited cash.' The Middletons could, of course, be paying into a hefty mortgage. If they are, it might turn out to be a smart move. After all, if Kate becomes Queen, what's a few hundred thousand pounds here or there?

Kate's parents have clearly not been ruined by whatever arrangements are in place. They live in a substantial, but not grand, house in Bucklebury - a reassuring lifestyle which holds its attractions for the Prince, who lost his mother amid the cold corridors of castles and palaces, to divorce and then death. According to local gossip, the Middletons talk fondly of 'William's favourite sofa'. When Kate and William were first reported to be a couple, acquaintances said Carole had pushed Kate into the Scottish university in the hope she might hook herself the Prince. Though she may not have, she certainly didn't discourage the relationship. In fact, both Middleton daughters have been attracted to boys very different from the lads you'd see in Bucklebury's local pubs: sister Pippa is living with Earl Percy, the future Duke of Northumberland. Recently, Michael Middleton applied for a Coat of Arms of his own.

Born into this solidly middle-class home on 9 January 1982, Kate's passage to St Andrews University was not quite smooth. She was sent to a local prep school, St Andrew's in Pangbourne. A contemporary remembers her as one of the most beautiful girls of the year. 'She made such an impression that she became something of a legend in local public schools when we moved on.' These schools included Eton College, where a young Prince William may well have heard her name. At 11, Kate went on to Downe House, a girls' public school, which she left in the middle of the academic year when she was 14. In the intervening period, Kate's contemporaries had grown up and she no longer stood out. She is remembered to have been 'pale, quiet, shy, a little bullied'. Her parents responded by moving her to Marlborough College.

'Catherine arrived suddenly during the middle of the year,' says Gemma Williamson, a Marlborough contemporary. 'Sometimes jokingly we called her Middlebum.' The boys were less affectionate. One day they decided to rate each of the girls out of 10. Kate scored badly. She turned to her mother and on returning from the summer holiday had undergone a transformation. Suddenly, according to Williamson, she had discovered a new elegance and beauty. She acquired confidence, too: contemporaries recall the day she flashed her bottom at some of the male pupils. Marlborough teachers have been banned from talking to the press but, off the record, one describes her as unexceptional. 'Anyone who remembers differently is probably talking with the benefit of hindsight,' he says.

At university, Kate continued to grow in confidence. She co-founded a girls' drinking society, 'annoyed that the old ones excluded women' - but no one remembers her getting very drunk. Images of a slim, slightly gawky Kate striding down a catwalk in lingerie have been sold to the press, but friends insist she was no exhibitionist. 'It was just a student charity event,' I'm told. 'Tickets were £20, not £200 as reported, and the room was basically full of friends. It was no big deal.' At this point, William and Kate were no more than friends and it was in that capacity that they started living together in 2002, with two others, away from the university's own student accommodation.

'Kate was going out with a bloke called Rupert Finch,' says a source. 'Soon afterwards, though, they split up and I remember William saying that he thought he might "have a go".'

Those close to Kate say she believes herself to be a prize catch. 'He's lucky to have me,' she is said to have responded to friends impressed by the romance. And - at least in terms of the people who run in William's set - he is. Kate is, after all, someone who is prepared to wait years for him to be ready to propose. She is also unlikely to embarrass herself, and is happy to join him on shooting expeditions, despite no previous recorded love of country sports. For all these reasons, Penny Junor, who has written several books about the royal family, considers Kate and William to be a couple with excellent prospects. 'She has made no mistakes at all. She seems self-assured. She's got poise and grace. She could be a perfect bride for William.'

Junor is not alone in this view. Patrick Jephson, once Princess Diana's private secretary, recently wrote an article in The Spectator magazine, describing Kate as 'a much needed injection of fresh young glamour' for the royal family. The feeling appears to run through all strata of society: Woolworths has already commissioned commemorative wedding china bearing Kate and William's faces.

Amid slight reservations about William marrying 'out' of aristocratic circles, Kate has been welcomed into palace circles. The Queen and the Prince of Wales are said to like her, although the Queen is understood to have counselled William against an early marriage.

Sarah Goodall, who worked as Prince Charles's deputy private secretary for 12 years, shares the Queen's concerns. 'I think it may be too early,' she tells me. 'There will be massive expectations on Kate's shoulders. When Princess Diana became engaged, one courtier turned to her and said, "In four years, you'll be a complete and utter *female dog*." I'm not saying that of Kate, but her life will undergo the most extraordinary change.'

Goodall believes, however, that Kate is well equipped already to deal with much of the pressure. 'Diana began to court the press, which was playing with fire. But I think Kate will have learned from that. I also think the Palace has learnt a lot from the whole Princess of Wales experience, and she'll find herself well supported.' Not least, it seems, by Prince Charles, who Sarah Goodall insists, despite his public persona, will be 'a sensitive father in law'.

PR supremo Max Clifford, on the other hand, says that the royals' relationship with the press has changed too significantly for this old-fashioned reserved approach to work - another legacy of Princess Diana. 'Kate Middleton ought to cultivate a friendship with the media, and do it quickly,' he says, for therein lies a less turbulent future. So far, however, she has made no serious move to do so. It was William, rather than Kate herself, who appealed in January for the press to show restraint.

William's request was seen by some observers to signal that the palace felt 'responsible' for Kate's welfare. A friend of the Prince denies this. 'William and Kate are very close. Their relationship is strong and he wants to look after her, just as any decent boy of his class feels some sort of chivalrous instinct. But at the same time, there's no official role for Kate, there's no marriage announcement - at least none we know of - coming up tomorrow or next week or next month. Of course, like many young women, Kate dreams of a wedding, but William hasn't suggested to anyone that he wants to get married before his late twenties, maybe later. And although he and Kate very much hope they end up together, she knows where she stands.'

The effect of the Prince's request to the media was immediate. Alan Williams of the Big Picture Agency, says - public fascination or not - the most recent set of paparazzi snaps of Kate coming out of her flat were rejected outright by every newspaper, although since then new pictures of the pair on a ski slope have been printed - although this time they were taken by a fellow holidaymaker rather than a professional paparazzo. It seems that now Kate and William's hard-won privacy is under threat from the showbiz end of so-called 'citizen journalism'.

Whether or not Kate delivers on the heavy expectations imposed on her by impatient royalists and a hungry press remains to be seen. It is also dependent on Prince William proposing. Although both William and Kate want and expect to get married, nobody close to them predicts an announcement is imminent.

In the meantime, Kate will continue to get more famous, sell more papers, smile at more parking attendants, inadvertently flog more Topshop and Jigsaw frocks, and spend her Tuesday nights in Boujis. She certainly does not seem to mind too much about all that. And nor, surely, should we.

December 31, 2007
Backstreet roots of the woman who may one day be Queen
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More of the humble family background of Kate Middleton, the woman who could one day become Queen, was revealed yesterday.

The 25-year-old arts graduate has settled with ease into the privileged world of her boyfriend, Prince William, and is even rumoured to have moved into Clarence House. It is all far from the rundown West London streets to which her roots have been traced. Her great-grandmother, Edith Goldsmith, fought a constant battle with financial hardship in Southall, where she and her husband, Stephen, a labourer, raised six children, including Ronald, Ms Middleton’s grandfather, who was born in 1931.

Stephen died in 1938 at the age of 51 from emphysema. The couple’s four eldest children had by then left home and Edith brought up Ronald and his sister Joyce alone.

She moved out of the family home to a condemned flat and worked at a jam factory. She was said to have smoked 20 Woodbine cigarettes a day and to have sent her children to the pub to buy her stout. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, her only surviving daughter, Alice, 96, said: “My mum had to work hard to bring us all up. She wasn’t a bad lady but she had a temper. She liked a drink and smoked but who could blame her with what she had to put up with. In those days everyone was hard up.”

Ronald worked for a short time for a lorry firm run by Alice’s husband, then set up his own business as a builder. He married Dorothy Harrison, a shop assistant, when he was 22 in the early 1950s. The couple moved into Dorothy’s already packed family home in Southall and they were still living there when Ms Middleton’s mother, Carole, was born in 1955.

The stories Dorothy’s father told of his childhood in a coalmining community in the North East encouraged her to improve her family’s lot.

She had a liking for fine clothes and her niece, Ann Terry, who worked with her at a jewellery shop, said: “I don’t know where Dorothy got her airs and graces from. She always thought she was one cut above everyone else. Dorothy learnt her trade from me. She was a good saleswoman but she was a bit of a snob.”

The family moved to a more affluent area of Southall after Ronald’s building business grew. Carole, who had a Saturday job at C&A while at school, married into a middle-class family after falling in love with Michael Middleton when the two worked as air stewards.

Mr Middleton, the son of a flying instructor, became a pilot and the couple sent their daughter, Catherine Elizabeth, to Marlborough public school. She went on to study history of art at St Andrews University in Scotland, where she met Prince William.

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As Kate re-emerges more tanned and confident, a new Middleton girl takes a bow
By LAURA COLLINS and LOUISE HANNAH
Last updated at 23:18 27 May 2007
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Amid the clatter of small talk and social niceties, it was a well-meaning attempt to rally a young girl's spirits: "Keep your chin up. Don't let them get you down. You'll be fine."
But when Tara Palmer-Tompkinson delivered these words of wisdom to Kate Middleton at a fashionable book launch, what was striking was not the kindness of the older woman's words but how superfluous they appeared.
For, since splitting from Prince William, Kate Middleton seems to have had very little trouble in keeping either her chin, or her profile, high.
Indeed it has become a much remarked oddity of Kate and Prince William's break-up that, in the weeks since her apparent heartbreak, she has never looked better...or happier.
Far from appearing shattered by the very public end of a romance that many - including Kate herself - predicted would end in marriage, Kate sans William is cutting a frankly far sexier figure.
Her hair is shinier, her skin more tanned and her dress sense more youthful than during her tweedy William days.
Far too dignified to accept the vast sums on offer for a royal 'kiss and tell,' she has, The Mail on Sunday has learned, drawn on the support and advice of a trusted few.
And, in the process, one figure has emerged above all as key among the newly single Kate's loyal coterie: her younger sister Pippa.
At 22, Pippa is three years junior to - and 4in shorter than - her more famous sibling but she has had an enormous impact on the emergence of this increasingly sleek and confident Kate.
She is, according to those who know her best, more sassy than Kate, more direct and, tantalisingly, less discreet.
And though these days she may pass largely unrecognised she is unlikely to do so for long.
After all, it was Pippa who joined Kate at the launch of Simon Sebag Montefiore's book on Stalin at Asprey's, Pippa whose hand Kate held as she left trendy London nightclub Boujis at three in the morning four days later, Pippa who will be at Kate's side when the girls attend the Kuoni World Class Cup Polo at Hurtwood Park, West Sussex - a tournament at which both Prince Harry and Charles have played.
In the weeks since her split from William, Kate has gleaned style advice from an executive at Vogue, discussed strategies for dealing with the media from Tatler editor Geordie Greig and, fascinatingly, turned to Guy Pelly, one of William's best friends, for entrance to some of London's coolest clubs. But it is Pippa who has been her ever present consort.
For where Kate's entree into high society was as the prettier 'add-on' to a powerful partner, her staying power may owe much to establishing herself in another, formidable, double act.
And according to one well placed source: "Kate and Pippa have already been dubbed The Wisteria Sisters - they're highly decorative, terribly fragrant and have a ferocious ability to climb.
"Pippa has just graduated in English from Edinburgh University and while other students are taking advantage of the last weeks of term to lie around in the meadows, have late breakfasts and long lunches and generally do very little, Pippa couldn't wait to get down to Kate and to London.
"She'll go back for the graduation ball at the end of June but it's clear that Kate is the key to unlocking a new social life for Pippa and Pippa is there to support Kate.
"So many doors were opened to Kate when she was with William and she's certainly not going to let them close now."
Certainly Pippa seems more than up to the task of putting a well-shod foot in the way of any door that threatens to shut now that Kate and William are no longer together.
According to one university friend: "As soon as Pippa arrived at Edinburgh, she was assiduous about joining the right social circle.
"At Edinburgh, the aristo crowd are divided into two social sets - one crowd who go to London for the weekend and are really into partying and hard drinking and the other who are more staid and go off to each others' country houses for weekends.
"Pippa joined the country set. She was very charming about it but quite ruthless in cultivating the "right" friends.
"If she found out that someone had impressive social credentials - the right title, standing, connections - she would immediately pay them a lot of attention where before she wouldn't have shown the least interest.
"She would leave notes in the pigeonholes of people she coveted as friends, desperate to arrange a time or date to meet.
"She was always well turned out to the point of being prim, always conscious of projecting the "right" image and, if she heard of other girls' "naughty" behaviour - too much drinking or partying or risque behaviour - she'd pull a face like there was a bad taste in her mouth."
Like Kate, Pippa attended Marlborough and, like Kate, her university ascent into the social elite was rapid. By the end of her university days, she could count Ted Innes-Ker and George Percy as flatmates - the sons of the Dukes of Roxburghe and Northumberland respectively.
And her boyfriend, who graduated two years before her, is JJ Jardine Patterson, an Eton friend of Edward and George and scion of a highly successful Hong Kong banking family.
"She met JJ through the boys," a friend said. "It really wasn't the family millions that attracted her to him but the social cachet."
Someone else who has met Pippa on many occasions recalled her as: "A charming girl who hung out with absolute toffs, most of whom are named after counties.
"She is incredibly well mannered and well-brought up. At dinner she always makes sure to speak to the person seated to her left and right.
"She has a lovely figure, much better than Kate's really. She's a very keen and aggressive tennis player. A mother's dream, in many respects.
"But she makes no secret at all of being very socially ambitious - almost aggressively so. She wants power and money."
Which explains perhaps, in part, the mixed feelings that Pippa has expressed to friends since her big sister split from her famous boyfriend.
According to one: "Pippa absolutely loved the fact that Kate dated William because of the cachet it brought but she's also quite pleased Kate's single again.
"She sometimes felt that her mum and dad tended to put Kate first, above her and her brother James, when she was dating William simply because of the extra responsibilities and practical considerations that went with that.
"And she was a little bit jealous that her sister was dating the future King of England.
"It didn't help that James, who's also at Edinburgh, would go around saying, "My sister's going to be the Queen of England." He can be very indiscreet.
"Also, Pippa's glad to "get her sister back". The two are very close and she never got to spend much time with Kate when she dated William. Kate would always put William first."
Indeed, Kate put William before all other considerations - personal and professional.
It is worth noting that, since their split, she has been promoted from assistant accessories buyer to accessories buyer for High Street store Jigsaw.
Pippa is similarly bright, but she is yet to fall upon a career path of her own. She enjoys travel and writing and has expressed an interest in journalism.
However, such thoughts are not foremost in the girls' minds this summer.
Instead, Pippa has moved into the Chelsea home that the girls' parents Carole and Michael bought for Kate and, according to a friend: "The two of them are enjoying being quite girlie together.
They have a mobile tanner who comes round and does their spray-on tan. They love shopping on the Kings Road.
They get ballet pumps at French Sole and Pippa loves Chloe clothes and has her hair done in Richard Ward's VIP section just like Kate.
"Kate gets sent a lot of free clothes and gifts and Pippa is very keen to get in on the action as far as that's concerned. She's happy to go along to parties and events on Kate's coat-tails."
Certainly there has been no shortage of invitations. On Wednesday, the girls will be at Mahiki - a favourite haunt of Prince William and the site of his infamous I'm Free! 'celebration' following his split from Kate.
The marketing for the club is looked after by Guy Pelly and it is Guy who is believed to have invited Kate and Pippa to Wednesday's Johnny Cash-themed party.
Kate and Pippa have also been invited to Richard Branson's pre-Wimbledon party - and have received invitations to the members' enclosure for the tournament.
They are on the guest list for Royal Ascot - though whether or not they will venture towards the Royal Enclosure remains to be seen - and have been invited to the Cartier Polo at Windsor Great Park on the last Sunday of July.
Ahead of them both lies the tantalising prospect of a summer of sisterly fun - with a social agenda writ large.
One close friend says: "Obviously, Kate and William aren't together any more but they have an ongoing arrangement. They will go to a couple of things together - things that were planned before they split and which William will honour.
It seems a bit of a habit among that set not to entirely sever relationships. There's rarely a clean break."
As we reported last week, William will go to the wedding of Kate's cousin on July 21. It is understood that they will also spend a weekend together in William's cottage in Balmor@l in August.
Being in such close proximity to the man she once hoped to marry - and being so as 'just friends' - must be a prospect that Kate regards with profoundly mixed feelings.
However glossy her image and admirable her poise, there are, in the weight she has shed and the cigarettes she has started smoking again, clues to the effort required in presenting a positive face to the world she knows is watching still.
The importance of Pippa's place at Kate's side right now cannot, friends say, be underestimated.
"Pippa and Kate really are very close," says one. "Sure, they have a very like-minded approach to life and if Kate is leaning on Pippa at the moment who can blame her?
"The whole Middleton family were thinking of holidaying in Scotland this year but Kate felt it was too much of a thorny reminder of the last time that they were all together in Scotland, earlier this year, when they rented a great big house in Perthshire and waited for William to show up for New Year and he never did.
"Instead, they're looking at renting some fabulous villa in Tuscany or Umbria for a few weeks in August at the end of the summer.
"And goodness, I'd have thought by the time they reach August, the girls will need a break."

A royal wedding in their sights: Kate Middleton's parents on Balmor@l shooting weekend - the strongest hint yet
By FAY SCHLESINGER and RICHARD KAY
Created 10:27 PM on 1st November 2010
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Kate Middleton’s parents have just been guests at a private shooting party on the Queen’s Scottish estate, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The invitation is the clearest sign yet that Kate and Prince William are poised to announce their royal wedding engagement after a marathon eight-year courtship.
Michael and Carole Middleton spent the weekend with their daughter and the prince at Birkhall, Prince Charles’s private residence on the Balmor@l estate.
The move is seen as highly symbolic, with former aides suggesting that the middle-class Middleton family were now firmly welcomed within the royal fold. ‘It’s just a matter of time,’ said one.
Kate’s parents were photographed receiving instructions in shooting, apparently ahead of a day’s stalking on the hills above Birkhall.
‘That they should be guests at a shooting party should not be underestimated,’ said one figure.
‘This is the Middletons being taught to be able to join the royals at play.
The invitation would have been approved by Prince Charles and known about by the Queen.
Our exclusive pictures show Mrs Middleton, 55, a former air hostess, lying on the damp ground, sighting a rifle with the help of a ghillie while her 61-year-old husband looks on.
The couple were there as part of a ‘country pursuits’ house party which William hosts for a group of guests about once a year. Neither the Prince of Wales nor the Duchess of Cornwall was there.
Senior royal aides last night confirmed the Middletons were part of a group of middle-aged adults and young 20-somethings, mostly staying at Birkhall while some were put up in cottages in the grounds.
The couple have met the Royal Family on several occasions, including William’s Sandhurst graduation, and are rumoured to have been invited to stay at Highgrove with Prince Charles more than three years ago. But this is thought to be their first visit to Balmor@l.
Clarence House insiders last night insisted there are still no public plans for an engagement or wedding, but sources close to the Royal Family said the presence of Mr and Mrs Middleton is a symbolic assurance from William that their daughter’s future is as his wife.
One insider said: ‘William and Kate do go up to Balmor@l quite a bit, but inviting her parents is a big deal. This is virtually confirmation they’re his in-laws-to-be.
‘Carole must be absolutely ecstatic. She’s finally made it right inside the royal circle.’
William is thought to have arrived at Birkhall on Thursday evening after carrying out an official engagement presenting long-service awards to submariners at their Faslane base on the Clyde
Kate’s parents travelled up from the family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, on the same evening, it is thought, and were pictured the following morning.
That afternoon, Kate, 28, was seen being driven along the quiet country roads around Balmor@l in a black Range Rover Discovery.
In contrast with her appearance with William, 28, at a wedding in Gloucestershire two weeks ago, this time she seemed determined to stay out of the limelight.
Several guests left by plane from Aberdeen Airport on Sunday.

From BA all the way to Balmor@l, the awkward rise of the Middletons

By GEOFFREY LEVY and RICHARD KAY
Created 10:40 PM on 1st November 2010
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After the Emperor of Exmoor episode, it’s probably not the best moment to be photographed deer stalking.
But for Carole Middleton and her husband Michael, this was clearly an invitation they couldn’t refuse.
Watched by her husband, and assisted by a ghillie who is adjusting the sights of her gun, Mrs Middleton is pictured being shown how to stalk a deer.
The place is the Queen’s Balmor@l estate. Their accommodation is Birkhall, the Queen Mother’s charming former home, which now belongs to the Prince of Wales.
And their host is Prince William, who is plainly closer than ever to becoming their son-in-law.
Kate, the Middletons’ elder daughter – who began going out with the prince when she was 20 – was also there, of course.
She will be 29 in January and her parents can at last begin to believe she’ll be engaged to William – and probably even a royal wedding – before she is 30.
Significantly, although 28-year-old William has a cottage of his own on the Queen’s Deeside estate, Charles generously offered the grander Birkhall for the visit of Kate’s parents and a handful of other close friends.
He also loaned William’s shooting party his personal chauffeur, Tim Williams.
It’s fair to say that Michael Middleton, a former airline despatcher, and ex-air hostess Carole are far from seasoned shots.
For them to be invited to Birkhall – lovingly redecorated for Charles by the Duchess of Cornwall – says everything about their daughter’s long haul towards becoming Princess of Wales.
If the past eight years have at times been tough for Kate (the paparazzi, a brief separation, the soubriquet ‘Waity Katie’), they have been even harder for her parents.
There have been years of omerta during which Carole Middleton has had to suffer – in silence – the insults and sneers from braying royal sycophants who cannot understand how William has fallen in love with a middle-class girl whose parents are ‘in trade’.
Unlike other putative parents-in-law, Carole and Michael cannot indulge in the pleasure of talking to friends and acquaintances about their daughter’s boyfriend – and they certainly cannot wonder out loud why it has taken him so long to propose.
True, Mrs Middleton made a monster faux pas by allowing herself to be seen chewing gum when she attended William’s passing out parade from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 2006. But it was nicotine gum.
Critics even put it about that when she was presented to the Queen at the passing out parade, she uttered the decidedly non-U greeting ‘Pleased to meet you’ (when she might have said ‘How do you do?’)
In fact, at that time the two women did not meet.
At least the oleaginous royal hangers-on have stopped sniggering behind their hands ‘Doors to manual’ when the Middleton women are around, a cheap shot at Carole’s former career.
And now, pictured with her husband at Balmor@l joining in the country pursuits which are such a crucial element of Royal Family life, she can at last be said to have outlived envious gossip that she was a ‘pushy’ mother and ambitious social climber who sent her beautiful daughter to St Andrews University just because Prince William was going there.
The envy will not stop here, of course. It cannot be denied that the Middletons have profited hugely from their links to the Royal Family.
Kate’s younger siblings, James and Pippa, have used their reflected fame to publicise themselves and their businesses, which are related to the online firm, Party Pieces, founded by their parents.
James featured in a gushing profile across the glossy pages of Hello! magazine last year.
And with admirable marketing finesse, this weekend an interview with Pippa appeared in the Sunday Times’s Style magazine.
She invited the paper to meet her in a village pub to talk about the online magazine and catalogue she is launching to flog Party Pieces’ goods.
Carole was also there, apparently on the Dukan Diet (some days, it emerged, lunching on nothing more than prawns and cottage cheese). Could the diet be in anticipation of a wedding, perhaps?
True, they have been to Highgrove, once. But staying at Birkhall is different. It is a very intimate royal residence where houseguests are thrown very much together en famille.
In fact, William and Kate are as good as engaged. An announcement, and a ring, are surely imminent, with a wedding next year.
Perhaps because of those early jibes, William has become close to Kate’s parents – and very protective of them.
He has holidayed with them in Mustique and sometimes watches television with supper on his lap when staying overnight at their home in the Berkshire commuter village of Bucklebury.
In recent months the prince, who is based at RAF Valley in Anglesey where he is an air-sea rescue helicopter pilot, has been joined by Kate at weekends in his rented white-walled farmhouse.
Locals have spotted the couple dashing about on the prince’s Ducati motorbike, dropping into pubs such as the White Eagle at Rhoscolyn. They have also been shopping at the local Tesco in Holyhead.
In the farmhouse they look after themselves. There are no domestic staff and they do their own cooking. But they are never completely alone because William’s protection officers are always around.
‘Kate won’t live with William until they’re married,’ says a family friend. ‘That’s why, although it may look odd, she still lives with her parents in Bucklebury.’
Despite all the envy and insults they have faced so far, the portents for Carole and Michael Middleton are surprisingly good. For William is determined to usher in a new era of inclusion, as far as royal in-laws are concerned.
The late mother of Captain Mark Phillips – Princess Anne’s first husband – complained bitterly that she and her husband were ‘virtually ignored and never invited to anything’ by the royals once their son had married the Queen’s only daughter.
The same happened to the Spencers, even though Princess Diana’s father had been a former equerry to the Queen and lived on the Sandringham estate.
And while the Duchess of York’s father, Major Ron Ferguson, was a popular figure until his death in 2003, he never became close to the Queen even when his daughter’s marriage to Prince Andrew was going well.
William is very aware that his future parents-in-law are stepping into unfamiliar territory.
For them it is worse, much worse, than for any other royal in-laws of recent times – because their daughter will one day be Queen.
Hence their gentle introduction into his family’s love of country pursuits.
Though, looking at the picture, perhaps not so gentle. The normally elegant Carole Middleton looks far from comfortable stretched out on the damp moorland, but then, it’s worth the discomfort for her daughter’s happiness.

Divided by family misfortunes

By Andrew Pierce12:01AM BST 16 Apr 2007
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In the rarefied world of the House of Windsor, it was an unforgivable faux pas by a woman who might become mother of the future Queen.
Carole Middleton, standing proudly alongside her daughter Kate, was chewing gum. Non stop.As the occasion was the passing out parade of Prince William at Sandhurst, in the presence of the Queen, Prince Philip and the Prince of Wales, there were dozens of cameras to record her every movement.
For Mrs Middleton, opening the newspapers the next day was a rude initiation into the media-driven world that her daughter had graced without putting a foot wrong in five years.The photographs merely confirmed the prejudice among some royal observers, mainly in the tabloid press but also among some of William's acquaintances, that Mrs Middleton was "too common" for the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.
Some of William's circle would even whisper "doors to manual" when Kate Middleton arrived, in a jibe at her mother being a former airline stewardess.
There were even worse social sins, such as using the word "toilet" not "lavatory", saying "pleased to meet you" rather than "how do you do?", and "pardon" rather than "what?".
As royal commentators yesterday blamed the yawning class divide between prince and girlfriend for the break-up, there were reports that the Queen, while disapproving of "pushy" Mrs Middleton, had a soft spot for Michael, her father, a former pilot.
The truth is the Queen and Prince Philip have met Mr and Mrs Middleton only fleetingly at the Sandhurst ceremony and when the prince and Miss Middleton graduated from St Andrew's University.
While Miss Middleton's father is from a classic middle-class background, her mother is descended from a long line of Durham coal miners. Michael Middleton's father, Peter, was a pilot after the war, finding employment in the newly emerging civil aviation industry.
The same year that William's great-great-great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria was born, Miss Middleton's great-great-great-great-grandfather, James Harrison, took his first tentative steps down a coal mine. It was to be his family's life for the next 120 years.
In the 1930s Dorothy, Miss Middleton's grandmother, moved from the North East to Ealing in west London with her father, a carpenter, and her mother. Dorothy married Ron Goldsmith, a young engineer, and the couple had Carole.
After school, Carole trained as a flight attendant and met Michael Middleton. They married in 1980. Kate, christened Catherine, was born two years later.
In 1987 the couple set up Party Pieces, a mail order company specialising in costumes and props for children's birthdays. The company became a huge success with the advent of the internet. Mr and Mrs Middleton, by now millionaires, moved to a
five-bedroom detached house in Bucklebury near Newbury. Miss Middleton, her sister Pippa and brother James, went to Marlborough College, whose alumni include Sir John Betjeman. At the school Miss Middleton had a poster of the young Prince William on her wall.
It was as a history of art student at St Andrew's University that Miss Middleton met William Wales, as he was known. Her sister Pippa began dating the heir to the Duke of Northumberland. Mr Middleton, meanwhile, has applied for his coat of arms.
While William was a regular visitor to Miss Middleton's family home, she was often at Highgrove, where she enjoyed a rapport with the Prince of Wales. Contact with the Queen was limited to gatherings of the Royal Family at high days and holidays. They never dined alone together.
Publicly, at least, the couple seemed made for each other. But William, like his father, had discovered to his extreme discomfort that in his first serious romance he was being married off in capitals as far afield as Tokyo and Auckland.
Michael and Carole Middleton will now want what is best for their daughter. They may be relieved that she will be spared the relentless media onslaught of the past few months and years. They will not miss the jokes about "doors to manual".

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Royal Gossip 2011 Archive: Middleton Family Past Articles On Aug 8, 2023 19:26:20 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2023 19:26:20 GMT

William is horrified at sneers about Kate's mum
Last updated at 00:25 18 April 2007
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Prince William is said to be horrified by the 'hurtful' attacks on Kate Middleton's mother following his split with his girlfriend.
It had been suggested that Carole Middleton's alleged scheming and lack of social graces were in some way responsible for the end of their four-year relationship.
There were claims that 'snobbish' courtiers and members of William's inner circle had briefed against Miss Middleton's middleclass family.
But sources close to the 24-yearold prince dismissed the reports.
They said William was horrified by the vitriol levelled against Mrs Middleton, a former air stewardess, who, with her husband, a former airline pilot, has made a living from an Internet business selling children's party goods.
The prince, who is on a troop commanders course with his Blues and Royals regiment in Bovington, Dorset, has called Miss Middleton, 25, to offer his support and distance himself from the claims.
A friend said: "William does not believe that anyone genuinely - or even remotely - connected with him would say such things and is horrified that these reports have emerged.
"He suspects there is a great deal of mischief-making going on - although who by, he has no idea - and thinks it is extremely unfair and totally unnecessary, particularly for Kate and her family."
Meanwhile, Buckingham Palaces sources moved to contradict reports that the Queen disliked Mrs Middleton.
"There has never been any meetings between the two and the Queen certainly wouldn't voice an opinion on her," said one.
A senior aide said: "The reports which allege that the palace was horrified at Mrs Middleton's socalled behaviour simply aren't true and are really quite offensive to all those concerned.
"To suggest that the Palace was snobbish in any way about Miss Middleton and her family could be very damaging. That's just not the way things work nowadays."
The same source confirmed that the Queen had met Kate and liked her. Clarence House has declined to comment on recent events, saying it is not in the business of offering a running commentary on William's private life.
But royal sources said the prince was keen to see an end to speculation about why the relationship had come to an end.
"The simple fact of the matter is that two young people who met at university have unfortunately drifted apart after four years. The break-up is completely amicable and both Kate and William are still very supportive of each other," said a royal aide.
"The idea that there is a group of top-hatted toffs wandering around at the palace getting the knives out for Miss Middleton and her family is utter tosh and very unfair to all those involved.
"William just wants to put the past few days behind him and get on with his life and I am sure the same goes for Kate."
The whispering campaign against Mrs Middleton began less than 24 hours after news that her daughter's four-year relationship with the second-inlineto-the-throne had ended.
Royal sources in one Sunday newspaper described Kate's mother as "pushy". They accused her of scheming to push her eldest daughter up the social ladder.
Others raised questions over her lack of etiquette. She was said to have chewed gum during William's passing-out parade from Sandhurst.
It was even said that friends of the Prince had taken to greeting Kate's arrival with whispers of "doors to manual", a reference to her mother's former career. But a source close to William said: "That's just an urban myth."

Kate mum 'on brink' after split

By DUNCAN LARCOMBE
Published: 18 Apr 2007
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KATE Middleton’s mum is at breaking point over claims she was to blame for her daughter’s split from Prince William.
Ex-air stewardess Carole, 51, has been in tears for two days after courtiers said she was “too common” for Kate to marry Wills.
Kate’s dad Michael is said to be so concerned by his wife’s state of mind that he has booked a last-minute Caribbean holiday.
The crisis comes after claims that Wills had to break up with Kate because she lacked the breeding to become a princess.
Carole ? who became a millionaire through online toy business Party Pieces ? is said to be distraught at the *despise* campaign.
Critics have pointed to her failure to address the Queen properly and her chewing gum at William’s Sandhurst graduation as reasons Kate was deemed unsuitable.
It is also claimed the Middletons were too common ? as Carole descends from a coal miner.
One source claimed William’s inner circle would mock Kate about her mum’s past as an air stewardess by shouting “doors to manual” when she walked into a room.
Last night a close friend of the Middletons told The Sun: “Carole is at breaking point. She is in such a bad way that Kate has had to comfort her. It is so unfair that someone has got the knives out for Kate’s mum. She is an innocent party.
“Carole has worked all hours to make a success of Party Pieces and support her family.
“Kate is not going with her parents to the Caribbean because she is concerned about the signals that would send. It was an amicable split and Kate is relaxed about the decision.”
Last night Clarence House sources said Kate’s family had nothing to do with the break-up.
A senior source said: “The story of the split is being twisted into a character assassination on Carole Middleton.
“This is unfair and motivated by snobbery and envy.

How wealthy is Kate Middleton's family?
By Sally Hamilton
17 November 2010
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The prince to marry the pauper? Well, not quite. Although a commoner, Kate Middleton's finances - or at least those of her family - are what many a middle-class Brit would aspire to
Parents Carole and Michael have built up a comfortable cash pile from a successful online party business, Party Pieces - established in 1987.
It is a mail order business that aims to help parents create 'magical' parties for their children at home. Party Pieces is run from a call centre, with eight staff, out of a barn near Reading in Berkshire. It also has a website which attracts around 150,000 potential customers a month. [Read more: partypieces.co.uk]

Although profit and loss accounts are not published because it is a partnership rather than a limited company, the income has contributed to a lifestyle that includes a £1m house in leafy Berkshire and putting their three children, Kate, Pippa and James, through some of the most expensive private schools, which for Kate alone would have cost an estimated £250,000.
They also bought her a flat in Chelsea now worth between £750,000 and £1m. [Update 25/11: There is no mortgage on the flat, according to Land Registry records]

At the age of 28, the future Queen of England, has rather a thin CV for a bright A grade Marlborough educated pupil who earned a 2:1 in History of Art from St Andrew's University.
Until recently she was working for the family firm after a brief post-graduate foray into the outside world working for retailer Jigsaw.

Now that her family is to be the Royal variety, she need never worry about money again - if indeed she ever did. As consort to Prince William she will surely be looked after in the manner she has been hoping to become accustomed to since she first met her Prince at St Andrew's. The new level of wealth is seen from the start with the ring she's wearing - Diana's engagement ring - worth a cool £85,700.

Since the age of 25, Prince William (now 28) has enjoyed a lavish income from the £6.5m capital left to him by his mother Princess Diana, plus money from the estate of his great-grandmother the Queen Mother who died in 2002.

He also earns a decent salary as an officer in the RAF - a flight lieutenant earns £37,170 a year - and is given an allowance from his father from his own income from the Duchy of Cornwall estate. And should his father pre-decease him, his income will go stratospheric when the whole of that income is transferred to him.
Currently, Prince Charles receives the annual net surplus of the Duchy of Cornwall (he has no access to the capital) and uses a large proportion of the income to meet the cost of his public and charitable work and a part of the income to pay for his private life and those of his wife, Camilla, and his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
As a Crown body, the Duchy is tax exempt, but Prince Charles opts to pays income tax (currently at 40%) on his taxable income from it. The land that he earns an income from is worth an estimated £750m-£1.2bn.

If or when William becomes king, then his income will take on a new dimension. The Queen's own assets are estimated at £290m, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. She is also paid £14m each year from the Civil List. This system is due to be overhauled, although some claim it will the head of state better off [Read the details].

This is all a far cry from the Middleton's assets and income, although it seems their wealth doesn't come just from purveying party bags and birthday balloons.

Research by author Claudia Joseph for her biography Kate: Princess in Waiting, suggests that money has also trickled down from ancestors on at least one side of the family.

Former air stewardess Carole Middleton (nee Goldsmith), now 55, was a builder's daughter and descended from a family of penniless Durham coal miners. But Kate's father Michael, 61 and the Leeds-born son of an airline pilot, comes from a wealthier background that includes an 18th century wool manufacturer and merchant from Leeds who left the equivalent of £33m in his will.

Although depleted somewhat on its way down the generations it is thought that at least some was left to help the modern Middletons fund their well-to-do lifestyle.

Kate's parents make most of Party Pieces
By Fay Schlesinger
27 November 2010, 9:43am
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Kate Middleton's parents have made thousands of pounds by selling the names and addresses of wealthy young mothers to mail-order companies.
Carole and Michael Middleton's party planning business - www.partypieces.co.uk - has a lucrative sideline in selling customers' data to other firms.
Because most clients of the Party Pieces website - which sells toys, decorations and fancy-dress costumes - are affluent women with young children, the information is particularly valuable, say experts.

The Middletons have achieved an envious lifestyle from modest roots and have insisted on contributing to the costs of their daughter's wedding to Prince William next year.

Their database of details could be resold at a possible £20,000 per time to different firms who want to send out targeted advertisements. The practice known as direct marketing is legal and popular among businesses of all sizes.

The industry is worth £205bn a year and employs about 900,000 people.

Party Pieces collects name-and-address information when a new client registers online. It also asks for the names and birth dates of customers' children when they request literature, to time the delivery of a catalogue.

Details of customers who had bought from the firm in the past year were sold for £120 per 1,000 names through the broker Fig Tree DM, or £100 for less-recent data, the Times claimed yesterday.

With more than 230,000 customers, they could have made more than £20,000 a time through the practice if most individuals allowed their details to be shared with third parties. Depending on its success - measured in the responses to advertising - the list of contact details could be sold by the same broker multiple times to different mail-order companies, with Party Pieces benefiting each time.

In 2008 an article about the company in Marketing Week said: 'Profiling confirms the ABC1 nature of this proven mailorder buyer file, making it a prime file for targeting upmarket females and mothers.'

In 2000 another magazine - Precision Marketing, which no longer exists - advertised a Party Pieces database of 232,370 names.

It said: 'The list contains predominantly ABC1 females aged 20 to 30 with children aged mainly 2 to 7. Although the products are generally inexpensive, the average order for each chil

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Title: Re: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: Varya on June 24, 2011, 03:51:19 am
________________________________________
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Kate and the paps is a familiar story

By DONAL LYNCH
Sunday August 12 2007

Your heart has to go out to poor Kate Middleton, who, months after her relationship with Wills has ended, is still being chased all over England by paparazzi. They stalk her, they drive after her in cars, and then they sell pictures of her looking fabulous to newspapers. And it's so not her fault. I mean, how was she to know that photographers would be gathered outside notorious celebrity hangout Mahiki as she made her dramatic 3am exit?

And just because she was pouting and smiling for Hello's cameras last month does not mean the paps had any right to assume she is comfortable with being in the public eye. Don't they know it was all for charity -- some boat race or other -- and that nothing pains Kate more than to be seen helping other people in full make-up and push- up bra? She would much prefer that it be done in private so she didn't have to spend hours looking quite so glamorous.

Of course, photographers could never know because they can't guess at the pain she has been in since she broke up with Wills. They might have had trouble identifying this pain as Kate is more or less constantly seen out and about looking chic and happy, but that's no excuse; they should be banned. And that rumour that she looks so satisfied because she's actually still with Wills is just ridiculous.

You do have to wonder, though, whether she ever looks at what's happening and sees a little bit of history repeating itself: a commoner splitting from a prince and complaining about media attention while appearing to constantly court it. Remind you of anyone?

- DONAL LYNCH

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COCKTAIL KATE SHOT HERSELF IN FOOT AT ROYALS’ STAG PARTY
Published on 17/10/2007

Off target: Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton, who has been spotted hunting with the royals
As a rule, Kate Middleton is pictured tumbling out of nightclubs. Prince William’s girlfriend appears to spend a great deal of her time in the sort of London clubs where rich young things knock back cocktails at about £100 a shot.  Still, I don’t suppose Kate is too bothered right now about saving up for a deposit for a mortgage. Palaces have long been paid for.  It was a change, therefore to see her all dressed up for a fresh-faced walk in the country. Some brisk Highland air, you might think, would bring the roses back to her late-night London face.  Until, we realised exactly what she was up to.  Kate has now found herself as the centre of a public row after her decision to go deer-stalking with the royal family at Balmor@l.  Anti-blood sports campaigners are up in arms after Kate was pictured in camouflage dress practising with a bolt-action rifle before heading off into the hills with Prince Charles and a couple of ghillies.  You might argue that there are perfectly legitimate and good reasons in favour of culling deer. Countryman say that is it much kinder to kill deer with a skilled single shot than to allow excess numbers to starve to death when their numbers exceed the food supply in their habitat.   However, it is not a terrific idea for Kate to rile half the country by taking part in blood sports. Reason doesn’t come into it. Shooting a stag is not regarded by many as a great female accomplishment.  Diana loathed life at Balmor@l and took no part in the royal family’s heartier activities; an attitude which endeared her to many.  For her part, Kate would be wiser to stick to late nights in London.

One of my favs! Plus the comments!
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The Official Swedish News & Current Affairs Review
An ongoing review of news reporting, politics and current events that affect daily life in Sweden, as well as comments on world events. Commentary will be posted in both English and Swedish.
En löpande granskning av nyhetsrapportering, politik och aktuella frågor som påverkar vardagslivet i Sverige, samt kommentarer på världsfrågor. Synpunkterna kommer att skrivas på både svenska och engelska.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2007
The future of Great Britain - a drunk and a manipulative tart?

Just when we thought it was all over, when we were being encouraged by the sight of a maturing William Windsor getting on with his life, charting out his plans with the army and navy and taking on more royal duties, we were faced with the most unpalatable news that he had suffered a monumental relapse and had gone back to his self-destructive ways. Here was the prince once again stumbling blind drunk out of a nightclub, accompanied by his usual drinking partner and errant sex-buddy under such circumstances, the incredibly persistent, "publicity-shy" (yeah right) Kate Middleton. Men can sometimes be their own worst enemies, I tell you.

Now while it is obvious to anyone with two eyes and a functioning brain that the woman in question appears to have cornered the market in the tabloid stakes with the aid of some shrewd PR-tactics (some of which have since backfired), among other things, some routinely sycophantic reporters have been at pains to describe her as discreet (everytime she gets involved in William's plans the world gets a blow-by-blow account), demure (plunging necklines and bum-skimming skirts with fishnet stockings are the order of the day), and an all-round victim and loather of public attention (even in the face of abundant evidence that she frequently and readily courts the press when it suits her single-minded agenda).

Which begs the question: is William stupid? Or is his brain simply addled by the copious amounts of alcohol he consumes? I repeat, men can sometimes be their own worst enemies. Because judging from the fevered crescendo of the rabid hacks' predictions of impending marriage in the pro-Middleton tabs, his latest drunken antic may have been the biggest mistake he has made since he grew a pair and finally called time on the increasingly fractious relationship in March of this year. How many men have not sealed their fates by stumbling drunk out of bars with women they thought they had successfully offloaded? In the latest escapade, a ring that

Middleton has sported for a good year was touted by tabs as "a firm sign of commitment", followed by the usual mentions of "moving from strength to strength", "it's a matter of when, not if" and various regurgitations of the predictions they were making exactly a year ago, before being left with egg on their faces after Easter this year. Although there were more sceptics this time around, the press still seems hell-bent on making this woman William's bride, whether he wants her to be or not. I wonder, how many of them would be happy to force unwanted girfriends down their own sons' throats? In the midst of this, they forget that Kate Middleton, far from being a victim of some heartless cad, is very much a willing participant in the soap opera that this has become. She knows the score, and much more.

More astute royal observers have noted that William, when accompanied Middleton, usually appears to be either drunk or irritated. It is believed that it was a combination of these two conditions that led his press secretary to make an ill-advised complaint about "harassment" by papparazzi outside the club, even though his companion's grinning demeanour showed that she was anything but. There is still no word as to whether he was coerced into making the complaint (or by whom), since footage showed that he was way too drunk to make any assessment of the situation at the time. Nevertheless, things appear to be getting back to normal. For although William has since got over his latest hangover

and resumed royal duties, his on-off companion has fallen back into her old routine of frequenting papparazzi-haunted bars in London and smiling encouragingly at waiting photographers. She was last pictured cosying up to a bouncer on her way out of a particularly well-known papparazzi haunt, Mahiki. The hemlines are once again on the way up, possibly indicating that developments are once again winding down, as far as any hopes of "rekindlement" with William is concerned. We should be so lucky.

Has it really come to this?

Do the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth really want a king who appears to have a

serious drinking problem and issues of judgement? Do they want a future queen who seems to revel in revealing nearly every inch of her body to the photographers she claims to loathe, while chatting them up when she thinks no-one is watching? Do they want to have a queen consort who has not held down a job in the nearly three years since she graduated from university with a dubious degree in Art History and has shown no interest in anything other than waiting around, putting out intermittently and scheming her way into a royal engagement?

It is said that the Queen is deeply unsettled by the prospect of William even considering bringing Middleton into her family, and feels that he "could do better". This must be the understatement of the year. Queen Elizabeth is not blind. Nor are her family and friends and the people upon which the survival of the monarchy and their sense of privilege ultimately depends. Middleton would be the first woman to be allowed into the royal family after having so blatantly exploited her position as mistress to a member of the family to gain various goods and favours, the most obvious of them being a "cut-price" Audi A3 car. Add to that the rumoured freebies in the form of designer clothes and handbags and a rather unsavoury image emerges. And with that goes any remaining shred of respect for the woman in question. God help the British monarchy if she gets a foot in the door, given her insatiable desire for publicity and her dubious track record. And God help the monarchy if William ends up on the throne on current form.

Biased press

William's behaviour is no different from that of his younger brother Harry, yet he is the one who is constantly praised while his less than flattering exploits are ignored. This despite the fact that in many respects, it is Harry who comes across as the more genuine and mature of the two, especially when one looks at his serious commitment to, and obvious delight in participating in charitable activities, particularly those involving disadvantaged children. Similarly, William's "professional PR" on-off mistress plays a lazy media and is held up as one who can do no wrong, despite ample evidence to the contrary, while Harry's obviously more responsible, less affected and clearly highly intelligent girlfriend Chelsy Davy is constantly ripped to shreds by the same papers for the slightest of (often fabricated) infractions. It begs the simple question: what does Kate Middleton and/or her family and/or William have on the British media?

And one could go on.

On the basis of the evidence and an analysis of personalities involved, it would appear that Harry, being the more mature and engaging of the two, would be more aptly suited to shouldering the vast responsibilities that the position of future king of England would entail. The last thing people would need is another dithering, self-absorbed individual in the position. After Charles vacates the post (if he ever gets there), they will need a well-deserved break. William may have his mother's looks, but any similarities end there. He is very much his father's son, and not in a positive way. Harry, on the other hand, has inherited his mother's natural sense of empathy and her common touch, as well as her sense of purpose.

Let Harry take over, for the good of the country and the Commonwealth. And put William out to pasture once and for all, together with the highly fragrant Kate Middleton.

Labels: Chelsy, Commonwealth, engagement, Great Britain, Harry, Kate Middleton, manipulation, marriage, Prince William, princess, Queen Elizabeth, royal family, royals, UK, wales

posted by Adolf R | 21:04
6 Comments:
Anonymous said...
hilarious and very true take on Prince William dysfunctional and bizarre on-off relationship with Kate Middleton.
5/11/07 00:55
Anonymous said...
Bravo! I am so happy that someone has finally said what many have been noticing for a long time now! I hope this blog makes its way around the world, and the UK press would have no choice but the confront what is going on directly in front of their faces.
5/11/07 03:28
Anonymous said...
Great article. I'm glad someone is able to see through Kate and William and all their drunken, immature garbage!  Also, I like Harry and am also a big fan of Chelsy. Harry is very genuine and seems to care about people, and enjoys doing charity work. Chelsy is smart, going to graduate school, doesn't get drunk every night, and clearly has some goals for her life other than marrying royalty. The same cannot be said by the jobless Kate, who gets drunk and on her knees on weeknights, and also is BFF with an orgies organizer...
5/11/07 05:42
shake said...
Is this blog for real?Do we actually have an opinion blog like that published?At last,someone said what the majority thinks.William has been proven so litle,so poor so bad.Harry has been overshadowing him both in private and in public.Well said.Dont be suprised William cant get any better woman.Its because he isnt a better man.He deserves this woman.From the recent interviews to the Diana concert and memorial service,Harry has come out as a man with guts and a real star,while William cannot stand up for his mother once,and he seems eager to support his roles models,father and Camilla,while he cant say one good for his dead mother publicly./ Here is an article from the Telegrapg yesterday that actually agrees with your opinion.  www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/11/04/do0403.xml
5/11/07 09:51
Anonymous said...
If I knew the emoticons for standing ovation, I'd be typing them now. Brilliant article! Absolutely brilliant! I too do not understand what the Meddlingtons have on the british press. I mean it's British tradition to make the heir sound decent no matter how clear it is to everyone else that the heir isn't all that. But why the obsession with lazy Kate? I just don't know.
5/11/07 22:14
Anonymous said...
I give you Cheer and Applause for telling the clear truth about Kate Middleton and Pr. William's drunken antics. Thank-you, for your honesty, finally someone is on to Miss Middleton and her Social-climbing family. Yes it does seem Pr. Harry has charmed and rose to the occasion at each public event and Pr. William has seemed flustered in public. I hope one of the Courtiers slips your blog in with the Royal Family's morning news.
10/11/07 22:14
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Title: Re: Middleton Family Past Articles Only thread!
Post by: Tpearl on June 18, 2015, 12:00:45 am
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Thanks for sharing.

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