The Duchess of Cambridge: Family, Wealth and Background

[NGalitzine]

Originally Posted by soapstar

I should probably clarify...I don't think the Queen's cousins are cashing in. I'm just using that phrase because it's always thrown at the Middletons. I was basically trying to point out that others close to the BRF are allowed to write books and run businesses, without being called out (by the media and public) for it.

.

Actually I don't think HM minds any of her relations and in laws earning a legitimate living. She has been around long enough to know that whatever their career (author, photographer, architect, party planner etc) the press will write of them as "royal cousin" and claim they cash in on the relationship or that their success is due to their relationship. For those people being related to the monarch will always be something of a double edged sword.

[GracieGiraffe]

Originally Posted by Duke-of-Earl

Social mobility is considered a crime in many parts of the UK by the people 'left behind'. The people who bash the Middletons are for the most part, the working class and lower middle class, who think the Middletons should be tugging their forelocks in the presence of the Royals.

I think you're absolutely right. The same also occurs in the U.S. to a certain degree. The American in me really admires Carole Middleton - I've read she was born in public housing (is this true?) and she pulled herself up by her bootstraps as we would say here, built a successful business, raised three educated children and now her eldest has married the heir to the British throne and her first grandchild will one day ascend the throne of Britain. I think it's marvelous.

They appear to be a quiet, unassuming and gracious family to me. God knows if it were otherwise, the tabloids would have discovered it.

[soapstar]

Originally Posted by NGalitzine

Actually I don't think HM minds any of her relations and in laws earning a legitimate living. She has been around long enough to know that whatever their career (author, photographer, architect, party planner etc) the press will write of them as "royal cousin" and claim they cash in on the relationship or that their success is due to their relationship. For those people being related to the monarch will always be something of a double edged sword.

I don't think she minds either. I imagine she doesn't concern herself with all of the silly stories about the Middletons. I'm sure she understands that they're just trying to run a business.

[hkittybaby]

Kate Middleton's parents show how to host the perfect dinner party - Telegraph

[grevinnan]

Originally Posted by GracieGiraffe

I think you're absolutely right. The same also occurs in the U.S. to a certain degree. The American in me really admires Carole Middleton - I've read she was born in public housing (is this true?) and she pulled herself up by her bootstraps as we would say here, built a successful business, raised three educated children and now her eldest has married the heir to the British throne and her first grandchild will one day ascend the throne of Britain. I think it's marvelous.

They appear to be a quiet, unassuming and gracious family to me. God knows if it were otherwise, the tabloids would have discovered it.

What is referred to as Public Housing in the US is not the same as Public or Council housing in UK. She definitively comes from blue collar background.

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by grevinnan

What is referred to as Public Housing in the US is not the same as Public or Council housing in UK. She definitively comes from blue collar background.

Thank you for the explanation grevinnan.

Like Gracie, this American has much admiration for Carole's energy and imagination in starting her own cottage industry. With the advent of internet sales the Middleton's Party Pieces has expanded in a way that the likely never thought could happen.

The family never spoke to the media during William and Kate's courtship and apart from Michael's statement regarding the couple's engagement, I've never heard another word from them.
Frankly I'm surprised at how the media continues to imply that the family "cashes" in on their "royal connections."

[Dman]

Middleton family win gagging order on banker who bought Duchess of Cambridge's £2m childhood home:
Middleton family win gagging order on banker who bought Duchess of Cambridge's £2m childhood home | Mail Online

[Dman]

Originally Posted by TLLK

...The family never spoke to the media during William and Kate's courtship and apart from Michael's statement regarding the couple's engagement, I've never heard another word from them.

Members of the press just love picking on this family.

[hkittybaby]

Kate Middleton's brother James Middleton buys airline seats on eBay for ex-hostess mother Carole in prank | Mail Online

[MichelleQ2]

Originally Posted by hkittybaby

Kate Middleton's brother James Middleton buys airline seats on eBay for ex-hostess mother Carole in prank | Mail Online

I think it s a fabulous fun gift. I'm sure there is a room in the new house where it will be a great addition. Maybe Carole's office or a theater room.

[HRHHermione]

Originally Posted by MichelleQ2

I think it s a fabulous fun gift. I'm sure there is a room in the new house where it will be a great addition. Maybe Carole's office or a theater room.

Yea I think that would be really fun novelty seating for an office.

[Dman]

The new adventures of Pippa Middleton:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article3666435.ece

[Baroness of Books]

Too bad you have to subscribe to the newspaper to read the rest of the article.

[KPWillie]

Originally Posted by HRHHermione

Yea I think that would be really fun novelty seating for an office.

I admire his sense of humor.

[cepe]

Originally Posted by Baroness of Books

Too bad you have to subscribe to the newspaper to read the rest of the article.

I'll paraphrase:-

Intro (probably made up for effect) is about a woman meeting them both on a walk nearly Bucklebury - highlighting that the sisters have not fallen out.

Touches on sales of Pippa's book and that the sales of said book are not bad (some UK comparisons are made) .... This leads on to the meat of the article which is "what is next for Pippa". Next paragraph ....

So what does Pippa do now? Life is rarely straightforward for the family of somebody who marries a future king, but no family can have found being semi-detached from the Royal Family as awkward as the Middletons. Diana, Princess of Wales, came from an aristocratic family and, though her brother, Earl Spencer, worked in television for several years, he knew he would take over the family estate. Her sisters lead discreet lives.

Themention of "discreet lives is a dig at the middleton's..........

Michael and Carole Middleton have been criticised for appearing to cash in on their daughter’s royal status whenever their party planning business, Party Pieces, has stocked royal-related items. Their son, James, also runs a business, called Cake Kit Company. Three years ago, in an effort to publicise his company, he made a series of cakes recreating Hello! magazine covers.

The article then says that she needs to work out what to do in the future. They mention her sports scholarship to Marlborough School and how her love of sports has taken her into the realm of extreme sports events.

She has sailed the Atlantic, climbed Mont Blanc and taken part in the Vasaloppet cross-country ski race in Sweden. She is in training for next month’s coast-to-coast race in New Zealand, a triathlon that involves running, cycling and kayaking. “That’s a tough race, that’s pretty impressive,” Justine Curgenven, the renowned British sea kayaker and expedition leader, says. “It’s not a namby-pamby trying-to-look-like-you’re-tough race.”

The journalist then speaks to Jock Monteith who runs Scottish salmon fishing parties (expensive ones) for more than 25 years. He talks about how women tend to be more succesful at salmon fishing because they are more patient.

They talk about how she could do well promoting highland sporting activities being a guide - they are apparently short of good lady guides.

The article then mentions (fleetingly) on promoting designer articles.

Then mentions staying with the family business perhaps concentrating on the US.

Then the bitchy comments ......

One person I asked about Pippa’s plans said, half-jokingly: “Well, surely she’ll marry a duke, won’t she?” She shared a flat at university with the sons of two dukes, one of them George Percy, heir to the dukedom of Northumberland and Alnwick Castle, a 100,000-acre estate nicknamed the “Windsor of the North”. The other was Ted Innes-Ker, son of the Duke of Roxburghe, who grew up in Floors Castle, in Scotland.

Then they write about her not settling down and the men she has been seen with with emphasis on their links to wealth.

Final comments are about her becoming a female Bear Grylls with exampels of striding out across the Artic tundra and living off the land.


Truly a worthless article which has not added one iota to the world's knowledge.

[AdmirerUS]

Bleh. What are the Middleton's supposed to do? Ignore the fact that little girls like princesses and instead flog a Starbucks Barista for girls birthday line? Not that I have anything against baristas of any kind - but really.

Were I Pip, I too would be hanging with any dude that caught my fancy - oh wait, that was my youth. Was it the same for most of us here on the forums? Were she hanging with rat rockers with colored hair and multiple piercings - people would be equally appalled. If she saw artists and poets - she'd be branded elitist. If she saw jocks - she'd be branded brainless.

I don't think for a moment any member of the Middleton family is brainless.
The truth is, there is little out there that shows what Pippa is like as a person. I think there is a Pippa directed reason for that. She is the one who said how odd it was to be know for her bum.

And I think all three of the children got their smarts from their parents who made their way in the world.

[Baroness of Books]

Thanks for the summary, Cepe. I appreciate your recap of the article; it definitely seems like the usual retelling of the same story and certainly not worth the price of admission - oops, subscription!

[AfricanAUSSIE]

The fact of the matter is that this offspring does not appear to manage to keep a job for very long, anywhere...even part-time. Working for self or/and having a living subsidized by parents is the option many take. I guess this is not uncommon when parents are so successful. I see it in my community everyday. Kids have everything and lack the motivation to stick it out in the tough workplace where holidays/breaks are few and far between.

I have a wealthy friend who attempts to teach in a public school just outside an affluent area. She tells me that the girls aim to be like the Pipas and Paris Hiltons of this world and aim to marry rich. The guys are not far behind. They too think they can marry an older woman who has money. They have little interest in academics or working for their pay. They think being famous or infamous will do the trick. That is their goal. Depressing.

As for the alleged opportunism written about with their party business...well that is just business!

[cepe]

Originally Posted by AfricanAUSSIE

The fact of the matter is that this offspring does not appear to manage to keep a job for very long, anywhere...even part-time.

Pippa has had only 1 job since leaving work and that is working for her parents. What evidence is there that she has had multiple jobs which she has not kept??

[Grandma828]

We really don"t know what is going on behind the scenes. It will be fun to watch.