William and Kate: engagement and relationship rumours and musings 2005 - 2008

[Duke of Marmalade]

If the relationship is about to end, then the interview can set Kate up in a sympathetic position of breaking off with William because of the public pressures to her family rather than having Kate perceived as being dumped.

That would be a naive try, nothing more. In case there is a break up and Carole tries to make people believe that it's all down to public pressure the only thing people will think is "why didn't the Middletons stay out of the kitchen if they couldn't stand the heat?".

In case there is a split without any further comment people will think that Waity Katie was being dumped anyway and go "Well done, Wills"; it doesn't really matter what the Middleton camp will have to say or even if Kate came up with a most credible tell-it-all-story, "Why I dumped Wills", people will still think that Wills sent her the return ticket, not the other way around. Kate has been in that I'll-do-anything-for-that-ring-on-my-finger drawer for much too long. Sorry but in this case the public will be on the Royal side even though many think William is a dimwit. The tenor will be "Lucky Wills escaped by the skin of his teeth, but now it's new game, new luck!".

 

[karagiosis]

... !!


I subscribe to the point of view that no one is obligated to make any sort of public statement... but I thought I could add, as it might be useful to keep in mind, that so long as the nature of the former acquaintanceship of Prince William and Miss Middleton remains uncertain, many individuals will continue to benefit from this public uncertainty.


However this term (of uncertainty) has nearly expired...

I suppose I'm only mentioning this now out of the frustration that I and others feel and thought I'd take my chances by posting it.


-Karagiosis

 

[Al_bina]

I am disappointed to learn that Mrs. Middleton decided to give an interview. Her interview may backfire by creative interpretations and analysis of every word she uttered.

 

[Menarue]

OK, I see, you blame Carole Middleton for "saying" what you read into her quotes...

I said "most" people, there are always slower/duller exceptions.

 

[crm2317]

I said "most" people, there are always slower/duller exceptions.

Would it not be more appropriate to say some read between the lines and others don't. Maybe less offensive than calling people slow or dull.

 

[Menarue]

No, I meant it, some people are not so quick reading between the lines, others are dull, of course I was not mentioning anyone in particular.

 

[mrsbugman]

I guess I am the execption to the rule. I think Catherine and William are bound to have talked about all of this getting/not getting married thing. I don't understand this idea of "lifetime dating". But if they wanted to get married surely they would have. I would hope the palace is not stopping them for some reason. Catherine could become a military wife. Lots of couples do it. It seems to me one or the other doesn't want to get married at this time (I have an opinion as to who it is). And it seems to be ok with the other. I hope neither is stringing the other along as that is not fair to either one or them. But it seems that they have been a couple long enough to talk about the serious things in life, so I would think if it were important to one or the other they would have married or broken up for good. This is only my opiniom anyway.

 

[Elspeth]

While I know people have strong feelings on both sides of this particular issue, it'd be nice if everyone participated in this thread in a spirit of cooperation and consideration for other participants' feelings, especially since this is an issue where we aren't privy to the facts (at least most of them) and people will be drawing different conclusions from the information we do have.

Thanks!

Elspeth
British Royals moderator

 

[Ella Kay]

I agree, mrsbugman. They may just not be ready to get married yet. They're not even thirty. Just because lots of us on the 'net are ready to see a royal wedding doesn't mean that they feel ready yet for that level of commitment. Lots of people date for years before getting married - it's not really that abnormal.

 

[blondie28]

They might have dated some years, but others they might have been friends and the press took it way out of whack. If you love someone and you know tahtt they are the one, why wait seven years. That's what gives me the idea that William does not intend on marrying Kate. There has been no sign William wants to marry her, of course she wants to marry him though! He wants to play the field more you can tell he isn't devoted to anybody.

 

[Ella Kay]

If you love someone and you know tahtt they are the one, why wait seven years.

I don't think it's often so simple as just "knowing" that someone is the right person for you to marry. Love and marital commitment are two very different things sometimes. There are lots of reasons why people wait to get married, and we can't really presume to know how they feel about it.

Plus, William's got the added stress of having to get it absolutely right the first time - I'm not sure the monarchy can withstand another "War of the Waleses," and I doubt he wants to go through the pain he saw his parents endure either.

I don't know what evidence we have that Kate is the one chomping at the bit to get married. I think people sometimes assume that because she is the commoner in the relationship, and people think that she's angling for a tiara. I don't interpret that from the little bit we know about her, personally.

 

[blondie28]

I don't know what evidence we have that Kate is the one chomping at the bit to get married. I think people sometimes assume that because she is the commoner in the relationship, and people think that she's angling for a tiara. I don't interpret that from the little bit we know about her, personally.

Woe, woe, woe, that is not why people think she wants to be a princess, or else that would be how all of the other crown princesses married their husbands. That's the wrong idea.

 

[Amelia]

......... If you love someone and you know tahtt they are the one, why wait seven years. That's what gives me the idea that William does not intend on marrying Kate. .

Many people wait even longer to get married. I know I did. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a long-term relationship, it all comes down to personal preferences.

There has been no sign William wants to marry her, of course she wants to marry him though!

There has been no sign that Kate wants to marry him either, all she has done is be his girlfriend.


In regards to what Mrs Middleton had to say, reading between the lines, I didn't find it all that supportive of her daughter. She came across to me as a woman who has had enough of all the insults and drama her daughters relationship has brought her and the rest of her family over the years. If I were Kate I wouldn't be pleased with what she said, but that's just the way it came across to me!

 

[Menarue]

If I were Kate I wouldn´t be pleased either but although Mrs Middleton had to put up with a lot of issues because of her daughter´s relationship I am sure that the business profited, in fact she said that is her main worry at the moment. It mustn´t have been very pleasant for her to hear what was said about her at the passing-out parade.
But who would have heard of party pieces if it hadn´t been for Kate going out with William, only a few people looking for equipment on the internet for their children´s parties, but now I think there would be lots of people who would give their custom to them just because of the "royal connection" silly I know, but I believe they would.

 

[Elspeth]

I guess I am the execption to the rule. I think Catherine and William are bound to have talked about all of this getting/not getting married thing. I don't understand this idea of "lifetime dating". But if they wanted to get married surely they would have. I would hope the palace is not stopping them for some reason. Catherine could become a military wife. Lots of couples do it. It seems to me one or the other doesn't want to get married at this time (I have an opinion as to who it is). And it seems to be ok with the other. I hope neither is stringing the other along as that is not fair to either one or them. But it seems that they have been a couple long enough to talk about the serious things in life, so I would think if it were important to one or the other they would have married or broken up for good. This is only my opiniom anyway.

Words of wisdom there!

We seem to have quite a few senior royals around Europe who are in long-term relationships that aren't going anywhere (at least as far as we can tell). You'd think they'd be more considerate of the TRF posters and do something about it!

 

[Ella Kay]

Woe, woe, woe, that is not why people think she wants to be a princess, or else that would be how all of the other crown princesses married their husbands. That's the wrong idea.

I don't understand - so you're saying that lots of people think she wants to get married for reasons other than becoming a princess? Or that she wants to be a princess for different reasons than getting married?

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

Mandrake tells us:

Carole was "the model of discretion"
presumably, he means, until now?

Caroline is a "glamorous businesswoman"
not exactly the phrase I would use, but if he thinks she is glamorous, OK

Carole tells Mandrake:
She feels "vulnerable," because she is not "celebrity" and does not want to employ a PR person.

She doesn't want the media attention to detract her focus from her business.
Understandable, but why does Mandrake, or we for that matter, need to know it?

She referred to her eldest as Catherine.

She denies ever being introduced to the Queen and therefore, having used "faux pas" terms.

She explains the infamous chewing gum thing by explaining it was a smoking substitute.
Nicorette gum?

She's worried about the effect of the media attention on her son James and his projects.

She apparently wants us to know, for some reason, that she is worried about her whole family, not just "Catherine."
She wants us to know she never used faux pas words in the Presence because, first of all, she never met The Queen. She implied she would not have chewed gum at the Sandhurst graduation but she had to in order not to smoke. Bad to smoke at an event attended by the royal family? OK to chew gum?

She wants to know she is a dedicated businesswoman, loving mother to all three of her children ("not just Catherine"), ex-smoker, and wants to lay low from the media and not employ a PR person.

But she is comfortable chatting for the Mandrake column during a race meeting. Or not comfortable? But she did it.

It's a strange interview, or whatever you call this thing.

Maybe she is trying to get a last word in for her family before the news of a breakup. She took the time to deny two past rumors that placed her in unfavorable light. She took the time to plead James' case. She implies all she wants to be a loving mother and focus on her work. She never mentions her husband. She wants us to feel sorry for her because she says she never courted her "celebrity."

It's classic, "I'm a good, decent person, never asked for this, worried about my kids like any good, decent mother, just want to focus on my work...."

 

[Avicenna]

Since I do not know Mandrake ... a question to those who do: how reliable is Tim Walker normally?

 

[Menarue]

I don't understand - so you're saying that lots of people think she wants to get married for reasons other than becoming a princess? Or that she wants to be a princess for different reasons than getting married?

A classic Ella Kay

 

[Kezza]

No not really and if that was her attention she got it totally wrong as her statements sound rather pathetic.

Oh Dear, this family keeps shooting themselves in the foot. In the article Carole is quoted as "I'm not a celebrity and don't want to be one. Celebrities have minders and PR people. I don't want a PR person and wouldn't want to have to pay to employ one. I haven't asked for all this." - correct, only why on earth she then feels the need to speak to the media (and I assume that she knew exactly who she was talking to). Yes Carole has 3 children and a business to worry about - she only forgets to mention that she herself and the other 2 children are more or less thriving on the publicity created by her precious daughter Kate - does she honestly believe if there wasn't the relationship with Prince William anybody would know or care about Pippa the event manager or James's company or even Party Pieces? For me Carole is just an over-ambitious mother and business woman who starts to realize that dreams or ambitions or visions can go wrong or at least backfire. Reading her quotes in newspapers probably means what most people are thinking anyway - no engagement on the cards anymore.

Finally regarding this "gum" or "toilet" discussion - when I recall the pictures from that day in Sandhurst I thought that the whole family looked like a bunch of people who had taken the wrong entrance (including Kate pointing with her finger at things all the time). I am assured Carole has never met the Queen - why would HM want to go through a "Meet the Parents" experience?

I agree and it sounds more like someone is trying to put a point across before something is about to blow.

 

[Ella Kay]

A classic Ella Kay

It's what my mother would call a "head-scratcher."

 

[Isana]

She denies ever being introduced to the Queen and therefore, having used "faux pas" terms.

She explains the infamous chewing gum thing by explaining it was a smoking substitute.
Nicorette gum?

Those were not quotes from Carole that was just random information thrown in by the author that has already been stated in articles before.

 

[ysbel]

That would be a naive try, nothing more. In case there is a break up and Carole tries to make people believe that it's all down to public pressure the only thing people will think is "why didn't the Middletons stay out of the kitchen if they couldn't stand the heat?".

The simple answer to that is that they weren't in the fire when the relationship started. Kate started dating Wills at St. Andrews when the Royal Family and the press had an agreement that the press would lay off. The public barely heard anything about them when they were at St. Andrews so there was nothing in the initial relationship to prepare the Middletons for public scrutiny. When he graduated, the agreement was off and that changed things considerably but by that time, it looks like the relationship was already pretty solid and not easy to break off even if Kate was uncomfortable with the press. And she did look uncomfortable with the press the first few years out of St. Andrews.

In case there is a split without any further comment people will think that Waity Katie was being dumped anyway and go "Well done, Wills"; it doesn't really matter what the Middleton camp will have to say or even if Kate came up with a most credible tell-it-all-story, "Why I dumped Wills", people will still think that Wills sent her the return ticket, not the other way around. Kate has been in that I'll-do-anything-for-that-ring-on-my-finger drawer for much too long. Sorry but in this case the public will be on the Royal side even though many think William is a dimwit. The tenor will be "Lucky Wills escaped by the skin of his teeth, but now it's new game, new luck!".

I think with her mother's interview, Kate doesn't need a tell-all story. If the interview is the last major news piece about the couple before a breakup, it will be taked about and pointed to as a reason. Carole Middleton's interview sounds like some of the Duke of Wellington's statements right before Charles broke up with his daughter. To this day, no one knows exactly what caused the relationship to end, whether it was the Royal Family's opinion that Jane was too independent or whether it was Jane thinking that the Princess of Wales position was too stultifying. But the protests from the Duke gave the press something else to work with other than Charles dumped Jane.

Not everybody in the public is on the Royal side. Quite a few think that Wills has treated Kate quite cavalierly.

it sounds more like someone is trying to put a point across before something is about to blow.

Maybe she is trying to get a last word in for her family before the news of a breakup.

That's exactly what I think. I can't imagine Kate's mother saying that if they wanted the relationship to flourish. The Royals are already too press-shy about intimates saying too much and are not likely to welcome one in their bosom whose family talks too much. If the relationship has a chance, the interview can only hurt their chances. If the relationship doesn't have a chance, I think the family is just protecting itself.

 

[kbear]

~Cant believe she would open her mouth if it wasnt all over bar the shouting/press reports if she did actually give an interview then I think it definitely is over and has been for a while.

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

Yeah, they are so breaking up. I hope so anyway. They haven't seemed like a real couple for a long time. They tried to make it work after the spark had long died out, so we should give them props for effort, but it's been obvious for at least the last couple of years that their relationship was just bone dry. They just had zero chemistry when they were together. Kate seemed more into him than vice versa, but even she had to be tired of pulling all the weight.

It's very interesting point about the Duke of Wellington and the Lady Jane Wellesley.

 

[muriel]

If it was a "real" interview, it was probably one of the world's shortest interviews!

 

[Menarue]

The best shortest interview would have been "no comment"....

 

[Jo of Palatine]

I think this is now the busiest time in Mrs. Middleton's business and if a journalist from a reknown paper came up to her offering her a story in the business section, she probably would speak to him on saying these things during the conversation. Like, thank you, no, I'm not interested, I'm feeling vulnerable due to the media attention anyway. I'm no celeb, you know, celbs need PR-people and I'd rather employ one more worker for Party Pieces' packaging unit then for the PR department. Smiling cheekily.
Which reads as: "I'm not a celebrity and don't want to be one. Celebrities have minders and PR people. I don't want a PR person and wouldn't want to have to pay to employ one."

And then he answers: Well, you certainly haven't asked for all this. (She agrees with a slight shake of her head) And he continues: Yes, but it's about your business mainly, okay, we will have to talk about your daughter, but only a bit. So she answers: My business is important to me, surely. Of course, this should be the main focus of such an article. But I'm afraid it will be all about rumours about my family, especially Catherine but of course Pippa and James as well. .

Written as: "I'm concerned about my business; that's my focus," she said. "I don't want the attention to detract from that. I'm also worried for my family: I have three children – not just Catherine."

Then he says: I see. And she adds(still thinking he works for the economy section of the Telegraph): But maybe you could talk to my son James. He's quite good at what he does, writing articles and has interesting business projects he surely wants to talk about. he has that problem that the whole media seems to be interested in gossip and noone in the things he actually does. "

Which comes out as: "James is very good with it all," says his mother. "He writes articles and has business projects which he wants to talk about, but then it's difficult when everything else is going on around him and people don't just want to know about his projects."

It's the most normal thing for a mother talking to a journalist she just turned down to try to get a bit more attention for her son, the freelance journalist and start-up entrepreneur. So I doubt it was really an "interview" but more parts of a pre-interview talk and that Mrs. Middleton thought the Telegraph to be a serious paper, no gossip rag, so she was politer and saying one or two sentences more on turning down their offer.

Such little talks are not unusual, rather common I'd think. And it rather shows the desperation of the papers to get any information containing the name "Middleton" at all.

 

[Jo of Palatine]

She denies ever being introduced to the Queen and therefore, having used "faux pas" terms.

She explains the infamous chewing gum thing by explaining it was a smoking substitute.
Nicorette gum?

You need to read more carefully, Ashley.

It doesn't say she denied it during that talk. If so, we would have gotten direct quotes. But it has been stated by the Telegraph before that she didn't meet the queen yet and chewed anti-nicotine gum, so of course they could write: "In fact,....". it's as much add-on to the story as the information that Mrs. Middleton was air stewardess "when flying was still chic" - I doubt Mrs. Middleton ever talked about her past in that way. But of course any author could make this statement in an article about her, as it's definately true.

 

[muriel]

I think this is now the busiest time in Mrs. Middleton's business...

Sounds entirely plausible!