The Duchess of Cambridge: Family, Wealth and Background

[Skydragon]

True but I don't think Catherine or her family have ever laid claim to being upper class, the papers have them tagged at middle class or upper working class!

[Amelia]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

At a mere million, it would have to be a tatty 5 bed!

I don't know anything about the housing market here in Ireland let alone the UK so I have no idea what a million would buy you 4 years ago or even now for that matter, but that was what Hello stated it was valued at and I had never seen it till the pic were posted here so I just took it for what it was. Now considering Hello's record of getting the simplest of things incorrect it could of been a figure that they just pulled from their backsides and that number stuck in the general media.

Having seen the house and the land that surrounds it I can't possibly imagine that it is valued at such a low number but like I said I know nothing of the housing market.

[Duke of Marmalade]

Originally Posted by Little_star

Moreover if you were to compare Kate to most of the other people the Princes hang out then she is most definitely not rich.

I think this is the statement that matters regarding the question if the Middletons are rich or not - whatever they have they are not anywhere near the wealth & social class of the people who usually surround the Princes.

[Menarue]

It look a beautiful old house and looks as though it is worth a fortune. I wonder if they bought it and when.

[Empress]

Does it really matter? In the end, hopefully people, including royals, are liked for the type of person that they are and not how much money they have or what they can do for you.

I would be sorely dissappointed in William if he was choosing his girlfriend based on her or her parents income. Mother Theresa was as poor as a church mouse, and yet she did great things. Donald Trump is as rich as the day is long, and is a worthless human being in my opinion.

It goes to show that money does not make the person, but it sure can destroy one, assuming they did not have much of a charater to begin with.

Whatever the state of her financial affairs, I hope that she loves and is loved for who she is, just as I would hope for anyone else.

[hippo]

I think it matter if you want to know if love between 2 person from very different social level , background is possible....it's part of fairytale...
But we can also speak what rich mean....

[Duke of Marmalade]

We all know it shouldn't but it does matter, even more when marrying into british royalty where money and especially social class are still important.

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Duke of Marmalade

We all know it shouldn't but it does matter, even more when marrying into british royalty where money and especially social class are still important.

She is around for quite some years now and obviously able to join in the fun. She has the education of an upper class girl, attended the same boarding school as Beatrice (or Eugenie?) and was successful at university. She had no influence on the family she was born into, but the things she has been responsible for herself she has done in a way that is okay. She is nothing like an upstart, IMHO, though of course there are masses of young ladies of aristocratic background around who from their book value seem to be a better option. But William chose her as his grilfriend and we'll see if he makes her his wife.

I was a bit, well, not surprised but disappointed, though, that her sister was dropped by her heir to nobility-boyfriend immediately after it became known that William and Catherine had separated. Probably Pippa was okay as long as she was going to be the future king's sister-in-law but when that changed (even for a short time) she was kissed good-bye. Well, now she knows what this "romance" was worth.

[Menarue]

Telegraph 17-4-2007 quote[
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 Miss 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.]

This gives a lot of family history.

[Skydragon]

Not really, it gives us one persons interpretation of her history, not necessarily facts.

Take the use of the word lavatory, she was supposed to have said this to whom???? The jibes said more about the lack of breeding of the people making the comments than Mrs Middleton or her daughter!

Just because HM and the Middletons are at the same 'event', does not mean they were 'introduced.

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

Just because HM and the Middletons are at the same 'event', does not mean they were 'introduced.

You are right in this, IMHO. And why don't people believe that HM and the Duke of Edinburgh have been around for long enough to know how to deal with the situation? Once (and if) the relationship of William and Catherine gets really serious, that is, once William makes up his mind to propose (and maybe he already did so!), I think William will talk to Charles and Camilla and then to HM and the Duke. Once the senior Royals okay his decision and are informed that she probably will say "yes", they will make the proper arrangements of meeting the Middletons, get to know them, discuss the future and how to deal with the situation of them being in-laws to Royals etc. And I'm sure that for the sake of their daughter they will behave as they are advised to till they found their own way to deal with the upcoming situations.

All will be good.

[Menarue]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

Not really, it gives us one persons interpretation of her history, not necessarily facts.

Take the use of the word lavatory, she was supposed to have said this to whom???? The jibes said more about the lack of breeding of the people making the comments than Mrs Middleton or her daughter!

Just because HM and the Middletons are at the same 'event', does not mean they were 'introduced.

Actually the criticism was directed at Kate´s mother, the beginning of the article which I omitted was about her mother chewing gum right through Prince William´s Passing Out Ceremony at Sandhurst. This isn´t done, and the right word to use is lavatory and not toilet. The word toilet is not used by the upper classes and obviously she was heard using it, but the real crime was her chewing gum. Goodness knows why she did it and whether we want to admit it or not that did show a lack of breeding.

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Menarue

A but the real crime was her chewing gum. Goodness knows why she did it and whether we want to admit it or not that did show a lack of breeding.

Well, as a former air hostess she should know that chewing in public is an absolute no-go. So maybe she had a real good reason?

[Menarue]

Well we can try and think of a good reason Jo but it is going to be difficult.
She didn´t do her daughter any favours that day and at the time I felt sorry for her as not long after this the pair split up and some people put the blame on her mother´s behaviour at Sandhurst. Whether that was true or not nobody knows but she must have felt dreadful when she read what the papers said about her.

[Duchess]

"rich" is when your money works for you, you don't have to work for you money if that's your choice. from everything that i've read, it appears as though the middletons are able to live a very comfortable lifestyle from the income of they're business however they still work so whether it's by choice(which i doubt) or by necessity (which is most likely) they obviously live well.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Menarue

Actually the criticism was directed at Kate´s mother, the beginning of the article which I omitted was about her mother chewing gum right through Prince William´s Passing Out Ceremony at Sandhurst. This isn´t done, and the right word to use is lavatory and not toilet. The word toilet is not used by the upper classes and obviously she was heard using it, but the real crime was her chewing gum. Goodness knows why she did it and whether we want to admit it or not that did show a lack of breeding.

I just wonder who decreed that the word lavatory was the word to use. I have heard it referred to as the little girls room, loo, lav and the 'you know'. Just because a reporter tells you it should be lavatory, does not make it so. A lot of the aristo's and upper class women I know, call it the loo. But I ask again, who did she use the T word to? We were once subjected to the horrific site of a well know HP, giving us the washing machine demo with his mouth wide open as he chewed and spoke! Not a pretty site.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Jo of Palatine

Well, as a former air hostess she should know that chewing in public is an absolute no-go. So maybe she had a real good reason?

She was possibly giving up smoking.

[Roslyn]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

She was possibly giving up smoking.

That is what sprang to my mind.

[TonyaR]

Catherine's sister Pippa and her extremely wealthy, old money boyfriend were reunited about 3 months after their breakup. He is the man in the white shirt sitting next to Pippa in all those photos taken of the Middleton family at the Concert for Diana.

He is also in several photos taken with William and Catherine and Pippa when they went skiing at Klosters this March. I find it a little strange that the timing of Pippa's break up and reunion coincides with that of William and Catherine's, but in all honesty it could be just coincidence.

[Jo of Palatine]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

I just wonder who decreed that the word lavatory was the word to use.

And again: why should a former air-hostess use toilet instead of lavatory? In any plane I ever used, the toilet was not only named lavatory but referred to as such, as in "Sorry, madam, this lavatory is out of order" - happens more often than one thinks..., so again Mrs. Middleton should know to use the right word. Being an Air Hostess is IMHO quite a good preperation for a life as member of higher society, as you were trained to communicate on the correct level with all kinds of people. And that a pilot noticed, dated and married her tells me a lot about her personal charme, for there is a definate class difference between flying and serving staff at an aircraft, even though they stay in the same hotels and sometimes share meals or a drink.

@ Skydragon: you're right, probably she tried to quit smoking and simply didn't think much of her chewing. But a nicotine plaster would have been better in that situation. Unfortunate for her.