It’s no secret that Carole Middleton laid it on thick when Prince William was dating Kate. Carole worked extra hard to show William that the Middletons were the perfect, tight-knit Middle-English family of his dreams. Not only that, she showed him that she could be the mother figure he needed after Diana’s death. Getting William to propose to Kate was a family project, and no one worked harder on it than Carole. But just how far did she go? Did she really baby Prince William to this extent?
It’s well known just how close Prince William is to wife Kate Middleton’s family. However, a royal expert has claimed Kate’s mum Carole played a maternal role in Wills’ life during the early days of the romance and her future son-in-law would lie on the sofa with his head on her lap when visiting the family home.
The 37-year-old Duke – who lost his own mum Princess Diana at the age of 15 in 1997 – saw romance blossom with fellow St Andrews student Kate, now 37, in 2003. He then started paying regular visits to the Middleton home in the West Berkshire village of Bucklebury.
Speaking in new documentary William and Harry: Brothers In Arms, NBC’s royal correspondent Ashley Pearson suggests he saw a mother figure in Carole, 64, during this time. She said: “He would lie on the couch with his head in the lap of Mrs Middleton. Or he would sit after dinner and talk for hours with Mr Middleton.”
The expert explains that part of Kate’s appeal back then was the close-knit family she came with. Ashley explains: “Talking to a royal insider several years ago, she told me one of the reasons William fell in love with Kate Middleton from the very beginning was because of her family and her close relationship with her siblings and parents. As much as William fell in love with Kate he definitely fell in love with the Middleton family at the same time. He loved the way Kate was very friendly and playful with her brother James or her sister Pippa. Feeling part of that close, tight-knit, very British family was the first time in his life that he’d had that experience and for William it was entirely intoxicating.”
I’m sure many people will disbelieve this entirely, and so be it. I’m honestly not sure I believe it. I do believe that Carole babies William and that she actively sought to be his maternal figure, but did she go this far? Eh. I’m sure there will be many people arguing that it’s not that big of a deal that William was close enough to his girlfriend’s mother to the point where he was resting his head in her lap. But you know what? If Kate had any friends worth a damn (at the time), they would have told her that this is a huge f–king red flag! You’re in college, you date a guy, and good news, he gets along great with your family and he loves coming over and chatting with your mom and dad. All of that is wonderful. But then you walk in on him one day with his head on your mom’s lap. That relationship would be done, as far as I’m concerned. Dealbreaker. And I would be beyond pissed at my mom too, damn.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
Kate wanted to be queen. She knew what she was signing up for and was probably grateful for her family’s help. I don’t fault her for her hustle.
I’m amazed by the hustle myself. People say Kate never worked, and technically that’s true, but I’m guessing Will was a full time job in his own right. She probably feels she worked for her position and…. she’d not be wrong if she felt that way, haha.
So true!
So true, Millennial. If you’re willing to let a man “walk all over you” then you’re pretty much in it for the long haul. Lol!
Agreed. I would never had had the energy to to deal with that.
Maybe it was what he needed at the time. His grief might have been complicated and she may have very naturally offered some warmth and safety he sought.
I had a very warm relationship with my in Laws. Having grown up in a household with very extreme domestic abuse it was such a relief to allow myself to see and eventually be part of a loving family.
If true I’m glad she was able to be what he needed
Yes. He’s a human being, he lost his mother when he was a teenager and probably craved a mother figure. My husband lost both his parents before he was 10 and was happy to marry into my family.
Yeah, they might have simply somewhat “adopted” him. It’s a relationship that goes two ways and can truly be an expression of kindness. In my family back in the day we basically did the same with my brother’s best friend, who came from a really broken family… We got a cooler extra brother for a while, he got a backup mum and a ersatz little sister… We all grew out of it, but there was nothing but kindness on both sides.
He needed a mommy, sure. He didn’t need to put his face in the cooch of the mom of the woman he was dating. Different things entirely.
Amusing to imagine a story about Harry and Doria being this close, and all of the supportive posts that you’d see on here about it.
Honestly I think it’s the other way round – the Windsors took Meghan and Doria into their family.
On CB? It’s a Meghan friendly site.
If Harry was putting his face in Doria’s cooch, I’m pretty sure even celebitches would find that…unorthodox and creepy.
And Ronaldinhio, I’m glad to hear you’ve found family support. My husband’s mother died when he was very young, and he and my mother have a wonderful relationship. In a lot of ways they’re closer than her and I are. I think this is lovely. It would be horrific to me if anyone attacked him for it, or claimed my mother way doing anything wrong.
Absolutely. I lost my mom when I was 11. I searched for mother figures all the time–including the mother of a boyfriend I had in school. I get this and it’s shitty of whoever reported it to report it. Grieving is tough. Losing your mother before you’re past the mothering stage (never) is extra tough.
I think what makes it creepy is all those years he was dating Kate he really seemed like he could take her or leave her. I think they eventually settled into a happy relationship (even accounting for recent drama), but back then he seemed to go out of his way to make it obvious she was just ‘fine for now’.
If he’d been madly in love with Kate and her family had just been a bonus that would be one thing, but stories like this make it seem like Carol was much more of a draw than Kate at the time, and that’s where it gets weird to me.
Yes, that Kate was part of the deal but what he really wanted was Carole as a mother. Goes back to stories of Carole and Mike extracting a promise out of him circa 2007 the he would eventually marry her.
This is a little creepy.
It’s beyond creepy. But why report on that now? Most people were aware of the Middleton’s campaign to join the monarchy, at all cost, so why is this anything new?
Beyond creep is so correct: This is just plain weirdo stuff.
There’s a new documentary on them, so this is part of the PR. I’m still stuck on the use of ‘this very British family’. Certainly William is also from a ‘very British [posh/royal] family. Why phrase it that way? Maybe just because it’s coming from an American.
Please. Kate wanted to be a Royal. Even if she had walked in on this it wouldn’t have changed a thing. In fact it would have only cemented things for her. Giving William what he wanted – Middle Class Family Cosplay – would get her what she wanted. And it did.
Not being mean here & a bit of a different situation but Diana wanted to be a princess and worked quite hard to seal the deal. Including pretending to love everything Charles did (hunting, fishing, Balmoral etc) until the deed was done. I don’t shade either woman for wanting the crown. Kate plays the game better but she is much older than Diana was and actually dated a William for years & had a better idea of what she was getting into. She also has all of Diana’s missteps as a guide what not to do.
I’m convinced William and Ma Middleton are the significantly closer than Kate and William. I think she does all the emotional labor for their marriage and is intellectually more engaging than Kate.
KKC, yes,but recently she may have lost her grip. Remember the birthday party for Ma Middleton where Kate looked as if she had been crying and Wills was no where in site. Daily Fail papped that. Thought, um, maybe he came at a different time or was perhaps already there.
OR she once again took Wills side in an argument (maybe over the Rose Hanbury debacle) and left Kate out to dry.
I feel a lot of empathy for Kate on that front. It’s pretty clear there’s a really toxic dynamic between her and her mother that Carol maintained to feed her own social ambition and narcicism. To be frank I think her relationship with William is built on the same foundation, and why William “gets on” so well with Carol.
I’m sure Carol has made it abundantly clear to Kate that if anonymous gossip rag source comes to divorce filing, the Middleton’s will continue to play ball with Will over her.
I think Carole has lost some of her grip on William – he’s become a lot closer to his father than he has been in recent years. I think he saw how close he and Harry became in the run up to his marriage to Meghan (and Meghan does seem to be close to Chuck) and he was jealous as he thought he was missing out on something. William has been making more of an effort with Charles and the kids. Charles made it known more than once in the press that he felt shut out of the Cambridge family and he put the blame at Carole’s feet. Carole was ALWAYS hovering around which made Chuck uncomfortable as he felt it affected his ability to get close to his sons family.
Like his parents marriage, there are 3 people in the Cambridge marriage – William, Kate and Carole.
William was much more of a shoulder to cry on for his mother, in a horrifically toxic way that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Getting older and having his own children may have led to a thaw between him and Charles and he realised how badly his mother had used him.
William and Harry were at boarding school the majority the year. The rest of the weeks were split between Charles and Diana. He wasn’t there every night listening to Diana’s tearful confessions. Whatever other lies Diana told Morton, take logic into consideration here.
I have no doubt that the Middleton’s offered William the tight-knit, normal family unit that he desired but I have my doubts about William resting his head of Carole’s lap. If it was true it we would have heard about it long ago and not almost 20 years later and it is coming from The Sun, if this was a story about a certain other couple it would immediately be branded Fake News.
@chunkyla, agree with you. This is made-up click-bait $hit from the royal hack writers at The Dim who cannot really stand any of the BRF with the exception of maybe the Princess Royal. However, the Dim would make-up stuff about the Princess Royal but do not because no one would believe it.
The Dim does not get on with KP and KP does not like the Dim as the Dim’s editorial policy is really anti-BRF. The Dim will throw ANY Royal under the bus with made-up stuff.
The story of Carole’s lap makes him look better than if it were about Rose’s.
Did he speak to his future father-in-law into the wee hours, probably but this whole head on the lap is BS. I have a 22 year old son & am close to several of his friends and can not for the life of me come up with a situation where this would ever happen – not even with me son! Definitely click bait
Carole having William as the screensaver on her phone wasn’t creepy enough?
I think William was failed by his parents and grandparents — Harry too of course but William as the older of the two probably had to shoulder more pressure in their family fiasco, certainly while being used as an emotional crutch by his mother. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he had complex Mummy issues. I feel bad for them both when it comes to their upbringing, and both would probably benefit from continuous therapy. But of course, we can’t have our future king attend psychotherapy, god forbid.
Agree with all of this.
I agree and yeah both William and Kate have mummy issues. Actually William has had therapy, he and Harry had grief counselling when their mother died and then had additional therapy later on in life.
I live for the day that the terms “mummy issues” and “daddy issues” die forever, especially as they are both used so often as attacks on the child, not the parents.
William wasn’t there every night listening to Diana’s tearful confessions. Both boys were away at boarding school during the War of the Waleses. Only a few weeks a year were spent with the royals or with Diana. It is like every lie Diana told Morton is now believed as truth 20 years later.
There are telephones. William didn’t have to be in the same room to hear Diana’s side. Nobody really knows who said what to whom.
A lot of damage can be done in “a few weeks a year”. And as minx points out, it’s not like there was no contact by phone or mail when they were at boarding school.
I doubt this happened. I can see a motherly hug or something like that but I really, really doubt he laid his head on her lap.
Does she baby them though? Yes.
Stories like this have been going around for years. Vanity Fair even wrote about how Carole had a photo of William as her phone wallpaper.
Aw, I totally believe it because it’s exactly what I did. My mother is ill and wasn’t around when I was a child, and my father is dead, and I had no siblings. My first serious boyfriend was Portuguese and had an enormous, very close family, and it was a huge part of the appeal with him (not that he wasn’t fab on his own, he was! but it was such a wonderful bonus to get his loving, loud, noisy, close family as well, for free.) I spent many many nights just sitting close to them and watching/drinking in their love for each other. I buy this 100%.
I’m happy you found what you needed.
I get what you are saying. My mother died when I was 16, and while I do have family (dad and sisters), we are not chummy close or affectionate and rarely see one another (I have one sister who has never even met my four year old son). I have lots of cousins and aunts and uncles but they all live 1,000 miles away and we grew up away from them. When I started dating my husband, he had lots of family around with family get togethers and big family holidays. I ate it up like ice cream because it was the kind of family setting I always wished I had and that my other sisters never seem to care about. I still look forward to the holidays so much every year because Thanksgiving and Christmas mean big family dinners and football with all my in-law family, and I just love it.
I can believe this. Ask Iyanla how many mommies baby their grown AF sons. I even witness that same ish with my husband’s sister and her then 28 y.o son. This is why William is such a man-baby. It’s fine that Carol was a surrogate mom to him when he was younger. But If she is still petting him after he’s married, now still. Gah. 🤮.
yep, and there’s nothing more unattractive than a mommy’s boy.
Who would be the source for this story? Middleton household staff? William’s RPOs? How many people were actually inside the Middleton home, had a chance to see William with his head on Carole’s lap, and would be telling this story now?
Who is Ashley Pearson and why would she have these insider details on events from the early noughts?
No one doubts that William found Kate attractive partly because of her family life. He has said so himself! But this has all the hallmarks of pure fan fiction.
Yeah, I’m not really buying this specific incident for those reasons, although I do think William has a closeness with Carole.
Yeah, that’s a no for me. It’s weird. There’s a way to be supportive that doesn’t involve crossing that line. It just screams manipulation. And as we’ve heard, Carole sided with William over Kate. She pushed Kate to return to someone who treated her like crap. Nah, that’s not a man I’m interested in dating, much less marry.
Seriously. No harm in being close to your in-laws but Carole encouraged Kate to look the other way about his cheating and get back together with him every time.
The Original…always wondered what part Mr Middleton played in this caper. Prince or not, my father would have knocked some sense into me! “You’re not gonna be chasing after that man, I don’t care who he is.” Lol! Rest his soul.
No, I don’t believe it. Hugs? Yes.
The Middletons planned it all- including preparing candle-scented pre-marital sex bedrooms with Kate. But Carole Middeton is a shrewd woman, she wouldn’t blur the lines with too much physical contact.
William loved the attention and appreciated the Middleton family harmony, however he grew bored after a while. In 2007 he called it quits.
William settled.
Which leads us to “Rose Who?”.
Got this from another site which sums everything up:
Previous posters noted William doesn’t want the responsibility of being King, preferred to have had less children than he does, doesn’t care for the realities of being a father, had to marry his third or fourth option and has always been jealous of his favored brother, who was able to have the freedom he longed for.
He sounds like every Royal shlub we know who’s cheated on his wife or suspected of cheating on his wife. He married someone he settled for and had kids because he was expected to. The guy hates his job and is jealous of someone he believes has greener a pasture.
I agree he settled, partly because he was put under pressure to settle down and partly because he realised he was not going to get an aristo woman (those were the women he chased after). Kate was the only one willing to marry him.
Also, you forgot the cheese on toast and how Carole seduced him with it.
@Bay – I agree with that summary. If William finds an out he will take it and he will drop Kate as well. He has never struck me as someone who is happy with his life. Harry is happy, William is not and his jealousy of his brothers happiness has become toxic and something William is struggling to hide.
If my daughter married a man whose mother passed away, I would likely feel extremely maternal toward him.
My mom can be over bearing and meddlesome. She does cater to my husband A LOT, but I would never think of finding his head in her lap for whatever reason. Of true, the dysfunction runs deep and the manipulation is even deeper. Meddlesome Middletons. Not sure if we’ve used that before.
If this happened 20 years back during a time when Wills was having an emotional moment and finally felt close enough to someone to let his guard down and be comforted, then, okay. It doesn’t seem like this is meant to have been a recent thing. He’s not my favourite person by a long shot, but if they were both consenting to this exchange of parental figure attention, live and let live.
Also, I know I’m a broken record on this, but I just can’t see Carole’s face. It’s like it disappears every time I try to get a good look at it. Not the face blindness I get with Margot Robbie or Amber Heard; just, like, she doesn’t actually have any discernible face at all.
Carole is what Kate will look like in about 20 years – Kate very much looks like her mother.
@morrissey it’s the missing eyes. The eyes are the window to the whole person and hers are gouged out with black eyeliner. It’s why you can’t see her face. No eyes. No soul?
This would also explain why Charles complained early on after George was born that he never got to spend any time with the child because William, Kate, and George were always at the Middleton’s. I do seem to recall thinking that it was like George only had the one set of grandparents.
Don’t believe this and one of many random strange stories around the royals recently. Bored fan fiction writers.
given Diana’s public fights with some of those in charge of their upbringing after she died, must have been such a strange dynamic for William and Harry growing up. Can’t help but feel sorry for both men in those circumstances and can’t blame William for wanting to be part of a normal tight knit family.
Sure it’s true. Carole also loves to cook William’s favorite beans on toast! This woman was determined that the marriage happened. So determined was she that she suggested Kate do NOTHING for 10 years but wait on William!
Need more information:
Was it normal for Carole to have her kids lie on the sofa with their heads in her lap? It would have been weird growing up in my house, but my sister does it with her kids all the time. I can totally see one of her kid’s friends doing the same. Also, did William do this with Diana? If so, not hard to imagine him telling Carole about it and her offering to let him rest his head on her lap.
These are British people. Posh British people. As much as you all are cringing, I promise that we are cringing that much more. (There is nothing on earth that would make me believe either this story or that Diana would have ever permitted anything similar).
Honestly, when I think about it William makes it clear he hates that life and to be king. And yet he was born as one, only 0,0000001% people know their path from the start. Like, I believe he would probably be happier as average Joe (he doesn’t even like the glamour) or lesser aristo yet his whole life people were reminding him that he’d be king and had two have an heir and spare. And then losing a mother.. I think it’s a lot and a terrible burden. He never got to chose. Especially since William isn’t exactly intellectual and curious about world or even vain (evidenced by baldness)
Regarding William and Carole, psychologists would call this kind of parent child relationship “immeshed.” Even though in this case there isn’t a blood relation.
As for Kate, she is a tool for social advancement and sadly she is okay with being used or she is clueless. If the latter is the case I would like to be a fly on the wall when she wakes up.
My Mom tried to use me like Carole did her daughters. She only would allow me to befriend certain girls who happened to have parents who were local elites. It didn’t work. The rejected and bullied me. When I cried to my Mom her response was to find a way to “make them like (me).” Ridiculous. Any reasonable parent would want more for her daughter. She would want friends who genuinely like and respect her daughter. The rest is secondary and tertiary if it even rates at all.
Poor you. Back in the day I wanted to be a part of popular group but they didn’t let me. It was painful. If your own mother did that, ouch.
Will desperately wanted a close knit family and he got one. No big deal.
Many women stay in abusive relationships (Rihanna-like) but when Kate did social climbing and dealt with some issue she is hated. I think William & K genuinely like/love each other and love their kids. No one knows exactly what’s going on between them and they’ve been together a long time.