Red-carpet events are slowly coming back in some countries, which is why James Middleton and his fiancee stepped out on Friday at the Bvlgari Magnifica Gala. The gala was held at Spencer House in London, and there were a handful of A/B-list attendees, including Josh O’Connor, Iris Law (Jude’s daughter), Sabine Getty and Francesca Hayward. I have no idea if James got paid to attend this event, all I know is that he will sometimes show up at events because he’s being paid. Still, this is Bvlgari, not some C-list awards show in Germany. So maybe the cachet of the Bvlgari branding was enough.
Alizee Thevenet wore a simple Scanlan Theodore dress, one of her favorite labels. She’s very pretty, I think. Not in a glossy, overdone way at all. She has that French “not trying too hard” chic thing happening. Her future sisters-in-law could take note. Anyway, they are still engaged and I would imagine they’re planning their post-pandemic wedding for the English countryside. Maybe James will be married in Bucklebury, like Pippa was. Y’all know Ma Middleton does like to show off her local beauties.
Speaking of Bucklebury and the Middleton family, apparently James and Alizee recently purchased a £1.45 million country home close to Middleton Manor. And reportedly, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are looking to purchase or rent a home in the area too. Add to that, poor Terribly Moderately Wealthy James Matthews bought another farm/petting-zoo in Bucklebury for Pippa. So… all of Carole’s dysfunctional children are boomeranging back to Bucklebury. Something is going on, mark my words.
Photos courtesy of IG and Getty.
He does looks quite happy, and Kudos to him for taking a fashion risk with whatever that is that he is wearing. Very buttony! Alizee is really pretty and so refreshingly natural.
I like Alizee’s natural look, she obviously doesn’t share the Middleton’s love of heavy eyeliner.
Alizee does look good. James also doesn’t look too bad.
Usually I think of him as a handsome guy (and maybe it’s just how this event photographed), but here not so much.
I think it’s because his hair is cut so short, or it’s scraped back in a pony, can’t quite tell.
I think it’s his beard. He looks better with a lumberjack style longer beard and here he’s trimmed it quite a bit and you can see more of his face. I don’t find him very attractive when he is clean shaven.
Agree
I think it’s because he’s wearing a jacket that once belonged to one of the young Van Trapp boys. I mean, come on – the buttons are pulling, the sleeves are too short, the shoulders don’t sit where they should. I’m sure I’m showing my fashion ignorance and it’s some very pricey designer but I think he should have gone in for a fitting or two.
Kathleen: I thought he might be like his big sister, Kate, in that he doesn’t know how clothing should fit & doesn’t bother to either buy things that fit or have them tailored properly. Plus, as you say, it seriously looks like a kid’s item of clothing….
I think he looks like a bellhop in these pics. Not just the clothing but also the over-eager grin.
A grifter if there ever was one. Never done an honest day’s work in his life just like his sisters. Probably went to the event to trawl for an ‘investor’ for another one of his disastrous business ideas.
Raised to be, all of them. Ugh. No work ethic whatsoever.
Carole is preparing a Middleton bunker for what they anticipate will happen. Already William is showing more signs of excluding Kate from things in ways we haven’t seen since the dating days.
Ohhh, to be a fly on the wall in that household. Lol!
I like her style – very laid back in the sophisticated chic way.
Something is definitely going on. All the Middleton children are running home. Maybe it’s just natural – if they want a house in the country why not have one near their parents – but the timing is what makes it strange.
One possibility is that we’ve been reading the signs incorrectly and Michael Middleton may soon be getting a title. All the children buying up Bucklebury properties makes a great deal more sense if a new, Berkshire-based peerage is on its way. It could be Charles’ passive-aggressive way of keeping Baldemort in line, or the Queen’s way of telling him divorce is not an option even after she passes, either of which would also explain why William’s been looking extra miserable lately.
Ha! No.
Second…No.
I really like her style, his not soo much – not too keen on the velvet jacket (the Middleton siblings do seem to love buttons) but they look happy and thats what counts. He certainly seems in a better place.
And yeah – the Mids are shoring up for something big to hit. I still think a divorce announcement is coming – the chess places are almost in place. Kate is preparing to run home to Mummy with the kids and she has always relied on her family around her to protect her from any media fallout.
Is that what you are hoping?
Sorry Judy, I don’t care the kind of person it makes, but I strongly think and pray that bad and vile things should happen to bad and vile people. I hope Kate falls and burns.
@TT, um, hope you realize you set up your own karma when you “strongly think and pray that bad and vile things should happen to bad and vile people”. because damn that is harsh.
@Judy, where does it say that she is hoping for this? Reading comprehension is still in fashion, dear.
Digital Unicorn didn’t say that.
*But* now that you’ve brought it up, it will serve William and Kate absolutely right to go through the divorce they worked SO hard to have happen between Harry and Meghan. What they tried to do to Harry and Meghan’s marriage is THEM setting up their own karma.
Maybe they just all really like each other? I would love to live in the same neighborhood as my siblings and parents.
Same here – I wish I had a family that was so close knit together. I like the Middletons.
LOL the Middletons are not a normal close knit family at all. In fact they seem to have unhealthy codependent and controlling dynamics. It’s telling that all three children have been failures at working, holding a job, running a business, etc.
If Kate and William wanted to live in Buckleberry they would have done so ten years ago when properties were being offered.
Also raising your daughters to chase after rich men without getting actual jobs isn’t actually good parenting. And propping up your son with multiple failed businesses is bad parenting too. But they are white and quasi rich so I guess that provides them cover for all their dysfunction.
@Jennifer: Bless your heart.
@Chicago: Yeah, their closeness to Uncle Gary is so heartwarming too.
Yeah, I always thought how tight knit they were was one of the reasons William liked being around them so much.
That is the most logical explanation and probably closest to the truth. None of us know these people or their motivations, but it’s fun to speculate – and I get a kick from reading the various theories 🙂
ITA, Digital Unicorn. I hope it’s a nice round of karma.
@DU, it would be nice to see karma serve them a cold dish.
Is it me or has he lost a lot of weight? Don’t really follow him but he looks different.
Oh god. Short hair is not his thing. He should go back to his old hairstyle because that deciding hairline is not a pretty look. Maybe the stress of the family business is getting to him.
Maybe a trade is in the works, an earldom in bucklebury in exchange for a divorce
That is an interesting idea. It will satisfy CarolE’s social climbing agenda and be a nice parting gift from the Royal Family in exchange for them to all go away.
Carole will not get a title in Charles’s lifetime.
Agreed
His jacket is some ugly ass Little Drummer Boy Fuggery.
That’s it, couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Or he’s got a second (third?) job as a bellhop at the Savoy or something. Call for Philip Mor-ris!
What’s with the George V cosplay?
Did he get paid to come to this event?
How gauche..
I do not find James attractive at all but his fiancé is very pretty.
And yes, I agree that something big is going on with the Middletons.
I do as well. They aren’t circling the wagons in for no reason, unless CarolE has pulled some dramatic, over stated cry and whining how all of her children have deserted her, left to traumatize her husband.
His girlfriend is very lovely and I love her aesthetics, very French and natural. Of course, the sisters will want to bully and exclude her as she is a threat to the sisters, no doubt.
Well, George is 7. Prep school starts at age 8 and Ludgrove, William’s old prep school, (and Eton) are both in Berkshire,. So is Windsor Castle and the Middleton’s. As for James, most people buy a house when they get married. Not sure there is anything suspicious about all of this.
Lori, it’s already been said that Ludgrove is not in the running for potential schools. That’s not the reason they’re moving to Berkshire.
They’ve said Ludgrove is off the table and he won’t attend Eton until he is older (if he goes there at all.)
And isnt the point of boarding school that you….board? There is no need for the Cambridges to buy a new house close to where George is boarding (a THIRD house!)
Why wouldn’t James buy a house in London where he works? (presumably)
@Ginger. 1000%
not sure if it’s the picture but his head looks really outsized compared to rest of body. Never noticed before and he seems very short. I thought he was tall and slim.
He’s like his mom & Kate, short legs, long torso.
He’s ugly. I hope those chickens are coming home to roost. Karama’s a b*tch.
They all seem to age so badly. I’m mean he looks as if he is in his mid forties already. How could they all look so old when they have all led the life of Riley.
I’ve never before seen the appeal of James. But here he is tall and possibly with a quirky fun personality? IDK his fiancé is a bit of a mystery to me. A successful career woman and stunning beauty chooses James? But maybe she likes that since he doesn’t work much he can be at her beck and call.
I’m not sure how successful she is. I think she was working in an assistant role at a finance company. Pretty sure she wore labels like H&m- before she started getting comped clothes for attending things like this
Oh, well if she used her good looks to social climb into the Middleton sphere, then she’s a perfect fit for the family! (I joke, but people marry for way worse reasons. They seem happy so have at it.)
Everyone is talking about something big with Kate, but maybe something is going on with Pippa.
Despite two children, James Matthews will not be her only husband.
Also, I totally believe Carole is having her children buy up property so if she and Michael get into trouble, legal or bankruptcy wise, the other property will be in the kids name and cannot be touched and the pot farm can just relocate there.
I really try not to go there but what happened to him? He does not look good at all. Is he ill? Is he the youngest, because he looks like he’s aged a lot this past year. He looks like a withered old man.
He’s struggled with bouts of bad depression off and on. Could be the meds he’s on, but he’s been very forthcoming about his mental health issues.
I always like to point out, the “rich” love to spend time on a yacht in the baking sun.
It does NOT do you any favors to be vacationing that much — in terms of early sun damage and aging.
Carole is creating a compound. The timing does seem significant. Circle the mansion-wagons, podners!
Ha, I was just about to say the same thing! Ma Midd is circling the wagons – Party Pieces is floundering, Keen and Mean’s marriage is floundering, the chickens are literally coming home to roost. Next thing you know Uncle Hookers-n-Blow will show up and buy a huge manse.
Alizee is a lovely woman. She looks very natural, elegant and at ease. And the two of them look very comfortable with each other.
They all look like they’re wearing pajamas but I like pajamas, so it doesn’t bother me.
She looks pinched and plain to me. Not someone you would remember after she left the room.
When you’re French, that look is considered chic.
What if it’s Carole and Michael about to announce a divorce and not William and Kate? I always got a vibe Michael was less into the whole royal thing than Carole.
I only see a divorce between Carole and Michael happening if the finances are REALLY in shambles, it’s Carole’s fault, and Michael can somehow save himself from ruin. Which I think is unlikely.
I don’t know if a big announcement is coming, but some kids are never quite able to leave the nest and want to stay close to family. My ex lives in the same vicinity as his two sisters, half-brother, parents, ex-wife, and essentially all the old people he grew up with. I HATED it.
BUT if the whole family is there, they are definitely going to try to create their own royal court in Bucklebury.
I doubt anyone would care. And it wouldn’t explain the battling PR between Kate and William and how she’s been MIA for important events recently.
Is it just me or does anyone else see her black underwear?
Dangit, had to look! Yes, yes, I can & they seem to be grannie panties.
He’s kind of creepy.
He’s giving me Matt Hancock vibes. So yeah, not a compliment.
How does he get his hands on £1,45 Million?
He sure didn’t earn that much money.
She does not have that kind of earning power as well. She does not come from a monied family. Hard to believe they paid cash. Someone must be bankrolling them. Who? Why? Or are they fronting for someone else?
LOL I always crack up when Kaiser writes “Terribly Moderately Wealthy James Matthews”
I find Alizee very pretty in that Plain Jane pretty that some models have if that makes sense. And she has a gorgeous smile which is seen in some Instagram photos. This is probably the worst photo I’ve seen of her though. I’m not sure of her money situation but she seems well off enough even from the start of the relationship. And these two seem the most outwardly happy seeming of the three couples. There’s video and photos were they just seem so happy to be with each other. And I love her mix of hi and lo fashion. She wore a relatively inexpensive dress to the Sussex wedding (which then sold out) and looked more chic than many of the people in much (I’m guessing) pricier dresses. I just hope she has enough intestinal fortitude to deal with the Middleton women and their treatment of other women. Otherwise, run Alizee.
One wonders what all the non-Middleton neighbors think of this entrenching in their vicinity.