You guys know I don’t normally say “you should absolutely read this Daily Mail story,” but you should absolutely read this Daily Mail story. This story is the most comprehensive explanation of what went wrong with Carole Middleton’s (now failed) business Party Pieces. As we’ve heard in recent weeks, PP was utterly bankrupt when it was sold (without its debt) to James Sinclair for £180,000. We learned that PP had racked up seven-figure debt, more than £2.6 million all together, including pandemic loans, back payments on the commercial property, and stiffing so many vendors. The Mail’s Guy Adams and Calum Muirhead tried to untangle the mysterious web of lies and mismanagement that led to all of this and it’s so fascinating. Some highlights:
The mysterious Middleton finances: The Middleton family finances have always been shrouded in mystery. The Middletons have somehow been able to send their three children to top public schools, while simultaneously building a property portfolio that at various points included a Chelsea flat, plus a £4.7 million Grade II listed Georgian mansion in Berkshire.
The Middletons always acted as if they were rich: Having begun life as a sort of catalogue firm, its business model seemed to be transformed by the internet revolution of the late 1990s, which allowed Party Pieces to become one of the most visible operators in the online field. Its website began selling thousands of different product lines to customers across the country and even expanded overseas. In other words, it looked every inch a huge success. How else, one might ask, could Carole and Michael afford to take family holidays in Mustique? Buy prime land? (In 2005, they paid £295,000 in cash for several acres near their home). Own racehorses? (For a time they had a share of a handy sprinter named Sohraab). And employ somewhere in the region of 30 staff at the converted barn headquarters of Party Pieces in rural Berkshire?
Party Pieces was a private partnership: What no one ever really knew, however, was the exact amount of money the family business was making. Run for years as a privately owned partnership, it never had to file full accounts at Companies House. That made it impossible for anyone to work out how much cash was passing through, or what sort of dividends were being paid to the family. Since profit margins in the online sales business are notoriously slim, a handful of cynics have sometimes wondered if Party Pieces was quite the success story we were being led to believe.
PP’s debt: On Wednesday it emerged that, after 36 years in business, the Middleton family firm has gone under, leaving debts of £2.6million. It’s a development that has left many stunned, not least an army of small suppliers who are now left badly out of pocket. Many had prided themselves on dealing with the Middletons and were perhaps entitled to believe, given their royal connections, that outstanding debts would eventually be taken care of.
Carole Middleton’s betrayal: Take, for example, Sultani Gas, a Kent-based company that supplied Party Pieces with helium for its balloons. It’s currently owed £20,430, according to the administrator’s report. A spokesman said this week that they felt ‘betrayed’ by Mrs Middleton. ‘What hurt me the most was that I trusted her as the mother-in-law of the future King and she just betrayed me,’ the representative said. ‘It is absolutely unacceptable.’ Take also the firm’s landlord, Lord Iliffe, on whose Yattendon estate the company has been based for many years. The estate is out of pocket to the tune of £57,480 and James Hole, the agent for Iliffe, said it now faces ‘severe financial consequences’, adding: ‘They have been long-term tenants. We were astonished about the amount of money owed to others.’
Party Pieces seemingly restructured in 2019: Because Party Pieces is now a limited company (the aforementioned partnership structure was dismantled a few years back), Carole and Michael Middleton have no personal responsibility, legally speaking, to repay any of these debts. That in turn leaves ordinary working Britons on the hook for a business failure presided over by the mother-in-law of the future King.
What happened in 2019: That year also saw them turn the business from a partnership into a private limited company, taking on new directors (and investors). They included Steven Bentwood, a lingerie tycoon whose firm Stirling Group used to supply scanties to Marks & Spencer, and Darryl Eales, a former financier and sports businessman who previously chaired Oxford United FC and owns Wigan Warriors — the most successful club in the history of British rugby league. The corporate change meant it would in future have to file accounts. And the first ones to become public, exactly a year ago, revealed that it had managed to run up annual losses of more than £1 million. Still, the period in question had been heavily affected by the pandemic, which for a time had a dramatic effect on the public’s appetite for (and ability to stage) parties. So there was little indication that Party Pieces — in which Carole and Michael remained majority shareholders — faced any imminent threat.
Carole was still hustling as recently as April: In April, the firm said it was looking to ‘secure additional investment’ to support ‘the next phase’ of its growth plans. And only seven months before it went to the wall, Carole launched Party Pieces in the U.S. and used a cardboard cut-out of herself to promote the move.
Carole’s business partners abandoned her as the company fell deeper into debt: Signs of impending disaster only really began to emerge when Bentwood, who was chief executive of its parent company, resigned on March 23. He was followed out the door a day later by Eales. Behind the scenes, many creditors were by this point desperate.
The debt left behind in Carole’s wake: The aforementioned Sultani Gas had been offering credit to Party Pieces but stopped when the debt had reached £35,000. ‘We started chasing; they were making excuses,’ explained a spokesman, who says he was called by Mrs Middleton on ‘her personal mobile…She apologised. She said that one of the managers was failing to deal with it, so she said, “I’m personally going to deal with it. I’ll rectify everything. I won’t be able to pay it in one lump: I’ll pay it on a weekly basis”.’ Sultani, which had been about to hire a debt collector, took her at her word. ‘Then she said, “I need some more stock”.’ This was sold to her — but not on credit. Some of the weekly repayments were made, the Sultani spokesman said, but others were not. ‘Carole didn’t answer her phone.’ Text messages were also allegedly ignored. Ultimately unable to pay its bills, Party Pieces fell into administration.
Sultani Gas & other businesses are on the hook for thousands: ‘We received a letter from the [administrators],’ added the gas firm. ‘After that [Party Pieces] sent us an email and said, “This is what happened”. They said the business [was going to be] taken over by a new firm – “and you’ll be the first person who’ll get paid”.’ This week the administrators’ report has put paid to any lingering hopes of that. The lost revenue means Sultani’s profit for the year has effectively been wiped out. Other major creditors, according to the report, include Portuguese gas canister maker Amtrol Alfa, which is owed £82,872, and party decorations firm Ginger Ray, due £52,304. Worryingly, the administrators’ report made it clear that it is ‘highly unlikely’ that any of these organisations would receive any of the money that they are owed.
I cannot even imagine accumulating this kind of debt over the course of a handful of years. The company was running at a significant, seven-figure loss as of 2019, which is when Party Pieces restructured from a private partnership to a private limited company, with business partners coming on board to – I would assume – invest heavily in the business, probably with an idea towards expansion into foreign markets (at least that’s what they claimed at the time). While “sources close to Carole” insist that she had stepped away from the daily operations, it’s more than clear that she still operated (mismanaged) PP’s operations and she still had the largest stake in the company. So my question is: was it always a con job? Was Party Pieces ever successful? Did it ever turn much of a profit? Was it always a shell game?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.
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- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, CANADA ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Carole Middleton attends day nine of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 12, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Pictured: Carole Middleton BACKGRID USA 12 JULY 2017 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, CANADA ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Carole Middleton attends day nine of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 12, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Pictured: Carole Middleton BACKGRID USA 12 JULY 2017 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, CANADA ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Carole And James Middleton seen at The Championships at Wimbledon on day eleven. Pictured: Carole Middelton BACKGRID USA 14 JULY 2017 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- ** RIGHTS: ONLY UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, CANADA ** London, UNITED KINGDOM – Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton seen on day three at The Championships at Wimbledon. Pictured: Carole Middleton BACKGRID USA 4 JULY 2018 BYLINE MUST READ: RUSHEN / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Members of The British Royal Family attend “Together At Christmas” Community Carol Service at Westminster Abbey. Pictured: Carole Middleton, Michael Middleton and Pippa Middleton BACKGRID USA 8 DECEMBER 2021 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Members of The British Royal Family attend “Together At Christmas” Community Carol Service at Westminster Abbey. Pictured: Carole Middleton BACKGRID USA 8 DECEMBER 2021 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Oh what a tangled web she weaved. I think it was a shell game. How very much like trump she is with her business practices. Grifters. I’m waiting for all the pieces to be put in place and revealed.
I think 2019 is when they tried to make it legitimate, for whatever reason. Maybe what they were laundering dried up, so they started to separate the company from their personal money. Once you have outside investors and board members, there is some kind of external accountability and public filings. It was a shell game until the real money flow stopped.
It was def a shell game where the moved money around to avoid paying taxes – there was an article outlining it the used a lot of off shore bank accounts and shell companies to hide the money trail.
Susan, YES, something smells very weedy at the heart of this 😂 changing it to a Ltd company without any director guarantees in place meant they could walk away with everything they own still in their sweaty little mits while others were left nearly broke. Time to do a full forensic audit on the company
I know it’s not the point of the article but “ That never gave Carole the sort of turbo-charged wealth enjoyed by her brother Gary, a sometimes wayward businessman who built a reputed £30 million fortune through IT recruitment and property, and famously owned an Ibiza mansion named Maison de Bang Bang.”…is hilarious, tawdry, and tacky. You just know Anne has no tolerance for this crap.
The GDPR came in force in 2018 which prevents the sale of client lists without explicit consent from every individual. It is more than likely that Carole and Mike realized they would be incurring losses and so they created a limited liability holding company for this precise reason, to protect their personal assets.
BRILLIANT. Absolutely brilliant.
At the point of switching to an LLC, the Middletons must have known that they were in trouble and could not pay their bills. Isn’t it fraudulent to incorporate as an LLC for the purpose of avoiding debt repayment while retaining your personal wealth?
The acreage they bought for cash around their Berkshire home takes on a new and suspicious connotation when you think of Uncle Gary’s reputation and certain cash crops found growing near the Middleton home. I smell several rats.
Gee whiz— these family is very good in subtly marketing themselves. They can’t get away with what they’ve done. These creditors have to be paid. May Karma pay the Middletons a visit .
Does anyone else think it was less a shell game and more a money laundering operation for her favorite brother? Still don’t know what that cannabis grow operation bust was all about.
100%. They never had to file accounts, and the first time they did, a 1M loss? there’s no way that company ever made serious money on its own merit.
Money laundering and info selling. It seems like they were probably selling their customer data. The sh*t started hitting the fan when that became illegal and they couldn’t do it anymore, if I recall the timing correctly.
Yep GDPR rules enacted in 2018 in the UK.
According to M&H Oprah – Kate was going through some things in 2019, which have been more than just Rose.
Yes to all of this…it seems so obvious in retrospect. I also don’t understand why they needed all the adjacent farmland to a property they were renting?
It seems like it was all a front for money laundering and drugs and the Brexit rules plus the grow-op bust in 2020, their business went kaboom.
I think Meghan was referencing the bridesmaids incident which would have been in 2018. And likely when she learned of the affair with Rose.
But I agree the GDPR played a role in the demise of the business.
@Nic919 the comments were 80% about the Bridesmaid incident, Willy’s Rose pruning & St Kate’s fight with with the Aristo’s.
My point was that this was also a likely a woe amplified by her postpartum baby brain.
100% – there is no way a business of this sort generated these sorts of revenues.
I also think that there is another elephant in the room no one else is mentioning, especially given the timing of 2019/20 – BREXIT.
I am guessing that a lot of Gazza’s dodgy business is based in the EU, which has since enacted a whole host of money laundering regulations and tax regulations. BREXIT was partly a deregulation response to the EU trading blocs increasing regulatory environment.
This would have prompted a seismic shift in Gary’s operations which in turn would have affected the Midds business model – ie. kaput within days of those regulations coming in play. Which explains the restructuring in late 2019, just before the rules came into play in Jan 2020.
I think there is a MUCH bigger story, but who will touch it ?
@Flower BINGO. I was in the UK after the Brexit vote and asked people why on earth people in the City (the UK’s Wall Street) voted for Brexit, alongside the racists and ppl deluded enough to think Britain could do better without Europe, and my friends said “Deregulation.” Financial sector leaders wanted out of the EU’s strict regulations. But if Uncle Gary was doing business in the EU, then yes, he and his money laundering operation (PP) would have been sharply affected.
I would love to hear from Uncle Garry since he’s been such a loud mouth lately, especially about how the Sussexes are scum while Kate is the best thing that ever happened to Britain since the invention of a bread slicer, LOL. They ALL, including Charles and William the Middys are involved in money laundering and drug trades. All of these folks are just trash.
@Dee Kay The irony is that Carole like a lot of ‘come up’ working class Brits is a card carrying Conservative and yet it’s the very politics she voted for that destroyed her livelyhood.
This.
ITA – there is a bigger story around her brother but for now no ones touching it but it will come out eventually.
Its obvs that either someone else has been supporting them (Gary, SILs, Peggy) or they have some other shady revenue stream (pot farm).
Yes! I’ve always wondered if the whole thing wasn’t just a front business to help Uncle Gary launder his ill-gotten gains.
They restructured to get themselves removed from owning the debt personally. They used their adjacency to royalty to secure loans and lie to investors. They kept lying and telling people they’d be the first to be paid back. Then they stopped taking anyone’s calls. This is called, a con job. And they get off scot-free. However, I’m confused. It doesn’t appear to me that the Middletons went woke, so how did it so happen that they went broke? /s
The grift was long and well practiced.
@ Thatsnotok. I’m totally confused. What did you mean by that woke/broke sentence? Respectfully curious, thanks.
it’s a neocon catchphrase: “go woke, go broke.” it’s meant to point out things like the far right’s boycott of Budweiser, Target, etc. it’s BS but it’s something they say on twitter all day.
@Beesay…Thank-you!
I’ve been curious about whether if the debt was incurred before they became an LLC, can it be recovered by suing them personally? Or once it becomes an LLC the previous (personal) debt gets rolled over. Does anyone know? If it’s the former, I hope all those small businesses go after them personally.
It’s also shocking to me that businesses would allow someone rack up 35k worth of unpaid services. I guess they assumed with her proximity to The Other Brother that it would be taken care of. But wow, ducking calls and lying to the small business owners, what a bunch of con artists!!!
@thatsnotokay: yesterday I read an article on party pieces that was published around the time of William and kate’s wedding. And it was very eye opening. Reading it i got the impression that Carole and Mike are entirely broke and that they must have had a second source of income some way somehow. The article pointed out that PP had about a 1000 customers per month. Their most expensive item was around £50. That would never give you enough profit to buy your daughter a Chelsea flat that costs millions of £.
THIS x a 1000. That article (in the Telegraph I believe?) made it clear back in 2011 that PP was well dodgy and the finances didn’t add up. It was repeatedly buried/downplayed. That these stories are now off and running shows the RF is no longer protecting the Middletons. The reasons however we don’t know – is it because the Queen chose to keep them protected and C&C are now taking their revenge for Carole’s PR shenanigans or because Will is done with Kate?
If it is the same article I have seen recirculated, it came out in 2010 after the engagement and one of the points i recall was a reference to them profiting from the sale of their client information, which at the time was legal.
@The Hench — there’s been a whiff of something fishy about the Midds from day one. I think everyone involved was holding their collective breath until TQ passed, but the gloves are definitely off. It’s abundantly clear that C&C cannot tolerate the Middleton BS machine, dodgy Uncle Gary, and an utterly useless Princess of Wales. William made a huge tactical error marrying her and supporting her grifting family, and has now become tainted by association. Kate’s on her way out.
I don’t know if Gary’s money was involved with party pieces. But I’m sure it was Gary’s money that paid for their lifestyle, so they could give the illusion of being millionaires to help snare William (who is a snob, though less so than some other royals).
A long time ago a commentator on the Daily Mail said they were relatives of the Middletons, who were now too snobby to want to mix with them, and the truth was Uncle Gary’s drug money paid for the middletons “millionaire” lifestyle – school and university fees, the London flat, Kate hosting William on holidays etc.
This is so interesting! It answers something I’ve been wondering about. It seemed like the media was always trying to push the idea that PP was very well known by British people- like oh I need to order some party supplies, go online to PP. Kind of like an online Babies R Us was for a time with shower registries. But, is this really the case? If they only had 1000 customers per month and no store fronts at all, that’s not a big presence at all. Any Brits- did you know PP? Did you ever buy from them?
Pretty much everyone knew about Party Pieces because it was claimed to be the way Williams girlfriends family rose from ordinary to millionaires. But not many people will have taken that knowledge and bothered to Google it and visit their website. So no, not many people would think “i need party supplies, better go online to order from PP”. Especially as the middletons have always been very unpopular with the British public. A lot of people a) wouldn’t want to support/enrich a family they saw as greedy gold diggers who’d tricked and manipulated a poor vulnerable orphan Prince and b) assumed their products would be tacky.
People wanting party supplies would look on Amazon and eBay. Or shop in real life, locally.
Before Kate was famous for stalking William, Party Pieces wasn’t famous/known at all. Nobody had ever heard of it except obviously the few customers who did use it.
I suspect that William is divorcing Kate soon. The palace is throwing the Middletons and Kate to the media wolves, tarnishing their reputation with the public so that when the divorce does happen, people will be like ‘good riddance’.
Between this and an analysis to show Kate isn’t leaving her borough for work, it does feel like someone has green lit the middletons for the press after years of them being protected.
This is the Daily Mail no less. They’re greasing the skids to launch the Middletons into oblivion. Kate can’t be far behind.
This is quite a change from previous fawning coverage. They never bothered to tell us that the Middletons’ finances were “shrouded in mystery” before.
They’re putting the Midds on the backfoot to make it easier to negotiate the terms of separation with Kate.
It’s a tried and true strategy, maybe Kate isn’t going quietly ?
No idea if divorce is coming. Could definitely see it happening but who knows with these people. One thing is for sure though. Kate is being cornered into a financial tight spot. It’s clear there is little money in her family should she divorce. If she wants a large payout, beyond child and spousal support, she would have to agree to be very quiet about anything William related. I don’t think she wants out, regardless of how coldly William treats her in public. It always just hinges on whether William does.
They have 3 small children and Will can do whatever he wants in the marriage so why would they be getting a divorce? Aristocrats can have affairs it’s not a big deal.
As long as there is no separation, the public is going to expect the Wails to do appearances together, and it’s become abundantly clear that neither of them have the ability to put on a show of solidarity.
I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again.
Correctly or incorrectly, if you take the vindictive son in law into account, Carole regards the royal children as her insurance policy. How bad would it look for William, she’s thinking, if the children’s only surviving grandmother goes down the tubes into peasant poverty?
I can see her whinging at Kate to work on Will to give them some of that sweet, sweet Cornwall cash, too. They’re so very, very wealthy these days. Surely they could afford to spare a few million for their children’s grandmum.
Not sure about a divorce (Will doesn’t want to be his father), but I would definitely say she is being put in a box and will only be allowed to do what she’s told, and part 1 of that will be the embiggening Middleton PR stopping.
Honestly, maybe this is why William trashed Harry and Meghan so hard in the media. He knew if he divorced Kate he could be ruined in the eyes of the public, but if the public already hated his brother and wife more, maybe the divorce news would land softer. Who knows. Although I doubt he could conjure up that kind of elaborate long game. He seems far too impulsive and emotionally driven.
Wow, talk about knives being out for CarolE.
There is definitely a ‘look at this nouveau riche peasant who dared to get above herself and put on airs and graces, now she’s getting her comeuppance’ tone to this coverage. The thing is, except for the link to the royal family, this isn’t much different to any other smallish family owned business going bankrupt (and there’s been a lot of that happening since Brexit). My partner has worked for companies like these and the big debts get paid and the small debts to local suppliers don’t. That’s just how capitalism works, companies are profitable and successful, or at least appear to be so, right up until the administrators are called in, lock the doors, and bar the staff from entering. And it wouldn’t surprise me that a lot of people supposedly taken in by Carole and Party Pieces wouldn’t have been so quick to work with her if she hadn’t been connected, so that’s on them and their snobbery, thinking that a tenuous link to royalty is more important than a comprehensive background check and payment in advance.
Willie could have quietly made all of this go away with the change in his pocket, but didn’t.
The best part is that every single time Carole is in public, and especially out with Kate, the Daily Mail and the rest of the tabs will calculate the price of the dress she’s wearing, or the car she’s driving, and note that in spite of her owing millions, she’s living large.
If William does come to their aid at this point, the story will be that he used his grandmother’s money to do so.
Kate is on her way out.
Yes, I think this whole thing was badly misjudged and mishandled. Why leave party pieces to be restructured and auctioned off in the first place? As you say, William could have bought it (or had a “friend” purchase it as a favour) and made the whole mess go away right then and there. Who is going to look too closely if PP just got absorbed by a random investment firm and the creditors aren’t filling the tabloids with complaints?
It would have been relatively easy win for William – settle things quietly, don’t sully the firm’s brand, get everybody to sign NDAs, and, best of all, now he has a chance to hold something over the meddling Middletons. Carole will be forcibly retired, there will be no more planting of her own stories in the media, and they’ll have to silence the loudmouth uncle Gary. That alone might be worth the cost, but he’ll also have leverage to set out Kate’s separate living arrangements and a schedule to keep up appearances. He can go dad dancing in Europe or prune rose bushes in Norfolk to his heart’s content and there would be even less anybody could do about it.
Yes, it means he would lose some money, but I would wager his fancy velvet loafer budget is bigger than what it would have cost to make these debts go away. He might still have to, if these stories continue to trickle out – maybe like Andrew before them, the Middletons will have to “sell” a property they don’t fully own in order to settle their debts, but it won’t be nearly as neat or as quiet.
Sell your effing mansion and pay what you owe, you effing a-holes.
Yes. I found it interesting (amongst many other digs) that the full article specified that they owned a £4.7m mansion AND had still kept the previous £1.5m house they lived in before. In other words they were making it very clear that, especially with their kids grown and gone, they could sell one house, pay off the debts and still have another big house and millions in the bank.
But, obvs, the chances of them doing the right thing by their creditors, since they are not legally obliged to, is a big fat zero.
I’m guessing their houses are mortgaged to the hilt which is why they are not selling them. They could have gracefully sold Middleton Manor last year before the bankruptcy and moved into Pippa’s big manse “to be closer to all the grandkids” but actually to set aside some capital to invest and live on. They didn’t and now their operating expenses will be very high to maintain that big property.
Good point @Pinkosaurus. That could well be the case.
@ Pinkosaurus – Pippa very well could have said no. God knows my mom is in debt and has tried to pull that on me a few times, but I see her coming a mile away and it’s always (in my best Roy Kent Voice) “F*ck No!”
Hmmm…I wonder. If the rumors are true and William paid for Middleton Manor, maybe he technically owns it
And just lets them live there. And if they sell it, HE pockets the money.
It would explain why the other home has not been sold because why would a family of empty nesters need two homes relatively nearby? I would hazard a guess that if he does not outright own Middleton manor he has a significant interest in it, whereas the smaller home is the one the Middletons own / mortgaged on their own.
I suspect this may be true. Willie probably owns all or a significant part of their current mansion. Their whole setup is smoke and mirrors. Always has been. I think party pieces was owned by uncle Gary and he used it to launder money. Carole was just the face. I do think this further cheapens the RF brand though. Willie shouldn’t have let this happen.
Two very interesting stories (threads?) here. One is getting into the finances of PP given that for years many have questioned whether that business could have been profitable enough to fund their lifestyle (cough Uncle Gary cough) but secondly the fact that this is being exposed in such a way. Whether or not divorce is imminent, someone in the BRF and their pool of minions is very publicly throwing the Middletons to the wolves. Is it simply the vacuum left by no real H&M coverage? I definitely think there’s more to it.
Also, I don’t fully understand the legalities of a partnership but assuming there was a separation of assets by making the business a limited company in 2019 that suggests the Middletons wanted to keep the house and whatever else they had squirrelled away and knew that business was going downhill fast.
Either way, seeing awful people deal with the consequences of their actions? Love it.
^^ This is a very important point from the Liquidator’s point of view in the UK as :
“If anything has been sold at undervalue, up to two years preceding insolvency, the insolvency practitioner can and will apply to the courts to have this transaction reversed and restore the company back to the position it would have been if the sale had not taken place”.
Note however the ‘restructuring’ happened in late 2019 and the company has officially folded in mid 2023.
So it seems to me that the plan was to survive for just another two years post the restructure. Then the pandemic literally saved Michael and Carole’s bacon.
IMHO I think they will get away with this because there was a “novus actus interveniens” i.e. an intervening event not in contemplation by anyone i.e. the pandemic .
That aside, ethically this is really disgusting and probably why Chuckles and Bill have let this business finally die. It’s a case of walking away now when the debt is just north of 2.5 Million as opposed to 10 million.
Now I’d love to hear Bentwood and Eals’ version of events. Their name and reputation is attached to this grift operation now. They appear to have a high profile career in business management. If I were them I wouldn’t let my professional reputation tarnished by Carole’s naiv wide eyed woman act. My guess is the Midds probably kept snowballing the negative balance for years, they just didn’t have to disclose it. The LLC was created because Carole and maybe these managers knew it was eventually going to go down the drain, and they wanted to save their personal assets.
This. They knew it was going down hence the restructure. And yes, you make a good point about the investors who took over. I would expect them to defend their reputation.
Yes, I’ve been wondering all along why they got involved as investors. Even if the company was solvent 3 years ago, it was still a dying business. Do they have connections with the RF? Or were they looking for connections?
Investors might be interested in PP’s as a means of writing off losses against their own businesses for taxation reasons, especially if those investments were made via a VCT (venture capital trust), which is very common in these instances where a ‘family business’ attempts to attract investors for a business they want to expand or rescue. These sorts of VCT’s are very unregulated as the UK govt wants to make it easy for entrepreneurs to attract investment. But it’s the Govt are not phased as these companies are not of major economic or systemic importance. It is this lack of regulation that attracts abuse, which is why investing in VCT’s is deemed very high risk as their internal governance is very opaque.
The losses are all on paper so never really crystallise and are eventually passed on to creditors and then the liquidator as the failure rate is EXTREMELY high. Any assets and good will in the company are also hived up and sold separately, so technically the loss only exists on paper. It’s a very grey area and can easily tip over into fraud. This is why Liquidators employ a 2 year look back period for insolvency purposes to make sure that any such restructuring was not done in contemplation of an engineered company failure (which I believe this may have been).
I strongly believe the Midds restructured to;
1. Protect their personal assets incl cash and investments made on behalf of the company
2. Hide the shenanigans they engaged in whilst incorporated as a partnership
I’m also going to guess that the Midds moved some of the cash reserves into another company around the time of the restructuring in 2019 under guise of some other undefined separate but low risk and profitable business (something nonsense like selling paper cups) They’ll then wait the 2-3 years, proceed with the liquidation of the dummy profitable company and then use Entrepreneurial relief to extract funds from this NewCo. They can even do so in a super tax efficient way via Entrepreneurial relief and only pay 10% tax. Also given C&M’s ages I am going to guess that this was also part of their retirement planning. Incredibly, this is all technically legal and above board providing the rules are followed.
Also as per other commenters above, incorporating PP’s as a Ltd Co also insulated Carole and Michael from any losses of the new Sh!t Co they incorporated to absorb all the losses, which again offered them tax relief as mentioned above.
It’s a complex long con – but a good Accountant and business advisors can make it work. I checked companies house to see who the liquidator was for PP and noticed that a company called ‘Interpath Advisory’ has been instructed.
https://www.interpathadvisory.com/restructuring/
https://www.interpathadvisory.com/ky/fraud-investigations-and-forensic-services/
Interpath specialise in restructuring and ‘forensic advisory’ so it’s possible they’ve been appointed for to review PPs recent restructuring and confirm it’s all above board. Any court appointed liquidator worth their salt would view the actions of C&M over the last 3-4 years as somewhat suspicious. SO they will need to reassure the court that all is above board. Also no Insolvency Practitioner will risk their licence for the Midds.
It is the details of the liquidator and in particular the investigations/ forensics specialism that got me thinking that Chuck, Billy and James Matthews may be keeping a distance to insulate themselves from any potential shenanigans PP’s got up to in the past. Especially when a basic crunching of the numbers shows the business was NEVER viable. That would raise a lot of questions the likes of which the Guardian or a US based News Paper would only be too happy to look into with devastating effect for anyone connected to the company.
Finally, I wonder what actually triggered the insolvency in the end? I would absolutely howl if it was one of the creditors who had MAJOR beef with the Midds that exercised their right to have PPs wound up for an unpaid debt of over £750.
https://www.gov.uk/wind-up-a-company-that-owes-you-money
Flower, thank you for setting it out so concisely. I hope Interpath looks to see if they have shielded the money in another company. I feel for all of those small business creditors.
The cheap tat they sold did not fund their lifestyle. My guess is that they were selling customer data until that became illegal among other things. The real money in that family comes from the uncle and it’s….questionable. There was a family in my hometown that sold similar stuff as Party Pieces. They made enough to be what I call “small town rich” and nothing more. The Middletons’ lifestyle is disproportionate to the type of business they ran, especially in the age of first big box retailers and then Amazon.
Real life Vanity Fair
Like yesterday, I just want to point out how new it is for these outlets to do their own original research and reporting about the royals. It’s not thin, histrionic, spoon-fed stories from royal experts, palace sources, etc.
They’ve turned on the Midds, which means something is afoot.
They were singing Carole’s praises in 2019.
Well, Camilla is now Queen. Coincidence?
I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t think Camillla is involved or this isn’t related to her being crowned queen. Just wanted to emphasize how a brand-new phase has been entered. Not the usual royal “source” handing over a single story or detail or telling a royal reporter to harangue about something. These outlets are doing actual journalism, actual reportage. I wonder if the outlets/editors were simply told that they will no longer oppose efforts to investigate the Midds, and they just let loose?
Whatever is driving the change, it is certainly a refreshing change of pace after years and years of repetitive nonsense about the Sussexes. We all actually SHOULD click on the link to that story, so the Fail will see that there is money to be made by running negative stories about the Windsors — especially the Golden Boy and his glamorous princess — and that if they stay on this trajectory, they’ll make up some of the £££ they lost when the Sussexes left. Maybe Kate should sign with WME, lol.
Kate? Work? Ha!
I think that as an early party sales company they could have done incredibly well. For a while.
The sales margins aren’t notoriously slim if you are selling in bulk or enormous products.
I think that they could have made out like bandits for a while but they didn’t take into account the fleeting ness of this business structure.
Where the internet is concerned you need to stay ahead. They should have sold to Amazon etc in the early teens. There was no where for their business to go in the changing landscape of online sales and they couldn’t compete with the likes of Amazon etc.
I don’t understand why they didn’t sell through Amazon as so many companies do. They left so many opportunities on the table.
Much like the royal family – they refused to evolve until they were well past their sell by date.
It seems to me that the DM are culpable in this deceit as they wrote a puff piece for P’s 6 months or so before the restructuring to dispel any rumours of financial turmoil….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6836789/Starting-Middletons-shed-reportedly-worth-30million-Party-Pieces-far-over.html
Mmmhmmm. Something is afoot…
Please let there be consequences & shame. No more fancy vacays, being invited to coronations, lavish foreign-royal weddings, etc. Let’s see CarolE digging for duds at Oxfam and the Berkshire house garden getting weedy for lack of gardeners & getting their grocery store credit cut off by the villagers who sang their praises a few years ago.
Doubt they’ll sell the manse to pay their debts. Will Kate give her cast-off clothing to Ma?
They make certain to keep stressing that connection to Will in the article. That part is amusing. Is it sanctioned by PW to make it acceptable to dump Kate with her grifter family? Shade by the DM? Or Carole dragging down others with her to remind Will that she can?
“Run for years as a privately owned partnership, it never had to file full accounts at Companies House. That made it impossible for anyone to work out how much cash was passing through, or what sort of dividends were being paid to the family.”
Please help me to understand. Is this saying that while a privately owned company, the Middleton’s never had to disclose the companies finances at all? It wasn’t until the company went public that financial disclosure was required?
I think, please correct me if I’m wrong, but here in the U.S. private companies still have to file taxes and financial disclosure forms?
It sounds like it’s something similar to sole proprietorships, where you just get a Doing Business As certificate and can take the grocery money out of the till. An unstructured family business where it’s all taxed as personal income and no public filling is required. Maybe someone can clear it up.
I have my own business here in the US and am unaware of how I can take the grocery money out of the till in a way that doesn’t risk my going to jail and being otherwise unavailable to be an active mother to my child.
@B If you have a sole proprietorship, or a partnership (but NOT an LLC), it would be written down as owner’s drawings; it’s completely legal to do it that way. It’s not a great way to do it, but it is legal.
Private companies in the UK do have to file accounts and disclosures, which are public – but prior to 2019 Party Pieces was a private partnership (not a company, it’s a different legal structure), so public filings didn’t apply. With a partnership, they would have been personally on the hook for the debts. Whereas once they switched to a company structure, they are not personally liable.
Thank you for explaining. So a partnership is not a company. Got it.
I found this on the irs.gov website about partnerships:
“A partnership must file an annual information return to report the income, deductions, gains, losses, etc., from its operations, but it does not pay income tax. Instead, it “passes through” profits or losses to its partners. Each partner reports their share of the partnership’s income or loss on their personal tax return.”
Must be similar in England?
I haven’t studied tax laws in the UK, but in the US, rules vary dramatically depending on if you have a sole ownership or partnership (simple DBA), a sole owner LLC, a partnership LLC, S corporation, or C corporation. Once the business is an LLC or corporation, it is required to file yearly financial statements. You don’t have to as a simple DBA.
Sniffing coke can wipe out a fortune.
Pippa’s husband invested in her brother’s business that went bust. And his father’s fortune is not his, hence moderately wealthy.
Cain, use some of his inheritance from Diana to help the Middletons purchase, their 4 million dollar house and he was probably financing them for the last 10 years, and someone got into his ear about financially carrying the Middletons.
I thought Mike’s parents left money for the children’s college education and did Pippa not get a scholarship?
As with a house of cards, just pull out one card and it collapses.
The DM digging into their finances is how you KNOW this is sanctioned by the Palace. Drip…drip…drip…
The timing of these more, in depth, articles – especially in the Mail is very interesting, plus there hasn’t been any pushback to try and offer any defence. Richard Kay is William’s man and even he’s waded in. If anyone will come out to support the Middletons it will be Tominey in the Telegraph, but a deafening silence so far. With the death of QE and William having access to the Duchy of Cornwall money he’s in a very strong position if he decides to pull the plug on the marriage. We’re beginning to see stories mildly critical of Kate (yesterday about many of her engagements within a close proximity to home) and if the institution doesn’t privately ask the press to back off, then Kate’s in big trouble.
Richard Kay previously wrote a puff piece about PP’s in 2019, so if he has come out swinging them against them now, then that is an interesting dynamic indeed.
It tends to tell us A LOT about the WAILS marriage if Bill will not call in a favour.
Yes, Kay takes direction solely from William. He was firmly team Diana and pushed out after her death; it was a harsh lesson and will never deviate from supporting the heir again. As I mentioned, Camilla Tominey is also a good indicator so I’m interested to see whether she comes out with an article and the direction it takes.
Honestly, given how bad this looks for the Middletons, and all the references to Carole being the future king’s MIL, I cannot believe Charles didn’t step in and pay off the debt out of his personal wealth after becoming monarch. It’s 2.5 million. He never would have missed it.
Is that his obligation? Of course not. But this is so messy and humiliating for the Midds that I think he would have paid it just to keep the future Queen consort’s family out of the press like this, even if he loathes them personally.
The fact that he did not step up and both he and William are letting these stories go in the press, one after the other……Kate is on her way out.
I don’t think it’s unconnected that these articles start just after Camilla becomes Queen. I think she is very protective of Charles and now the Rottweiler has the power she is punishing CarolE for all those articles about skipping Charles for William and Kate. It’s interesting to me that it is very much CarolE and not Michael Middleton getting personally slammed here.
Cause she would want to be skipped. Self interest.
Well, his #2 son was not allowed to work but Charles would not pay for #2 son to maintain his wife. Charles would not pay for security for his son, even though he was aware of the very real death threats to son & son’s wife. There is no way in hell KCIII was ever going to pay a nickel for ANYTHING to do with the Middleton.
Charles is a miserly tight-wad, which gives credence to the notion that the richer you are, the cheaper you are. Just look at the way he treated his own son who dressed like he got his clothes from Goodwill unless it was a formal occasion. He lived in a crummy basement apartment with busted, hand-me-down furniture like it was a college dorm. I think C&C were just waiting until the fakakta crowning was over to lower the boom on the Midds. William has become tainted by association and clearly wants out of his marriage and away from them. This is going to become extremely messy.
Charles never paid Fergies debts, and she was (still seen as) an actual Royal, whereas the middletons are only connected to royals. Fergie was still best friends with Andrew, still had tea with the Queen regularly. Charles invited her to spend Christmas with them last year so he doesn’t seem to have anything against her. So it wasn’t personal. Fergies debts were more embarrassing to the Royal Family than the middletons’.
Apart from Charles being a bit stingy and thinking he was not rich with “only” the £10 million a year the DoC used to be (compared to all the billionaires and foreign royals he mixed with) he already spends all his money each year. So I can understand why he’d think he couldn’t afford things. (Harrys security, Meghans clothes, Fergies debts). £10 millions not a lot when you’re already spending it all. He’d have had to find something else to give up.
But, Fergie was not married to the heir and Harry was the spare himself. The crown is focused on protecting two things – the crown and the heir. These stories are a direct hit on the heirs wife’s family. Charles knows that. He doesn’t care. That’s my point. Is it because he hates the Midds so whatever? Is it because Camilla hates them? Or is it because Kate is on her way out?
Again also noting that these stories are happening with Williams approval, looking at the names involved. This is not a good sign for Kate.
Exactly Becks. Didn’t Meghan say something to the effect that when she approached KP to have them correct the record on a story, they told her some nonsense about how the Duchess of Clownbridge couldn’t be connected to bad gossip or something like that? But it’s now okay for her to be connected to stories about her alleged scammer parents with quotes saying the future king’s in-laws are leaving tax payers holding the bag? Nah. Like I said below, Mrs. Wails, you in danger girl.
I think that it will be disastrous for the royal family if Will dumps Kate. They already seem like a disloyal family who treat women as disposable.
@Elsa, you’re not wrong, but we’ve seen in real time how the Windsors never learn anything from their mistakes, and just keep doing the same things over and over again.
I mean, every single thing they’ve done re: Harry has been horrendous, but they’re either unaware of the tremendous hit their reputation took for it, or they don’t care.
Elsa, if William makes the decision to separate from Kate the amount of negative stories unleashed will make your head spin. The Rota and the majority in the UK MSM will fall in line and paint her as inadequate for the role, her and Carole briefing the press against Meghan over “crygate” and implying mental health and/or addiction problems. In a couple of years they managed to destroy the reputation of Harry – remember he was the most popular royal in 2018/19 – and they will gleefully destroy Kate too and it will be a simple task because she is not loved by the public as Diana was. She is a disposable commodity. It’s a harsh observation but the truth; William is the heir she is a footnote in history.
Yes. They’ll say she has an eating disorder or that her nightly G&T has become a problem or that she’s been throwing lamps instead of pillows during W&K’s arguments – and they’ll hint she’ll be a danger to the children or something. It’ll be drip, drip, drip until Will declares the situation is intolerable.
Agreed. If they can muddy the reputation of the most popular royal and of his wife–who had an excellent reputation before marrying into this family of vipers– they can totally take down a woman who’s had over a decade of being in the RF with absolutely nothing to show for it (besides producing the required heirs). Also, I’m quite sure that Will’s not the only one who’s a terror to work for. I think even before they married, BOTH of them have been described as ‘grand’. I bet with Kate, that ‘grand’ attitude skyrocketed once she got the ring.
It would be interesting to see how many SM Kate supporters stand by her. She would likely be crucified by the BM. Are they true fans or not? I think not. A few may be. Kate’s treatment of other women has not engendered her any true love or support. It’s all superficial. Whereas Meghan has a fan base that will defend her to the end. Had Kate befriended Meghan and shown her support, she could have had some of that. But she did not. In fact, she was an early player in the smear campaign.
Also, it’s easy to forget now but the press were doing an absolute hatchet job on Diana’s reputation in the UK when she died – it’s just that people overseas didn’t get to read it in real time because there was no real social media.
All the papers, in particular the Daily Mail were tearing her to pieces (mad, man-eater, taking hospitality from dodgy millionaires, inappropriate new boyfriend) or at best showing faux sympathy (poor Diana, too young, too thick for the job; poor Charles tried but they just weren’t suited). Not only that, it was *working* – her popularity was falling by the day.
It was only after her death that the coverage (often by the same commentators) switched to the positive stories we get today. They got away with it because old columns weren’t online then.
Please note, I don’t believe the above but it’s how Diana was being portrayed
Kate doesn’t have fans. The people who support her online are paid PR staff.
There are many negative stories that persist to this day because of how much the tabloids spun against Diana, with some being published the day she died and out at stands the morning of. And Diana was well loved by a large fan base around the world.
Kate does not have the goodwill Diana had and if William turns on her and the family, the establishment media will have no issue targeting her. It is possible the turn has already started.
100% agree MADS!
It really wouldn’t. Kate is not nearly as popular as those carefully constructed Yougov polls like to claim. There would probably be some snark and people would move on quickly.
@ELSA- they definitely treat married-in women as disposable. With the exception of Harry, they explicitly pick weak women and then expect them to stay weak and take whatever they decided to hand them. It screams small d*^k energy. Does anyone think W would have actually selected a strong woman from a strong family? Of course the Middletons are a house of cards.
I’ve always said, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer, that her shady brother/uncle was helping to fund their lifestyle. At a point in time, both of Carol’s sons-in-law have helped her and the family financially. Part pieces were never that successful. It was never making the money they pretended it was.
The insolvency of a business of this size, and how its debts are managed is not in the least bit shocking to me. Businesses worldwide go belly up all the time and leave some unfortunate supplier/employee holding the cards in the end. Normally, having many failed businesses make the rich “serial entrepreneurs”. That’s the difference between the top percent and the working class. For the 1% – business failure rarely touches ones personal wealth and investment – that is why there was property/horses purchased out of the proceeds of the profiting business and during times when they needed to play shell games. again, not surprised.
As others have already noted, its why the Mail is suddenly making a big deal about it and whose back they are scratching. I see this as Camilla… and a clear message that Kate will not be able to use Charles to bail the family out.
While NOT a fan of (the public-face of) this family (posturing absent of meaning), I’m fascinated by the media’s focus on Carole Middleton as engineer-in-chief of this debacle, and in general since her eldest daughter was engaged. The stereotypes (“controlling-woman” who will stop at nothing to be royal adjacent; “stage-mother” who will stop at nothing to get her daughter married into royalty; the “naive woman” in business; a “doting-caring grandmother” who wants more time at home etc etc. ) Of course much of the media coverage is orchestrated from within – but what about Mr. Middleton? Is he “naive”, “controlling,” “doting” “Machiavellian”, other?… It’s just so…typical.
When you have to do a character assassination quickly, it makes it easier to pull from stereotypes. Some of the descriptors may happen to apply to her, but yeah, the revolving use of tropes is sexist.
Even though the press made fun of the Middletons background they participated in the myth making of their wealth. Meghan never got that benefit of the doubt from the press. So when royalists say that Kate got the same treatment from the press they’re lying and delusional.
The recent PP failure articles like this one, in my opinion are due to lack of salacious content to print from the royal family as there is no access to the Sussexes who were fed to the wolves. The tabloids had their final big run (fed by palace insiders) on the Sussexes from the coronation storylines.
The royals have had some seemingly shady ventures that have flopped leaving a trail of debts before so a royal adjacent flop should ideally be par for the course and not surprising so the PP rampage reflects the tabloids’ restlessness. It would be refreshing to see proper investigative reporting into how such a business as PP was as profitable as reported over the years then suddenly switch from partnership to LLC and immediately unprofitable following the switch. Was the previous reporting on profitability over the years accurate or fictional/fake news.
I think eventually the tabloids will have to discuss the elephant in the room that they have been skirting for sometime now – the state of Kate and William marriage and what’s to expect from the future of the Wales. I think, they’ve wanted to run certain salacious stories of the Wales marriage for sometime but somehow seem to have been held at bay. Maybe the barriers will be cleared soon for the tabloids to take in the money from the spins.
Hmmm!
I don’t know who has been more calculating to get to the British Throne, Horseface or Carole Madoff?
The maneuvering and lies involved is beyond words.
Shocked this is getting so much coverage! The cold war between them is obviously heating up.
As Nic919 says above ‘The GDPR came in force in 2018 which prevents the sale of client lists without explicit consent from every individual.’ Selling contacts lists might have been the majority of PP’s legit income. The spectacular failure of PP was always going to be news, but it could have been softened by paying off the debts (by Will or Chuck), but it seems no one wanted to help the Middletons, and it also seems the tabloids have been given the okay, and maybe even insider info, to go after the Mid’s. Cathy did herself and her family no favors by pulling that stunt at the garden show. Does she believe her own press and think she is truly the future of the monarchy? Girl, you dumb.
I am still shocked by all these negative articles. William and KC3 could have quietly paid off the debts (like hush money!) and squashed these articles. The fact they haven’t speaks volumes. And these articles don’t simply discuss a failed business. They make the Middletons out to be fakes who lived beyond their means at the expense of others. Boy, have the mighty fallen!
Late to this party, but I think C&C are shaking off the Middleton’s tight grip on W&K’s kids. The Middleton’s always claimed to be their ideal grandparents compared to C&C. One recent story claimed the Middleton’s would sell their business and retire to spend more time with their grandchildren. By destroying their reputation C&C secure their own grip on the Wales’ kids. This is a severe weakening of Kate’s position, who depended heavily on her parents’ child support.
Good point. Wanting to isolate George from middle-classness.
Her incredibly wealthy sons in law couldn’t help her out to avoid this embarrassment?
“That in turn leaves ordinary working Britons on the hook for a business failure presided over by the mother-in-law of the future King.”
A quote from the Daily Fail based on Kaiser’s excerpts. I know a few folks here have been saying that these current Middleton stories don’t mean much since they are not as harsh as they would be had this been Meghan or anyone close to her. True, they aren’t as nasty as they would be in that circumstance. But that these articles are appearing at all, and for them to make the sort of link quoted above is very telling. Groundwork is being laid. I’ve been saying it since a couple years back when we suddenly started getting those doting “single dad” photos of Willileaks and his children. Mrs. Wails, you in danger girl
I think it’s pretty clear the Mids had no expectation of getting dragged through the mud like this.
Carol problem was she got too comfortable too Arrogant she believed her own well brought hype about herself. She made digs about Diana She constantly leaked things to the press she made sure her brother went on record talking about how kate and William should be king and queen. The Middleton had been livings in a house of cards for decades the royal reporters spoon feeds lies about how successful the Middleton’s were . That why Carol was able to get everyday people to trust her giving her money and loans because of her status as the grandmother to the future king . For all the complaints and trolls talking about Meghan and Harry using their titles for cash grab the Middleton’s has been using their royal connections for decades and decades to line their pockets and appearances .
I would LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE to be a fly on the wall when H&M got wind of this “news” and hear THAT discussion.
There was a load of stories before the wedding, not very subtly hinting that their finances weren’t all above board. Then the ring was placed on the finger and they all disappeared. They know exactly where the bodies are buried and have for over a decade, they’ll slowly put them out there unless the Midds give them something worth burying it for another while.
Also i dont buy for a second that Carole stepped back then, we would have heard about it. It was all her until it was clearly heading to the end and then she publicly jumped ship.
I think William is one of those guys who typically has buyers remorse a decade later despite having done all the sums and knowing what he was getting into.
He settled for Kate and knew exactly what that meant.
He is just mad now because she never ‘became’ a true Aristo like Sophie or Fergie (who were already distant Aristos or RF adjacent for years). William knows people don’t respect Kate and that irks him.
For all the criticism thrown at Meghan, people respect her. Even the fcuking derangers respect her bc they spend their days talking crap about her endlessly.
Kate’s only supporters are actually Meghan haters, whereas Meghan supporters go to war for her daily.
Kate is the sort of personal who takes people pleasing to a whole new level and then wonders why she loses out in life. She had an ally in Meghan and they could have leaned on each other and even played hardball with the rota and their pre-ordained roles.
Now Chuck, Camilla and William will dispose of her in a much more cruel way than she helped to dispose of Meghan. We’re about to hear so much about Kate’s personal life it will make our heads spin.
This is just the beginning of Kate’s nightmare. There is a tiny (finger tip) part of me that feels sorry for her, but then I remember the horror she put pregnant Meghan through THREE TIMES.
**but then I remember the horror she put pregnant Meghan through THREE TIMES during her pregnancies.
Random thoughts:
1. The only thing the British media likes more than a “rags to riches” story is a brutal comeuppance, lol. This story is not going away!
2. The Middletons don’t have many allies outside of their immediate family – they are either considered hopelessly nouveau riche and snubbed by the likes of the Turnip Toffs or they “give themselves airs”. Who are their defenders?
3. Sure, it’s set dressing, but Carole is putting her daughter’s “business lady” stock images to shame. Look at that sleek laptop, a whiteboard with ideas and various colourful post-its, the piles of stuff on desk! Compare this to Catherine’s “workspace” that was simply a mostly empty desk decorated with a landline phone, a special set of Waterstones classic novels, no computer, and an empty notebook titled “Notes”.
Kate would think twice to upstage the king at the Chelsea Flower Show in the future…..
In the meanwhile, there are several ‘puff’ pieces directed to her by the same daily fail, for services rendered; past and present.
Does anyone remember the rather odd articles that appeared I think before the death of QE11? William was sick of Ma turning up frequently with a suitcase expecting to stay at Anmer? Always been odd to me how CarolE followed them everywhere
So much for my thoughts that people were fully vetted, including their family members before marrying into the British royal family. MI5 should have told them the Middletons were running a scan. Will should have paid attention to his friends who tried to warn him. I’ll bet the King of Jordan knows all there is to know about his new daughter in law’s family. Is leaking stories the only thing the British courtiers are capable of?
The royals run the biggest scam of all. Why should they look down on other scammers?
The BRF would have fully investigated Khatte and her family before the marriage. It appears that they have been protected for a very long time. Why have the BRF been in bed with these grifters? Khatte acting like she has been crowned queen may have been a trigger, but her self appointed superiority has been evident for years.
I’m hoping for Niraj Tanna to finally spill what he knows about the Middletons
My two cents: it was probably a money laundering front Carole tried (and failed) to take legitimate.
Party Pieces at one point had maybe 30+ employees & were looking to expand, and now they’re down to 12 employees? Questions:
1.) The Middletons don’t own Oak Acre anymore (the 1.5 million pound home some have mentioned here). I believe they sold it to a family, and I remember reading they made them swear not to talk about the interior of the house.
2.) How much did the Middletons pitch in for Pippa’s wedding, which the reception was held in their house? They even built that glass reception area in the grounds that was flown in from Belgium(?).
3.) Doesn’t Kate have a cousin, Lucy Middleton, who’s a lawyer? Her and her brother were invited to her wedding, but none from Carole’s side of the family, except Uncle Gary & his family.
I may not understand how businesses operate, but I think it’s shameful that the Middletons can walk away without any obligation to pay their creditors what they are owed (Fiona Cairns included). And they live in a 4.7 million pound mansion? I don’t know how they can live with themselves doing that. How about doing the right thing and pay your creditors who maybe do not have the same connections and are just trying to make a living?
This Middleton business is one big sorry state. It is beyond beggers belief, how two people knowing they are the in laws of Royalty could lie , cheat and carry on the way they have .
I sincerely hope they are NOT allowed to get away with what they’ve done to people. The loss of profits and income sustained by people concerned shows the Middletons in an entirely different light to what has been shown. A PAIR OF DISHONEST CON ARTISTS. That now need to appear in court and explain themselves.