I have long believed – and there’s evidence to back this up – that Prince William began distancing himself from the Middletons circa 2020-21. The best part of William and Kate’s marriage was joining together to bully the Sussexes, then when Harry and Meghan exited the UK, suddenly W&K’s marriage was seemingly never the same. During the pandemic, they decamped to Anmer Hall, which was suddenly too cramped for both of them, and William was apparently staying at the big house in Sandringham. Then he refused to allow Kate or her family come to the Diana statue unveiling in 2021. While the Middletons have shown up to various royal events in recent years, William hasn’t been photographed with them at all and he seemingly takes pains to avoid them. Gone are the days when Pippa stepped in for Kate as William’s plus-one for events, gone are the days when we heard about Carole practically living with Kate and William full time. Well, “royal expert” Jennie Bond is still trying to convince people that William and Pippa are especially close.

As Pippa Middleton celebrated her milestone 40th birthday on 6 September, various publications looked into the author and socialite’s life and her relationships with various members of the Royal Family. Apparently, Pippa is really close to older sister Kate, and she also loves brother-in-law Prince William, meaning family relations are super smooth on that side of the family.

“She [Pippa] has proved a loyal and discreet sister-in-law. And that goes a VERY long way in William’s book,” explained Jennie Bond, speaking to OK!. “But she also has the same easy manner and sense of humour that attracted him to Catherine in the first place.”

“She and Catherine are extremely close; they chat as often as possible and meet whenever they can,” Jennie revealed. “They talk about everything, and I very much doubt that Catherine expects her sister to stand on ceremony when they are together. In public, of course, Pippa pays due respect to the future Queen, but I suspect they probably both find that sort of protocol quite funny.”

While marrying into the Royal Family could have driven a wedge between the once-close sisters, Jenny believes there’s a particular factor that helps Pippa not be intimidated by Kate’s status.

“The fact that Pippa has married an extremely wealthy man, James Matthews, means that the relationship between the two sisters has remained quite a balanced one,” Jennie observes.

[From Marie Claire]

They talk about Pippa and William like they’re former lovers. Which, honestly, would not surprise me. I also think that Pippa has gotten some distance from her parents and probably Kate too – Pippa now has three children (one of whom is named ROSE), a terribly moderately wealthy husband and a masters degree in early childhood development. She also lives in a huge mansion in Berkshire – it’s much, much bigger than Kate’s sad little separation house, Adelaide Cottage. Pippa is actually living the life Kate wanted for herself. I mean… we don’t know. I get the impression that Kate and her mother are still very involved in each other’s lives, meanwhile Pippa is off doing her own thing and William can’t get away from all of those grifters fast enough. That’s the other thing too – even if William hadn’t already distanced himself from the Middletons, the collapse of Party Pieces and the subsequent exposure of Carole and Mike as massive frauds probably would have meant a big “cooling off” between the Middletons and the Windsors anyway. Their appearance at the coronation was possibly their last big hurrah (and even then, Pippa and James weren’t allowed to bring their spouses).

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.