Last June, the wheels came off the Middleton bus. Carole and Michael Middleton’s business, Party Pieces, went bankrupt, leaving a trail of financial destruction in its wake. The Middletons owed creditors more than $3 million, but they sold off the Party Pieces name and stock to a British entrepreneur, who actually came out and said that the Middletons were broke-ass and they never had the kind of money they pretended to have. Carole and Mike have only been seen once since all of that went down, but it’s still incredibly strange that they were not seen or photographed anywhere near the London Clinic for two weeks while the Princess of Wales was being treated. Well, today is Carole’s birthday, and the Mail published a pretty brutal piece about how the past year has been Carole’s “annus horribilis” and “The Middletons are reeling from a series of blows to family and reputation.” Oof. Some highlights:
Carole’s birthday: All thoughts in the Middleton household will be on their daughter, Catherine, as she continues her recovery from abdominal surgery. And that will apply even today, the birthday of Carole Middleton. In previous years, she has celebrated abroad – and memorably so for her 60th, which she spent on the private Caribbean island of Mustique with pink champagne, grenadine cocktails, a jazz band and fireworks. Today’s 69th birthday will be a quieter affair, and not just because the eldest of her three children, the Princess of Wales, has been unwell.
Annus horribilis: For the past 12 months have been something of an annus horribilis for the Middletons, and Carole in particular. Kate’s mother has only been seen in public once since her business Party Pieces collapsed last June owing £2.6 million. That was at her daughter’s Together at Christmas Carol Service at Westminster Abbey before Christmas. Carole avoided the Wimbledon tennis championships and Royal Ascot, both regular fixtures in her diary.
Party Pieces went bust: In May, Prince William’s in-laws were given pride of place at the Coronation, seated in row seven of Westminster Abbey, immediately behind the Royal family and next to world leaders.But it all exploded the following month when it was announced that her company had fallen into administration with debts of £2.6 million, misery compounded by a malicious campaign seemingly from embittered creditors, a cruel depiction in the Netflix series The Crown, and her daughter’s surgery.
The Middletons’ debt: While Party Pieces was bought for £180,000 by entrepreneur James Sinclair, who describes himself as the ‘Millionaire Clown’, there was no money to pay the creditors. Not only did the company owe the taxman £613,000 in unpaid VAT, and RBS £219,000 for a Covid loan, a string of family businesses was left out of pocket with some £456,000 due. Disgruntled supplier Sultani Gas, which was owned more than £20,430 by Party Pieces for helium for balloons, accused Carole of ‘betrayal’. ‘What hurt me the most was that I trusted her as the mother-in-law of the future King,’ a spokesman said, ‘and she just betrayed me. It is absolutely unacceptable.’ The firm’s landlord, Lord Iliffe, on whose Yattendon estate the company was based, was also owed £57,480 in unpaid rent and faced ‘severe financial consequences’. Other creditors, according to the report, included Portuguese gas canister maker Amtrol Alfa, which was owed £82,872, and party decorations firm Ginger Ray, due £52,304.
Carole’s portrayal in The Crown: The latest – and final – series of the Netflix blockbuster The Crown, hardly helped. Carole was lampooned and portrayed as an ambitious match maker who had engineered the marriage between William and Kate. Speaking on an episode of the hit Mail podcast, The Crown: Fact or Fiction, her brother Gary Goldsmith attacked the show for misrepresenting his family. ‘Carole isn’t that manipulative evil person, coming up with ways by which she can force her way into the Royal Family,’ he said. ‘First and foremost, Kate did brilliantly well to get into St Andrews. She’s an amazing girl, but that wasn’t noted. It was all to do with: “Kate you’ve got to be doing these things, you’ve got to be showing your legs”. It’s just not my family. It’s not the way Carole operates.’
How the Middletons will spend the day: It is not known whether Kate, 42, will be well enough to see her parents or her siblings Pippa Matthews, 40, and James Middleton, 36 today. While in other circumstances, Mike and Carole would celebrate abroad or perhaps at their £4.7 million Grade II listed home in Berkshire, for the moment they have cleared their diaries to help Prince William look after their three grandchildren George, ten, Charlotte, eight, and Louis, five. The princess is expected to recover at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Great Park, which is a 40-minute drive from her parents.
Damn, happy birthday to Carole, here’s how your house of cards collapsed in real time. I’m glad the Mail noted the fact that Carole skipped Ascot and Wimbledon, and that she’s only been seen once since PP’s insolvency. It would suck if that’s the reason why Carole didn’t visit Kate in the hospital though – the last thing on my mind (and I’m a hater) would have been “broke ass Carole shouldn’t visit her ill daughter in the hospital!” Of course not – we all know that Carole and Kate are very close, and I believe that Kate would have wanted to see her mom more than anyone. Which is why I still halfway believe that Kate is already recuperating at Middleton Manor, or she soon will be. Anyway, happy birthday to Carole.
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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Party Pieces’ IG.
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- Carole Middleton The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, West Door, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724158734, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- Carole and Michael Middleton arriving for the ‘Together at Christmas’ Carol Service at Westminster Abbey in London. The service will be broadcast on ITV1 on Christmas Eve as part of a Royal Carols: Together At Christmas programme, narrated by Catherine Zeta Jones and featuring an introduction by Kate and tributes to Queen Elizabeth II.,Image: 744946541, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Kirsty O’Connor / Avalon
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- Michael and Carole Middleton arriving at Westminster Abbey, central London, ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.,Image: 774175111, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
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- Carole Middleton arriving at Westminster Abbey, central London, ahead of the coronation ceremony of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.,Image: 774175184, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Milligan / Avalon
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- Carole Middleton, Michael Middleton, Pippa Middleton and James Middleton at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom, on 06 May 2023.,Image: 774203418, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
Wow they say it’s not known if Can’t will be able to visit with Carol. Wonder why. If she is home after “abdominal surgery “ you would think Carol would be able to visit. Is this lovely piece that has been put out some kind of warning to Carol to maybe remain silent or it will get worse for her? It certainly put out there all her problems .
Between this and the DM piece also published today about Camilla’s niece having endometriosis and being so brave to go public about her ordeal (why now?), I’d say that Camilla is gunning for the Waleses big time and I am Here. For. It.
Hiring that former DM media staffer sure is paying off for C&C!
Camilla is the only one that seems to have a brain amongst them.
Not saying this is a good thing, as I also suspect she is hard as nails and often malicious.
Wouldn’t want to go against her and what seem to be her media friends.
Damn it really is looking like it’s over, or very nearly over, for the Wales’ marriage. The Mail has all but openly turned on her. Maybe that’s why we’re not getting the stories about the kids making cards for Mummy. No sympathy stories at all for Kate.
WOW. You know, it seemed that at first, the royal rota was all clued-in on what the real story was, but now I’m wondering if they’re not so sure themselves. The press has slowly gone from “our beloved POW” type articles to stories that have varying levels of shade and pointed hints about Kate. They either know slightly more than the rest of us (but not much more), or they DO know and are desperate to talk about it. They put up a good (and hypocritical) show of “respecting privacy” for that first week or so post-announcement, but these past few days…hmm.
If endometriosis is what Kate has, I have that and had the surgery for it and bled buckets *while at work*. I had two days off. Yes I also had multiple cysts explode. But I had to work.
I’m glad awareness is being raised and it does hurt like he**, but this better not be what caused her to need 5 months off.
@BeachDreams I think they were expecting some more photo ops over the past two weeks. They got one image of William driving away in a (new, expensive) car? That’s not going to tide them over. I think they were expecting more pics of him visiting, pics of him with the kids visiting, maybe even a pap stroll through Windsor as he takes the kids for ice cream to distract them, SOMETHING. and then of course a picture of Kate leaving.
The fact that they got none of those things is probably really ticking them off. And if they were expecting them, then it tells me they might not have realized how serious Kate’s condition might be.
I have no sympathy since Carole sends out her brother to the media to deride harry and meghan
I agree ! She has discovered what goes around comes around!
Um, there might be worse to come.
Damn, this is a bit of a hit piece, isn’t it? Happy birthday Carole, here’s all the ways the last year sucked for you. And the way it lists her creditors out one by one again…….yikes.
This is not the fluff piece you would expect to read about a mother whose daughter is in some sort of limbo, health wise.
Yikes, indeed. First, she owed 2.6 million – then, oh did we mention the 2.6 million? And then, let’s break down that 2.6 million. And finally, the 4.7 million house in Berkshire.
And they make extra sure to emphasize that it was CAROLE (not the new ownership) who accrued the debts and that she did so in bad faith, not because of COVID supply chains or whatever excuses they’ve been making.
Yeah, it’s a hit piece.
This is a clear message to Kate and her family. NOt good, not good at all.
ETA: Dishonest, unlawful business practices are wrong, period. But now that I see it’s part of the (long term) plan to get rid of Kate, I wonder what really happened, if they were promised support or something.
How could they have been so short-sighted to make themselves so completely dependent on RF. Have they not learned from history how ruthless the Windsors are? They did everything they could to get the ring, but while they were researching how to secure Peg’s pants, they did not learn anything about the family as a whole? Then The Spare must have been a very enlightening book for them if they had bothered to read it (too late, I guess, to correct their mistakes somehow).
This article is, simply put, Peg’s clear message to Kate&Middletons: Take what I offer you and shut up, because I can dispose of you as I see fit.
Simple: Kate and her mother never thought or planned for anything beyond the wedding.
@Arthistorian, it’s beginning to look like that. But how could they have thought it out more? Wills’ past treatment of Kate and what happened to his mother – I would think Ma Middleton would have a 5, 10 and 20 year plan. But it’s not looking that way.
I’ve always thought they assumed that William would cover the debts and then they could ‘sell’ Party Pieces and come out of this looking fine. The fact that he didn’t when it was such a small amount for him spoke volumes to me at the time. I think this is when Kate really seemed to go downhill. Everything was ‘off’ when she returned from summer vacation. A loving husband would have spared his wife and her family this humiliation.
@Tina – not necessary a loving husband, but a decent human being.
I remember when Diana and Charles divorces, I believe QEII intervened that Diana was not stripped of everything because she was the mother of the future king… Clearly, KCIII did not give this instructions to Peg.
Nary a mention of how Carole is being Wills and Kate’s rock during these tough times, helping out with the grandkids, being a beacon of middle class stability blah blah blah.
It’s definitely a hit piece, but I think it’s also notable that the Fail can’t or won’t confirm whether Kate is actually with the Middletons, even though the place she’s supposedly recuperating is only 40 minutes away. At the same time, they’re saying the Middletons are helping with the children, so in what scenario would the Middletons and the children be together without Kate?
Also, saying that the Middletons have cleared their diaries to help look after the grandchildren doesn’t actually confirm that anyone actually took them up on that offer…
Looking at it from a different angle, the only thing the Fail actually confirms here is that they’re done protecting the Middletons and that they don’t know (or aren’t publicly saying) where Kate is, and whether her supposed recuperation at Adelaide and her children’s supposed residence at Adelaide are occurring simultaneously.
It would have been so easy to say that having her daughter recuperating safely was the best gift of all and that the family is having a lowkey celebration that’s as much a celebration of Kate being discharged as Carole’s birthday. And yet instead they took this opportunity to absolutely skewer the mother of someone so ill she hasn’t been seen for a month and won’t be for at least another two. Ice cold.
Yeah, the line about the grandchildren was weird. It doesn’t say “they’re pitching in with the school run, the Middletons took the kids to their house for an overnight so William could get a break,” etc – nothing like that. Just that they cleared their (presumably not very busy?) schedules.
and not confirming that they’ve been to visit Kate is also weird. That seems like a tidbit they would give to the DM, or Camilla Tominey. And yet nothing.
and you’re right – this would have been such an easy fluff article, mentioning how Kate’s recovery is the most important thing to Carole etc. Instead they’re talking about how she’s not driving pink champagne on a Caribbean Island like she did 9 years ago.
It is very interesting that Carole hasn’t gone to the media with details about how she is helping Kate recuperate. The Middleton camp has been very quiet and Camilla Tominey hasn’t said a peep.
I do expect a more fluff piece from Eden soon because he’s apparently getting free dog food from James Middleton and doing some product placement for him on his IG.
Completely agree, it’s a very suspicious silence from usually willing mouthpieces. That’s verrry interesting re: James on IG. It tells me that whatever previous clout the Middletons had with the British media is gone for whatever reason, and they’re having to re-forge new deals in the hope of favorable coverage. It’ll be interesting to see which reporters are even willing to enter into an arrangement with them and which are treating them as radioactive.
What’s also interesting here is the apparent separation between Kate and the Middletons. Like, the tabloids clearly aren’t protecting the Middletons, but they are so clearly still protecting Kate. Why would that be? If they’re protecting Kate, surely she’d have the power to extend that to her parents. Therefore, what if they’re not protecting Kate at all – they’re protecting Will, and any vague, barebones, nonsensical inclusions of Kate are just because that’s what they need to do to make *Will’s* story make sense.
The comments section of the Mail article is particularly interesting. The best rated are shredding Carole.
My goodness, she celebrated her 60th in Mistique with pink champagne and FIREWORKS? Wow, talk about extravagance of the highest order, these people have no shame!!
Shame is for the little people.
LOl @hyacinth
It could have been worse for Carole. Meghan would have love some of the protection that Carole enjoyed over the last 13 years.
The Middletons were protected as long as QE was alive, and they took it for granted. How could they not see the writing on the wall and position themselves better before the queen died? They had to know that Charles would not show them the same grace. Helping to abuse Meghan earned them nothing.
We were expats living outside London for a couple years in mid 90’s, and I purchased some Party Pieces items for my son’s 3rd birthday. It was a fun box with pin the tail on the donkey game, funny cardboard glasses, a balloon inflator, and more. We used those things for years, kept in the original Party Pieces mailer box, moved it with us a few more times back in U.S. and only just recently parted ways with it, lol. Those were the days, mail ordering things was SO exciting! Seems quite quaint now!
Right? I recently was cleaning out some old camping equipment and remembered how I saw these particular supposedly super lightweight sleeping bags in the Campmor catalog back in the 90s and filled out the order form and mailed it along with probably either my credit card number or an actual paper check to pay for them, and 6 to 8 weeks later they were delivered to my house…. Nowadays the lightweight sleeping bags are like a quarter of their weight.
Campmor was the sh*t in college. I had bought half that catalog by 1998. I always ordered over the phone and mailed a check, they couldn’t do credit cards over the phone in the old days. Talk about quaint!
Dishonest, unlawful business practices are wrong, period. But now that I see it’s part of the (long term) plan to get rid of Kate, I wonder what really happened, if they were promised support or something.
How could they have been so short-sighted to make themselves so completely dependent on RF. Have they not learned from history how ruthless the Windsors are? They did everything they could to get the ring, but while they were researching how to secure Peg’s pants, they did not learn anything about the family as a whole? Then The Spare must have been a very enlightening book for them if they had bothered to read it (too late, I guess, to correct their mistakes somehow).
This article is, simply put, Peg’s clear message to Kate&Middletons: Take what I offer you and shut up, because I can dispose of you as I see fit.
Well, the Middletons are on their way out. This is a shunning in real time. Don’t be surprised if this vitriol turns on Kate too and we hear how she stalked and manipulated Will to get the ring. How she chased away all other women and left William with no choice but to marry her. How the Middleton’s bilked HIM out of millions as well.
I said it a year ago, but bears repeating. I will not be surprised if eventually Kate gets blamed for driving Meghan and Harry out of the country.
While she did her best to destroy Meghan, the whole RF pitched in and Daddy King the Monster who took away their security deserves the most blame.
As soon as H&M left I’ve always felt that Kate would get the blame for them leaving. From Kate’s face every time Meg is around, to her uncle Hookers n Blow attacking Meg, and now the royal racist reveal, it’s all setting her up to take the fall. They’ve been building up Kate for 6 years, her downfall will be a slow drip. They can’t just go all in like they did with Meg.
Happy not to see her smug face out and about.
I’m sorry but why does that Daily Fail article read like a “know your role and shut your mouth” hit piece courtesy of the KP clowns?
What if Carole and Kate are indeed behind Kates disappearance? Like some other commentators suggested, that they refuse to help when they don’t get what they are asking for. Because the media reads like two different talking points – plus a very visible Camilla
In all of that very well deserved *tearing the broke Middletonedeafs apart* by The Fail, I can’t help but laugh about drug-user uncle Gary, the one convicted of DV, describing keen Mumblina McButtons, the racist taxpayer-funded Duchess of Tights&Tiaras, as doing “brilliantly well”.
The one who infamously asked a tea master at Fortnum&Mason’s if he could test the smell by smelling it.
The same Kate who, with a degree in Art History, asked QEII if Fabergé eggs were still being made.
The one who went to visit a lab researching infertility – shortly after the SIL that she helped bully out of the family suffered a miscarriage.
That person who needed to read off a cue card to welcome Dr Jil Biden to a roundtable discussion of Airrly Yarrs.
*All* of the Goldsmith-Middletonedeaf-Matthews disappearing from the public eye can’t happen soon enough.
Just wondering why Michael Middleton’s years-long affair hasn’t been discussed in the papers yet…
… wishing CarolE Middletonedeaf everything she ever wanted for Meghan for her 69th birthday.
Michael Middleton years – long affair? Where have I been to have missed that? Do spill.
MM’s affair is a blonde (?) event planner. She’s in several photos with the family over the years, so CM knows and is OK with it, it seems.
The first time I became aware of her must have been around Pippa’s wedding.
Anyone remember the Corona masking rule that said you didn’t have to mask when you were with people from your household? There were pics of the Midds at an event with MM being the only one with a mask, which kind of gave the happy family unit thing away that is so emphasized by the Derangers.
Wow, I didn’t know that either. But, can we consider it an affair if CM approves of it? Maybe, they made a deal of no divorce in order to continue the story of how Kate has a perfect family. They may be already separated, but didn’t just sign the paperwork for divorce.
Mike Middleton affair-what???
I am so tired, but when I read this:
Party Pieces went bust: In May, Prince William’s in-laws were given pride of place at the Coronation, seated in row seven of Westminster Abbey, immediately behind the Royal family and next to world leaders.
I included the word former, so I read:
Party Pieces went bust: In May, Prince William’s “FORMER” in-laws were given pride of place at the Coronation, seated in row seven of Westminster Abbey, immediately behind the Royal family and next to world leaders.
Is the divorce truly coming this year? Is my subconscious mind telling me it’s time? I believe so, since her parents or siblings were not papped once visiting the London Clinic.
The Middletons have gotten away with the crime of defrauding people and it’s not right.
One way to find Kate is for someone to take a drive on the roads near Middleton Manor. If they are filled with cops then that’s where you will find Kate.
An Annus horribilis of their own making. And I still think that the Middletons not being photographed going to the clinic was just Camilla calling her tabloids friends and telling them not to print a word about them.
Psssst carol, maybe go onto cbb with your no good brother, I’m sure you would get a warm welcome from your creditors when you came out, because let’s face it, there’s fk all for you to do outside!!
Carole can cry me a river. Her grift was well known before the Crown summed it up so nicely.
Carol set her sights on William’s crown after Diana died. She sent Kate to his bed essentially. Told Kate to be patient while Will cheated and carried on like Kate didn’t matter (I suspect that she didn’t). I think the Middletons were the ones to clue the British press into the fact that William had an on-off girlfriend of 10 years. That put pressure on Will to “do the right thing” by the girl.
Kate was never that girl. She could barely speak at her own wedding. She was never meant for public speaking. William would have never married her if not for the pressure put on him once the public was made aware of their 10 year long relationship.
William knows he was played by the Middletons. I strongly believe that is why he can barely conceal his contempt for Kate in public.
Earlier pictures of young Kate she looks almost like a FAS child – downward sloped, half closed eyes, long upper lip, and slightly dazed looking.
If that’s true, I almost feel sorry for her. Her mother never seemed to prioritize self worth. What a contrat to Doria, who is so supportive and uplifting of Meghan as a human being.
She does not look like an FAS child AT ALL. One of my closest friends adopted a baby many years ago with FAS and she’s the poster child for the syndrome. Kate was a perfectly normal looking, active and pretty little girl. Carole may be many awful things but she wasn’t a drunk when she was pregnant.
“once the public was made aware of their 10 year long relationship.”
I don’t understand this comment. Will and Kate’s relationship was public knowledge from practically their first date. It’s not like they dated secretly for ten years without the press knowing then someone tipped off the press “hey William has been dating this girl for ten years.”
Everyone in Britain watched those ten years play out in real time, as there was intense press scrutiny on their relationship basically for the entire ten years.
Kate was publicly announced as his girlfriend less than a year after they started dating.
Carole placed a few phone calls to Paul Dacre in the early years when William didn’t want it confirmed that she was his more consistent girlfriend.
Niraj Tanna the photographer also was involved in keeping Kate in the papers especially during the break up periods.
The glaring absence of Carole from Kate’s side continues to be the weirdest and most foreboding detail in this whole matter.
The Daily Mail has suddenly decided it’s OK to tell the unvarnished truth about the shady Middletons. I wonder why.
I don’t believe the Middletons are anything like as close as the tabloids claim. Neither of their very wealthy sons in law lifted a finger to help them. Did the Middleton daughters not try to persuade their husbands to help? The sum involved is loose change to William, he gets that much every two weeks from Cornwall alone.
Carole was the architect for her annus horribilis. For a long time she got a free pass for all the PP financial shenanigans, her consummate pushing of Kate into the path of a royal marriage, her drawing William into the big, happy, loving family charade, and her naked ambition for royal-adjacent status. All that has fallen apart and the chickens are coming home to roost. But who is the worse off for it? Her own daughter, who because of the inept and obvious coverup of her physical/mental health (or lack thereof) is off getting treatment somewhere secret, her life basically in tatters, and the victim of another married-in beat-down by the royal family. I do feel sorry for Kate because she was the sacrificial lamb. She was groomed by Carole to inveigle her way into a royal marriage, not to learn things like empathy, compassion, or strive for an interesting and enjoyable career and growing as a person. Good job there Carole…I think we can blame her solely for creating the broken person Kate has become.
Well her year’s about to get worse seeing as her blabbermouth druggie dealing and wife beating brother will be going on Celeb Big Brother UK in March. Why he’s considered a celeb is anyone’s guess and no being uncle to Buttons and in law to Peggington doesn’t count! 😂
Please, someone figure out how the title to Huckleberry Manor is held. Is it in William’s name? Does it revert to the crown the same as Angela Kelly’s? Did the Middletons keep their old house in case they needed it, instead of selling it to pay off the creditors?
By now I am convinced it is divorce, for sure. YouTube is suddenly full of sugarcoated shorts of W+K, underlayed with heartbreak love songs. I remember this strategy was used to attack M+H.- what else is there to say?