Carole Middleton turns 70 years old today, and Middleton HQ organized a treasury of embiggening PR for the new “queen mother.” We’ve heard that Carole has a great figure, that she loves a new diet, that she’s practically QEII’s carbon copy, that Carole is overdue for her very own aristocratic title, Baroness of Bucklebury or something along those lines. There are several problems though. One, all of these embiggening pieces tend to mention the long list of “accusations” Carole has had to face over the past two-decades-plus and… there’s barely anything even Carole’s biggest defenders can really say to contradict it. “She threw Kate in William’s path and stage-managed their relationship for years!” Yes, she did do that. “She’s tacky!” She is, in fact, very tacky. And on and on. And now this – Richard Eden has written a very stupid piece for Carole’s 70th, in which he reminds everyone that Carole briefed the press during Kate and William’s courtship. Some highlights:

The Royal Family depends on Carole: If anyone doubted the importance of the Princess of Wales to the Monarchy, her absence from public duties last year as she battled multiple health problems made crystal clear how much she was missed. There is, however, another woman whose value to the Royal Family is rarely remarked upon, yet she is central to its fortunes. That woman is Carole Middleton. She’s not royal and has been given no title but, as she celebrates her 70th birthday tomorrow, I want to give a personal insight into her character.

Carole spoke to Eden in 2008: Back in 2008, when Kate, as Catherine was then known, had been going out with Prince William for more than five years, her mother broke her silence to voice her concerns about the impact that public scrutiny was having on her own life. ‘You see, I feel very vulnerable about everything,’ she told me at the Hennessy Gold Cup, at Newbury racecourse, just a few miles from her house in Berkshire. ‘I’m not a celebrity and don’t want to be one. Celebrities have minders and PR people. I don’t want a PR person and wouldn’t want to have to pay to employ one. I haven’t asked for all this.’

Carole engineered Will & Kate’s relationship: When Catherine’s romance with William was first disclosed, there were claims that her mother had engineered her relationship by encouraging her to take a ‘gap year’ so her time at St Andrews University would coincide with that of the future king. Catherine also switched to the same history of art course as William, having originally enrolled to study psychology. These rumours were given new force by royal biographer Tina Brown in her 2022 book, The Palace Papers, and by Netflix’s hit drama The Crown, which depicted Carole as the ‘mastermind’ of Catherine’s romance. ‘It is unlikely Kate would be where she is today without her mother’s canny help in negotiating a royal romance,’ Brown claimed. ‘Carole’s fingerprints are all over Kate’s first move on the royal chessboard.’

But William pursued Kate: However, as Carole’s brother Gary Goldsmith has confirmed, the truth is that William already knew Catherine after they met at various events attended by pupils from their respective boarding schools, Eton College and Marlborough College. It was William who pursued Catherine and not the other way round. This is why Carole’s comment to me in 2008, ‘I haven’t asked for all this’, rang true then, and still does.

What Carole told Eden: ‘I’m concerned about my business; that’s my focus,’ she said at the time. ‘I don’t want the attention to detract from that. I’m also worried for my family: I have three children – not just Catherine.’

There’s that word again, discretion: Despite all the criticism, Carole has been the model of discretion in the 17 years since our chat at the racecourse – and that won’t change.

A mention of Meghan: While Meghan Markle cut all ties with her father and most of her relations after she married into the Royal Family, Catherine has been able to rely on the steadfast support of the Middletons. Never has that been so crucial as in Catherine’s past traumatic year. It is no surprise that her parents were included in the video that Kensington Palace released last September after the princess completed her chemotherapy treatment, which did not feature the King and Queen.

[From The Daily Mail]

Nothing says “Carole has been the model of discretion” like telling the story of when Carole went to the races, staggered around until she happened upon a Daily Mail reporter, and promptly shared all of her deepest concerns about herself and her family. Nothing says “discreet” like openly blackmailing your daughter’s in-laws for society event invitations and begging the Daily Mail for favorable coverage after cheating people out of millions of pounds! Also: you can really tell that even the most fanatical royalists don’t have the heart to really push back on the stories about Carole stage-managing William & Kate’s courtship. They were there, they know what happened. While it’s true that William eventually pursued Kate, it was only after Carole convinced Kate to throw herself in William’s path over and over for years until he noticed her. Not to mention, the whole school change thing. One thing was for sure – once the Middletons got their hooks into William, they were never letting go.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.