Carole Middleton is in a full-blown panic. The British media is openly reporting on the “malicious poster campaign” happening in Bucklebury, all tied to the collapse of the Middleton family’s business, Party Pieces. In May, Party Pieces went bankrupt and it was sold to millionaire James Sinclair for £180,000. Because of the way the bankruptcy was structured, Sinclair is not on the hook to pay off Party Pieces’ extensive debt. PP defrauded banks, vendors, creditors and the government for over £2.6 million. Those people – many of them small businesses – are justifiably angry and they want to be paid, especially given that many of them extended credit to Carole personally because she is the mother of “the future queen.” This is what the poster campaign is about – someone has put posters up all around Bucklebury, saying that Carole needs to pay her debts. Conveniently, the Telegraph spoke to James Sinclair and he’s trying to provide a huge amount of cover for Carole. Some highlights:

Sinclair was approached by Carole six months ago: Before going any further, he was asked to sign an NDA – not unusual in the world of acquisitions, but a sign, perhaps, of who he was about to meet. Fifteen minutes later, he found himself on a Zoom call with Carole Middleton. “Because of my own background I instinctively understood her mindset,” he says. “There was a genuine connection.” An indefatigable 38-year-old known as Mr Partyman, Sinclair seemed the perfect person to take on Party Pieces, the business Carole started at her kitchen table, which after 30 years was on the brink of falling into administration. She had stepped away in April, reportedly selling her 49 per cent stake, ready to retire and focus on being a grandmother.

Carole really doesn’t want to take responsibility: “Carole had reached her mid-60s and quite rightly wanted to spend more time with her family,” says Sinclair. “When she handed Party Pieces over to investors and shareholders, it was in textbook condition; a really nice company that was regularly making a profit of £1m a year from a £3-£5m turnover.” Carole and her husband Michael felt they had secured the future of the firm that they had worked hard to create. But things started to go downhill. “Unfortunately the investors put into place the wrong team with the wrong strategy,” says Sinclair. “Frugality and getting a tangible return on every single cost is a big part of the entrepreneurial mindset, because it’s hard; only five per cent of businesses get past the first 10 years. Mistakes were made.”

The catalogue: “Party Pieces used to publish a catalogue three or four times a year and that gave it a legacy feel – the new owners axed it, which was short-sighted. It’s an old-school concept but because it was so unusual it made the company stand out – and it worked. We will definitely start printing it again, with our new additions.”

The international rollout: The pandemic had hit the company hard. Then came an international rollout in the US, the Middle East and Europe, which stretched budgets further. By late 2022 Carole realised something was going badly wrong and tried to salvage what she could. Despite her best efforts it wasn’t enough. “We were trying to do a solvent sale but it wasn’t possible. We bought it out of administration and as a result, creditors won’t get paid although Carole was desperately trying to avoid that happening,” Sinclair says.

The poster campaign: Weeks later, the Middletons have become the targets of a vicious campaign in their village of Bucklebury, Berkshire, where they bought a Grade II-listed Georgian manor house in 2012. Posters have been put up on trees and lampposts around their home. The Princess of Wales’s younger brother, James, who lives nearby, is said to have been seen taking them down, with rumours that disgruntled suppliers who were left out of pocket after the Party Pieces sale could be behind them.

Sinclair defends Carole: Sinclair feels hugely for Carole, whom he is quick to point out “was not captain of the ship on its downfall – she was, though, the lifeboat trying to save it…I don’t think it’s Carole’s fault,” he says over the phone. “She sold half the business at 65 years old to an investment firm and in my view they ruined it. They got her in when things looked like curtains and for six months she tried to save it – she just wanted to sell her business and retire and I feel like she’s being blamed for [what is] other people’s fault. She ran that for three decades on her own. She’s obviously not a wally.”

Carole didn’t get a fat check: Sadly, Sinclair says, “lots of people have come off with some financial pain”. “But Carole didn’t get any of the administration proceeds. She’s not got a big fat cheque for selling her business.”

Sinclair loves the Windsors: “I love the Royal family; they are great for Britain. It gives us a USP and they work really hard,” he says. “On the whole they’re a great bunch of people, especially Wills. They might live in enormously grand, if draughty, houses, but let’s be honest, they don’t own their lives.”

[From The Telegraph]

So, the cover story is that 68-year-old Carole handed PP to “investors” three years ago (2020? The middle of the pandemic??), the investors crashed PP, Carole stepped back into management in late 2022, only for PP to collapse by May of this year. And the whole time, during this three-year “step-back” period, Carole was still the public face of the company, she was still on PP’s Instagram and being sent to New Jersey to promote PP. No, sorry, I’m not buying Sinclair’s cover story. I get why he’s caping for Carole, he’s protecting his investment and what is now part of HIS brand. But Carole’s dumbf–k cover story makes no sense, and the financials make zero sense. PP was never that profitable, and Carole has been lying for years, just like she lied to creditors, vendors and banks.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images, Party Pieces’ IG.