In recent months/years, there are always conspiracies about Prince William and Kate and the real state of their marriage and whether they would ever divorce. I maintain my belief that they will stay married up until the day that William sees a better option for himself and a way to extricate himself without harming his reputation. Rose Hanbury isn’t the “solution” – I actually feel slightly bad for Rose, she’s a well-connected aristocrat living in a palatial estate and she has no desire (from what I can see) to upend her life to be the next Princess of Wales. She’s constantly being dragged into these conversations basically because she allegedly f–ked William out of boredom. So, William and Kate will stay married, and they will likely continue to live separate lives.

I also believe that William began distancing himself from the Middletons several years ago, specifically in May/June 2021. That was when he ordered Kate to stay away from the Diana-statue unveiling and the Middletons went on the attack against William. Remember this unhinged piece from 2021? Yeah. I wonder if that’s what’s happening again, because all of sudden, the Middletons want to remind everyone that they are central to the well-being of the monarchy. They are the keen linchpins! From Richard Kay’s piece in the Daily Mail, “The Middletons are at the heart of our new royal order… This may have been his father’s day, but the prominence given to William’s in-laws shows that they are now absolutely central to the future wellbeing of the Royal Family.”

The Middletons were in the seventh row at the Abbey: Given that they are grandparents of the next king but one, it was understandable that Kate should want both her mother, a former flight attendant who was brought up in a council flat, and her father, a one-time aircraft despatcher, close at hand. What was surprising was the presence of her brother and sister when pressure of space meant so many more familiar names were absent from the guest list.”

The Middletons are the future of the monarchy: Beyond this very visible picture of dizzying social mobility that the Middletons represent, their presence — more than perhaps anyone else’s at Saturday’s ceremony — is a very clear sign about the future direction of the monarchy. Charles may be on the throne but by including William’s in-laws and in such a conspicuous position in the Abbey, there was a tacit acknowledgement of the role the Middletons are undoubtedly going to play. So while this was his father’s day, it was also the beginning of a new royal order.

Prepare yourselves for more Flop Tours: The King and Camilla will lean heavily on William and Kate in the years ahead. Indeed, it is already possible to look not too much further into the future to see the day when the King and Queen step back from overseas tours, for instance, just as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip did. This would mean the Prince and Princess taking on those visits to distant Commonwealth countries and far-flung realms, in the way that Charles did when he was Prince of Wales, easing the burden on his parents. When that happens — and in the case of the Queen, who finds international travel gruelling, this may be sooner than people realise — it will be Mike and Carole Middleton who are called on to help out by taking care of Prince George and his siblings Charlotte and Louis.

The Middletons love to help out: Kate’s parents have been ‘brilliant’, according to friends, at stepping in and helping out, always willing to drop everything at a moment’s notice. Mrs Middleton’s decision to step back from the day-to-day running of her online party paraphernalia business will free up still more time. Carole has always been just ‘Granny’ to Kate’s three children although they have, of course, been told everything about their other grandmother, Princess Diana.

William needs the Middletons now that Harry is gone: The split with Prince Harry, whose graceless contribution to his father’s Coronation saw him leave for the U.S. directly after the Abbey service, is another significant factor in placing Carole and Mike front and centre as the new royal order takes shape. Even without the disgraced Prince Andrew, Charles has continued to enjoy the active support of his sister Anne and brother Edward in picking up the royal slack. There is no such back-up for William, who had always hoped that his brother would be at his side, not just when he was Prince of Wales but also King. With the prospect of any kind of reconciliation fast disappearing, William has no one but Kate to support him through the challenges ahead.

William needs to ease his burden: And, since Charles has admitted he would have struggled to cope without Camilla to encourage and reassure him, there is an understanding between father and son that anything William can do to ease the burden will be granted. That’s where the Middletons come in.

Bill Middleton: After his and Kate’s wedding in 2011, William was more determined than ever to transpose the Middletons’ way of doing things into his own marriage. It shows most clearly in the way their three children have been raised. It helps, of course, that they are not the offspring of a damaged marriage.

Harry changed William & Charles’s relationship: Harry’s decision first to quit Britain and royal life and then to use his exile to mount attacks on his father, stepmother, brother and sister-in-law brought about a rapid rapprochement between Charles and William. The relationship between the two had not truly been close for years: William often felt he and Kate were simply there to inject an X-factor into royal life. Father and son have short tempers. But now there was cause for a joint enterprise — both Charles and William feared that Harry’s real and imagined complaints about royal life and the treatment of Meghan was doing serious damage to the royal brand.

[From The Daily Mail]

“There is an understanding between father and son that anything William can do to ease the burden will be granted…” What is this burden you speak of? Is the burden in the room with us now? Because William does f–k all and he’s always been lazy as hell, but sure, I’ll buy that Charles lets William do whatever he wants. This is an old-school “promise to be keen” layered into a story about how Carole and Mike are the linchpins of the monarchy because… they’ll look after their grandchildren when William and Kate are making asses out of themselves overseas. As I said, William will stay in this marriage until he sees an easy way out, which may never come. He was once close to the Middletons but in recent years, he’s seemingly kept them at arm’s length. For good reason. I think the Middleton operation has gone tits-up in several different ways, not just Party Pieces on the brink of bankruptcy, but… it feels like there are other shoes left to drop.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.