Back in the day, Prince William was ‘in love’ with the whole Middleton clan

People on Twitter often ask me when Prince William stopped being so close with his in-laws. I always go back to when I noticed the shift, and it was in 2021, all around the unveiling of the Princess Diana statue at Kensington Palace. William and Harry had started planning for the statue well before their big falling out, and Harry’s return to the UK for the unveiling was a major storyline for months in the British press. That’s when something curious happened: William banned Kate from the statue unveiling, and the Middletons absolutely lost their minds. I have no idea why William banned Kate from appearing, but I suspect that he didn’t want another repeat of the “Kate is the keen peacemaker/linchpin of the monarchy” storyline we got after Prince Philip’s funeral. Plus, William didn’t want his wife to keep staring longingly at his brother.

In any case, that was when I noticed a shift. The Middletons’ PR went into overdrive, friendly journalists were called and threats were issued. The Middletons were completely panicked that William was making a point of excluding Kate. Carole overplayed her hand in several ways, including briefing reporters that she was more of a mother to William than Diana ever was. After that, there definitely seemed to be a cooling off between William and the Middletons. It seemed like William and Kate were mostly living separately too.

Well, now that Carole Middleton has been outed as a morally and financially bankrupt scammer, it doesn’t look like William is doing much to help his in-laws. Not only that, but the Windsors writ large aren’t doing much to help out. I would even suggest that the Windsors are at least partially behind the reporting of just how badly Carole mismanaged Party Pieces. Which makes this little story in the Daily Express sort of interesting:

The Prince and Princess of Wales, who celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary in April this year, are known worldwide for being one of the most picture-perfect couples. A fairytale wedding, followed by three beautiful children, the future King and Queen appear to have a union of dreams. But, like any couple, their relationship hasn’t been without its rocky patches. In 2007, three years before their eventual engagement, Prince William and Princess Kate split up, a period well-documented as challenging for both of them.

Eventually, however, they found their way back together, and a royal expert has claimed that it wasn’t only Kate, but her close-knit family, who helped mend the divide.

Speaking in the Amazon Prime documentary William and Kate, Into The Future, released to celebrate their marriage in 2011, Andrew Morton — Princess Diana’s biographer — spoke of how William “yearned” for the stability the Middletons offered after his own parents’ divorce.


He said: “For a kid from a broken home which is, after all, what William is, he has always yearned towards the stable and towards the steady. It’s not just Kate he’s in love with — it’s the family.”

In the documentary, royal author and journalist Richard Kay spoke of how William seeks to avoid repeating old mistakes in his own marriage. He said: “Everything about William you can trace back to what happened to his parents. He lived through the bitter break up of their marriage. He knows that what happened to them destroyed their marriage and he is very careful not to make the same mistakes.”

[From The Daily Express]

While the Express and other British outlets reaggregate the same old news constantly, it’s curious that they decided to go with this right now, this week, as Party Pieces crashed and burned and the Times and Daily Mail are calling out Carole Middleton’s lies, debt and fraud. Perhaps we’re meant to reflect on just how badly William got played by the Middletons, how desperate he was to be mothered by Carole, what bad judgment he had about this whole family.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.