Royalty As I See It

I worry the Middletons really do believe they are royalty

By Amanda Platell
PUBLISHED: 16:48 EST, 6 July 2012 | UPDATED: 16:48 EST, 6 July 2012

One of the traits that first attracted Prince William to Kate Middleton was she came from such a normal, middle-class background. Unlike him, she was the product of a loving, stable family — one he grew so fond of that he now calls Kate’s father, Michael, ‘Dad’.
William loved to spend time at the Middletons’ home in Bucklebury, and vowed that the whole family would always be at the heart of his and Kate’s lives.
Sadly, I fear, that middle-class idyll is becoming a little tarnished. For just over 14 months on from the royal wedding, the Middletons are starting to behave uncomfortably like royals themselves.


Why are they there? Pippa Middleton, the sister of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, sits next to her brother James in the Royal Box at Wimbledon

Why, for example, were Pippa and her brother James in the royal box at Wimbledon last week? Not because of their party-planning and cake-baking credentials, that’s for sure.
Pippa is now about to release her own party-planning guide, for which she’s said to have secured a £400,000 publishing deal. If it wasn’t for the royal connection, she’d be lucky to be writing recipes for the Bucklebury parish magazine.
 

But, then, life for the Middletons has changed immeasurably since Waity Katy was rewarded for her patience.
Carole now wears a regal signet ring on the little finger of her left hand, bearing the new family crest. The modest country home is to be replaced by a £4.7 million pile in Berkshire.



Will we soon be expected to curtsey them? Carole and Michael Middleton appeared in the royal carriage procession at Ascot

A string of racehorses is being planned. And there have been the appearances of Carole and Michael in the royal carriage procession at Ascot, in the Jubilee flotilla, at the Order of the Garter ceremony and, this week, in the Wimbledon royal box as well. I wonder whether we’ll soon be expected to curtsey to them?
I do not begrudge the Middletons the trappings of their financial success. Turning a kitchen-table enterprise into a multi-million pound party business is an achievement we should celebrate, not sneer at. It must have hurt William deeply when his snooty friends made jokes about ‘doors to manual’ in a crude reference to Carole’s time as an air stewardess.
But now it’s the Middletons themselves who have an unsettling air of snootiness about their behaviour.
Both William and Kate have done a wonderful job representing the Royal Family since they married. But with every step forward the young couple make, the once down-to-earth Middletons seem to be trying a little too hard to hang on to the royal coat-tails, as they desperately try to turn themselves into the Uppertons — the opposite of everything that once made them such a breath of fresh air.
A little more reticence would go a very long way.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2169944/Pippa-Middleton-Wimbledon-I-worry-believe-royalty.html#ixzz1ztmEOref