Back in the day, Carole Middleton relished her royal connections and her entrance, through her daughter, into the highest echelon of British society. Carole and Michael Middleton got invitations to attend Royal Ascot, sit in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, go to church in Sandringham with QEII, and on and on. Those invitations started drying up after a while, and then everything fell apart last year. At first, it just looked like the Middletons’ business, Party Pieces, had collapsed under mismanagement, the pandemic and Brexit. Then, days after the sale of PP went public, we learned that the Middletons had left a trail of financial destruction in their wake, racking up over $3 million in debt and leaving ALL of their creditors holding the bag. This week, we just learned that Interpath, the insolvency firm ordered to usher Party Pieces through bankruptcy, can’t even collect payment for their services either. All of this is shameful and embarrassing, and it’s left the Middletons massively exposed as liars, frauds and grifters. It left the Princess of Wales in a compromised and powerless position as her family was politically and financially defanged. So how are the Windsors reacting to this turn of events?
The royal family has no judgments when it comes to the financial collapse of the Middletons’ party planning company, one expert says.
“No one in the royal family is embarrassed by the failure of Party Pieces,” author Christopher Andersen, who has penned bestselling books about the royals including Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Megan, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, April 4. Princess Kate Middleton’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, were forced to sell Party Pieces in May 2023 due to mounting debts. U.K.’s The Times reported on Monday, April 1, that the couple, who founded the company in 1987, are still struggling to come up with over $329,000 in “insolvency firm costs.”
Andersen told Us that the business failure is not indicative of the Middletons’ personal finances.
“People shouldn’t make the mistake that the Middletons are broke, because they decidedly are not. Their business went belly-up because of things entirely out of their control, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t got substantial personal assets,” he said.
Andersen pointed out that both Carole, 69, and her brother, Celebrity Big Brother star Gary Goldsmith, have built “considerable fortunes” for themselves.
“In Carole’s case, the party supply business she founded flourished for years until, like so many other businesses, it was undone by COVID. For nearly two years, nobody was giving children’s parties and the lingering effects have been devastating. The entire market for what Party Pieces was selling went straight off the end of a cliff,” he explained. Andersen told Us that given “all that is happening with the royal family at the moment,” it’s unlikely that “the Middletons’ business setbacks” are sparking concern.
“Between the king’s cancer battle and Kate’s cancer battle, the last thing they have on their minds is how much the Middletons owe their creditors,” he said. “We have to keep in mind that Carole Middleton is focusing on helping her daughter cope with what is a devastating diagnosis. The future queen has always leaned very heavily on her mother for emotional support and encouragement, and never more so than now.”
Andersen added: “I think the King in particular appreciates how important a role Carole Middleton plays in keeping her daughter’s spirits up at this crucial time.”
“People shouldn’t make the mistake that the Middletons are broke, because they decidedly are not… that doesn’t mean they haven’t got substantial personal assets.” O RLY? Who to believe, Christopher Andersen, who seems to be suggesting that the Middletons have squirreled away assets while their bankrupt business left multiple small businesses and local vendors devastated? Or James Sinclair, who bought Party Pieces and ended up confessing that the Middletons have nowhere near the kind of money people think they have? Now, the Middletons have that big manor house in Bucklebury, which was (at least partially) purchased by Prince William. Would they sell Middleton Manor? Can they sell it?
Anyway, it’s not that the Windsors have no judgment for the Middletons, it’s that the Fall of the House of Middleton is happening because the Windsors actively wanted the family’s downfall, and because the Windsors are not pulling any strings or writing any checks to protect Carole specifically. Carole overstepped and social-climbed too close to the sun, and this seems to be a very pointed punishment.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.