SHE has provided a solid, stabilising foundation for Prince William and Kate Middleton since they married in 2011.
And, Carole Middleton’s matriarchal influence on the Duke of Cambridge, 39, will take on a poignancy this week as he unveils a statue to commemorate what would have been his late mother Princess Diana’s 60th birthday.
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Insiders believe Carole, 66, a former BA flight attendant turned multi-millionaire businesswoman who founded online party supplies company Party Pieces, has acted as a “second mum” to William, bringing “a real sense of normality amid any chaos.”
He was just 15 when Diana died in a car crash, just a year after her divorce from Prince Charles.
Angela Levin, a royal biographer, believes that William’s “dysfunctional family background” gave him “barely a clue of what a normal family life was like”.
She told Fabulous: “William adored Diana and was drawn to her magnetic charm, but she was relentlessly demanding on him as a young child, describing him as her ‘closest confidant’ and talking about her lovers, when it’s a mother’s duty to care for her son, not the other way round.
“Carole relieved William of such burdens by accepting him for who he was rather than what he was.
“She made him feel secure, comfortable and protected and he didn’t have to worry about what he said or be responsible for her emotions.”
William and Carole’s close bond is stronger now than ever, after a tumultuous few months which saw William and Kate weather a distressing and public fallout with his brother Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and suffer the loss of Prince Philip.
Indeed, Angela believes William’s close relationship with his mother-in-law is one of the key differences between him and Harry.
She added: “Children of broken homes, especially if the parental break up was unpleasant, often don’t know how a good relationship works.
“William learnt through the Middletons how a loving and supportive family works. It has been the bedrock of making Kate loving, calm and confident. Harry hasn’t had that parental opportunity.
“His background has just been of bitter fighting and incompatibility. Both he and Meghan come from very damaged backgrounds and must carry with them some of the negativity. It must be hard for them to help each other and lack experience in how stable, strong, understanding relationships work.”
Royal author Phil Dampier added to Fabulous: “Carole is a very strong woman who comes from quite a humble background, and the fact that she has worked herself up with a successful business has given her a backbone of steel.
“Kate turns to her for advice and comfort all the time and she spends a lot of time with William and Kate’s three children.
“Carole will be a stabilising and supportive force in the background, looking after the kids when needs be but also just being there for the.
“Carole is very much a power behind the throne and her influence is immense.”
William began dating Kate, his University of St Andrews sweetheart, in 2001, and is believed to have met Carole and her husband Michael, 71, around this time.
While it may have been hard to process that their eldest daughter was dating the future King of England, the Middletons welcomed William and treated him just like any other “normal” boyfriend.
Their £4.7million seven-bedroom manor house in Bucklebury, Berkshire, quickly became a haven for William and Kate, who have spent many happy times there.
Gary Goldsmith, Carole’s eccentric younger brother, recalls William casually “mooching around” the house.
He told 60 Minutes Australia: “It was just like meeting a normal bloke, he was a normal part of the family, which was a bit bonkers. That’s Prince William and he was just making a cup of tea.”
Meanwhile, John Haley, landlord of The Old Boot Inn, the Middleton’s regular haunt in Bucklebury, recalled the family coming for regular pub lunches.
He said: “They were just in the conservatory, having a meal, the press came in the front but they didn’t even know they were there.”
Many believe Kate’s appeal to William back then was the close-knit family she came with. Kate, 39, has a sister Pippa, 37, and a 34-year-old brother called James.
Speaking in a documentary, William and Harry: Brothers In Arms, NBC’s royal correspondent Ashley Pearson suggests William saw a mother figure in Carole during his early courtship with Kate.
He said: “William would lie on the couch with his head in the lap of Mrs Middleton. Or he would sit after dinner and talk for hours with Mr Middleton.
“As much as William fell in love with Kate he definitely fell in love with the Middleton family at the same time.
“Feeling part of that close, tight-knit, very British family was the first time in his life that he’d had that experience and for William it was entirely intoxicating.”
Carole cemented William’s status in their family by putting him to work in Party Pieces.
She founded the company in 1987 from her kitchen table after spotting a gap in the children’s party market. It’s now believed to be worth £35million, according to the Evening Standard.
“William was staying with the family when it was the lead up to Christmas, which is always a really busy time for the company, and it’s all hands on deck,” explains ‘Venetia’, who worked for Party Pieces for three years.
“Kate was on packing duty, so she showed William how to grade the size of boxes according to the orders, fold the boxes together, and put the goods in, before handing them on to be double checked before they were sealed.
“He only spent a few hours doing it but he said it was pretty tiring and how much you had to concentrate, and that he didn’t want to be responsible for sending out a wrong order of Christmas decorations to someone who was expecting birthday balloons.
“He’s a lovely guy, and it was so obvious to all of the girls who worked at PP that he was really in love with Kate, which made us a little bit jealous but then we all adored Kate.
“It was so easy to forget that William was a prince, because everyone just treated him as a friend of the family.”
She added: “Carole loved William, for the simple reason – as far as we could see and hear – that he made her daughter happy.”
For his part, William plainly loves being in the Middletons’ company and, in the absence of his own mother, adores Carole.
He said in his engagement interview: “Kate’s got a very, very close family. I get on really well with them and I’m very lucky that they’ve been so supportive. Mike and Carole have been really sort of loving and caring and really fun and have been really welcoming towards me.”
While insiders have added: “William’s in-laws have become like second parents.”
Carole admitted that her biggest fear when she knew Kate was to marry into royalty was that “I’d lose my family” but she has remained as close to her daughter – and her royal son-in-law – as ever.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl, told Channel 5’s documentary, When the Middletons Met the Monarchy, how William helped Kate’s family settle into their new roles as parents to the future queen.
“William sat down with them and explained how things would change. He made sure that he was there for them, Carole and Michael Middleton had William’s number in their phones. This was just so they could call him if they needed him,” she said.
She told OK! Magazine: “The Queen knew how close not only Kate but William was to the Middletons and how important it was to keep them close and make them feel included. William wanted them to be a part of the family and wanted the Queen to make them feel very welcomed.”
Kate’s parents have been invited to the monarch’s carriage parade at Ascot and they and sister Pippa joined the Thames boat pageant for the Diamond Jubilee.
And only last month, on a tour of Scotland, when he was with a group of emergency responders, William said: “Some people are quite happy they haven’t seen their in-laws for a year. But I love my in-laws.”
William has also been able to trust Carole as grandmother to his three adored children – George, seven, Charlotte, six, and three-year-old Louis – as he approves of her mothering skills and her ability to be discreet.
Carole told Good Housekeeping: “I feel it is my children’s role to pass on what they think is important to their children. I know how hard it was for me bringing up my own children, that you invest a lot in them, and don’t really want a know-it-all granny out there.”
While William is famously ultra-private and guarded on matters of emotion – unlike his younger brother, Harry – he has been candid about missing his beloved mum Diana, previously telling GQ: “I would like to have had her advice. I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up. It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her.”
It’s fortunate he has a “second mum” in Carole to lean on, who shares his fierce family values. She told the Daily Telegraph: “Make sure whatever you do doesn’t compromise your family, because that becomes untenable.”
We told you how Prince George and Princess Charlotte play “shopkeepers” with nan Carole at her firm Party Pieces.
Plus read more about Princess Diana memorial statue: When will it be unveiled?
Meanwhile, we shared the REAL story behind the photos of Harry & William at Philip’s funeral as expert claims it was a ‘well-crafted sham’.