Carole Middleton's Most Controversial Moments

Princess Catherine's mother, Carole Middleton, has been the subject of some unflattering headlines over the years. This is hardly surprising, given the vested interest the media has in the British royal family, and Carole is the mother of the future queen, after all. Before Carole was trying to keep the press off her back; however, she was just an everyday woman working as a flight attendant with sky-high aspirations that, lo and behold, came to fruition. Some say this is because Carole is a ruthless climber adept at scaling the social ladder, and she carried her daughters, Kate and Pippa Middleton, right to the top.

Of course, making the leap from a middle class everyday Jane to the future queen-in-law's mother took some planning — and possibly plenty of scheming — to pull off, and Carole has been compared to momager Kris Jenner on more than one occasion. A royal commentator once told Express that Catherine and Pippa were often referred to as "the Wisteria Sisters" in Britain's high circles, an ode to their mother's ceaseless efforts to ensure her daughters had the pleasure of mingling with London's elite.

As Meghan Markle can attest, being associated with the royal family comes with a set of rules, restrictions, and endless media scrutiny, something Carole has had plenty of experience with. Every misnomer, every mistake, every scandal, has made its way to tabloid front pages, much to her chagrin.

When Prince William invited Carole Middleton and her husband, Michael, to a royal event prior to marrying Princess Catherine, it became a memorable moment for all the wrong reasons. Instead of talking about the significance of her presence at the event, all the media focused on was the fact that she was chewing gum. While making an appearance in the documentary "When the Middletons Met the Monarchy," royal biographer Claudia Joseph condemned the media's treatment of Carole for this faux pas. "Carole got some very unfair criticism for chewing gum in public. In fact, it was Nicorette because she'd given up smoking," Joseph said. Others were less forgiving, with journalist Peter York telling The Guardian back in the day that Carole should've known better. "I'm a bit taken aback about the idea of chewing gum at a royal occasion, I have to say. If it's true, some sort of danger signal should have told her that wasn't a brilliant thing to do."

Aside from her gum conundrum, Carole also suffered a few other controversial moments, one of which was her first introduction to Queen Elizabeth II, whom she reportedly greeted with, "Pleased to meet you ma'am," instead of "Hello, ma'am," which for some reason is the correct way to go about the royal greeting. She also made the mistake of referring to the bathroom as "the toilet," instead of "the lavatory," or "the loo," which are the preferred terms within royal circles.

The media and Netflix's hit series "The Crown" has portrayed Carole Middleton as the miracle matchmaker who made sure her daughter married a prince and secured a future as Britain's queen-in-waiting. But how true are these claims really? Many a royal biographer and inside sources would like us to believe that Carole played a larger part in Prince William and Princess Catherine's romance than we ever knew.

In his 2023 book "Endgame," royal author Omid Scobie details the hand Carole had in orchestrating Catherine and William's initial meeting at the University of St. Andrew's. "Carole set things up, and Kate took it the rest of the way," he wrote. According to Scobie, Carole had a gut feeling Catherine was the right one to take their family name to royal heights, and both she and her husband started plotting how to orchestrate a meeting between their eldest daughter and the future king. "So they began orchestrating her life, ensuring she was at the right places at the right time and spoke the right way," Scobie wrote, adding that, finally, "Carole calculatingly placed Kate right at the center of young Prince William's world," when she had her daughter enroll at St. Andrew's. The University of Edinburgh, where Catherine first got accepted, was apparently her dream school, but Carole urged her to forfeit a year and enroll at St. Andrew's the following year instead.

Prince William and Princess Catherine's relationship had its fair share of highs and lows before they got married, most notably when they temporarily split up in 2007. The media tried its best to figure out what really happened and eventually put some of the blame on Carole Middleton. There were also whispers that Queen Elizabeth II was more fond of Princess Catherine than she was of Carole. It's not clear what Kate's mom allegedly did to cause the split (and there's no proof that she had a hand in it) but rumor has it that she's the one who made sure Catherine and William got back together (and engaged) in the end.

In her book, "The Palace Papers," Tina Brown claims that journalist Stephanie Marsh told her Carole advised Catherine to go live her best life, and live it very publicly, after the breakup. "Recuperate on holiday with your ex's other former girlfriends. He will admire your lack of jealousy and feel paranoid about what it is you could be talking about. Revise your views on press intrusion. Get yourself photographed doing all of the above as often as possible," Carole reportedly told her daughter.

When it came to William's eventual proposal, royal expert Katie Nicholl told Express that Carole had a hand in that too. "She sat down with William and just said to him, 'Is this going to end in a marriage?" William apparently got busy planning a proposal after that.

Carole Middleton used to be a successful businesswoman — she ran a business called Party Pieces — but there's been whispers that she wasn't exactly the easiest person to work for. A couple of her former staff members spoke to the Daily Mail in what turned out to be a bit of an exposé on what went on behind the scenes at Carole's once thriving business. While it's definitely not easy being a business owner and impossible to keep everyone happy, Carole's staff accused her of being demanding, rude, and uncompromising, with many of them feeling like they were stuck in a toxic work environment. "I couldn't handle it," a former senior manager at Party Pieces told the Daily Mail. "It got to the point when I was stressed... it was more or less taking me over, really. They kept promising me pay rises, but it was all take, never give." Staff also complained that they weren't given paid time off to doctor or dentist appointments.

Other former employees complained that they would receive up to 71 emails from Carole in a single day and that she'd often send them urgent work to do after hours. They also accused her of not being open to the opinions of her staff and giving those who disagreed with her the cold shoulder. What really irritated Carole's staff, however, was when she snapped her fingers at people when she wanted their attention.

Despite her party business doing very well over the years, Carole Middleton, like many other business owners, found her company facing some financial trouble during the pandemic. Parties weren't exactly allowed during lockdown, and Carole resorted to applying for a £218,749 Coronavirus Business Interruption loan to make ends meet, according to Tatler. Additionally, her business owed £612,685 in taxes, £456,008 to its creditors, and an additional £1.4 million in loans. Unable to pay off her mounting debts, Carole sold part of the company to ease some of her financial woes. This was no easy decision, according to close friends, and she's been pretty heartbroken over her once successful business' collapse.

"Carole is understandably upset and deeply disappointed in this situation. Over the past five months she really has done her best to find a buyer, who not only would take the business forward, but would also honor any outstanding debts," one friend told The Daily Mail. "Carole believes in accountability and accepts she had been a little naïve to step back and trust someone else to run the business she had spent decades nurturing and it's been desperately sad to see the company sold off in this way."