Alan Davidson/Rex Features/CP
At the marriage of the century, two families will be seated at the front of the ancient sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. On the left will be Kate Middleton’s family; the royal relatives of Prince William will be on the right.
But make no mistake: this isn’t a typical marital merger. It’s a takeover. When commoner Kate Middleton enters the house of Windsor, the rest of her family will stay on the periphery, associated with the royal family yet never part of it. All the milestones of her life from April 29 onward will be celebrated from within the gilded confines of her husband’s world. There will be no sharing of big family get-togethers like Christmas Day—one year with her family, the next with his. She will spend her holidays with her husband’s family on their estates. Forever.
Yet Kate and her family have a huge ace in the hole in this particular corporate takeover—call it the middle-class advantage. For all their ambitions, the Middletons are staunchly middle class, and so are their values. And those values are shared by the most important Windsor: Queen Elizabeth II.
For her nearly 60 years on the throne, the monarch has been a consistent proponent of common sense morals and ethics: hard work, responsibility and, crucially, the ability to not talk to the press. And those beliefs, more than social standing or an impeccable family tree, are shaping the current crop of royal weddings. Indeed, marrying spouses outside the rareified world of country estates has become a trend not only among the Queen’s grandkids but also throughout the younger generation of the extended family. So far only one such marriage has ended in divorce.
Enter the Middletons, a tight-knit family that has thrived through hard work and a desire to better themselves. Michael and Carole Middleton have been happily married for decades. In Britain’s socially stratified society, they are truly “working” class—no one will forget that they are descendents of coal miners and servants—albeit, today, ones with healthy bank accounts. They created a business that is run out of a barn close to their rural five-bedroom house in the village of Bucklebury. Along the way they’ve raised three children—Kate and her younger siblings Pippa and James—all polite and responsible with a strong backbone for work.
Throughout seven years of intense press scrutiny that started the minute Fleet Street discovered that William was dating fellow university student Kate, the Middletons have stayed true to themselves. Better yet, they’ve stayed quiet. It hasn’t been easy. Denied access to the future wife of the future king, Fleet Street has made the Middleton family itself fodder for the news mill: every appearance, however trivial, is now analyzed on the front pages. Are Carole’s above-the-knee hemlines suitable for a middle-aged mother of the bride? Is she on a dangerous pre-wedding diet? By all accounts a woman of drive and ambition, Carole Middleton is cast as a social climber who “pushed” her kids into the top private schools, then to the best universities. (Dad Michael is let off easy as the calming centre of the family.) It is doubly hard for their two other, equally photogenic, children. Pippa, named Tatler’s most eligible society singleton in 2008, is mocked as a party organizer and planner. (Before Kate was under royal protection, she and her younger sister Pippa were dubbed “wisteria sisters,” known for being, as the Daily Mail bitingly described, “highly decorative, terribly fragrant and with a ferocious ability to climb.”) Younger brother James doesn’t fare much better as the founder of a cake-making company.
Earlier this month, the Middletons complained about media intrusions to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) after a London shopping trip during which photographers documented every gesture and step of Carole and Pippa. The PCC, in turn, reminded the press that under their code, “journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.”
That the family has survived such intense scrutiny as a cohesive supporting unit is something that their future son-in-law openly admires. “What Prince William likes about them is the fact that they are not royal,” explains Penny Junor, author of The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor, “that they are a normal middle-class family, a happy family.”
