The Real Story Of Kate Middleton’s Family That Even Hardcore Royal Fans May Not Know
Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, is one of the most famous and photographed women in the world. That’s understandable, as she will become queen consort once her husband Prince William eventually takes the throne as king. But unlike her husband, Kate wasn't always the center of worldwide fame. She started out as a “commoner” with a fairly normal family, and there’s plenty you probably didn’t know about the Middletons.
Her working class roots
Pre-William, Kate’s family existed in a curious space where they weren’t quite upper-class, nor quite middle-class. Kate’s mother Carole came from a working-class family and was a flight attendant. Carole’s parents, Dorothy and Ronald Goldsmith, reportedly couldn’t afford to send her to college when the time came.
The Middletons are upper class
However, Carole “married up.” While working for British Airways she encountered flight dispatcher Michael Middleton, the grandson of the wealthy aristocrat Olive Christiana Middleton. She and Michael went on to create their own business, party supply outlet Party Pieces. The money they made from that venture — plus an inheritance from Olive — made them millionaires.
She was seen as a "real" girl
Yet thanks to the British preoccupation with class, some people used Kate’s mother’s background against her when she first became involved with Prince William. According to a 2010 Vanity Fair piece, Wills and the Real Girl, friends of the prince used to whisper, “Doors to manual” whenever she walked in a room.
Keeping it in the family
However, some genealogical digging on Carole’s background by researchers unearthed the fact that she is actually a very distant relative of the Queen Mother. Her great-great-grandmother, Jane Liddle, was a descendant of King Edward VI, and she shares a distant ancestor with the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
