Fact Checking Carole Middleton's Alleged Plan to Get Kate Middleton and Prince William Together

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The Crown's final season spends a lot of time on Kate Middleton and Prince William's horny years in college, and—on top of the show recreating THE DRESS moment—we meet Kate's parents, aka Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton.

And based on The Crown, Carole was...um...*extremely* invested in Kate getting together with William. Like, The Telegraph went ahead and ran with this headline: "Princess of Wales’s mother depicted as meddling 'Mrs Bennet' in The Crown."

So what's the deal with Carole and Michael IRL? Did they actually scheme to set their daughter up with a prince like something out of Bridgerton? Gather round, dear reader.

First, a Little Background

Let's get the somewhat standard facts out of the way: Carole Middleton grew up in London and briefly worked as flight attendant for British Airways...which is where Leeds-born Michael happened to work as a flight dispatcher. These two married in 1980, and Carole started a successful party-planning company, Party Pieces, a few years later in 1987.

Party Pieces Made Carole and Michael Millionaires

Back in 2013, the company was valued at around £30 million, and it was recently sold to a rich party clown (you read that correctly, moving on).

Fun fact: Kate Middleton was actually the inspiration behind Party Pieces (Carole got the idea for the company at her fifth birthday party) and worked for her mom alongside her siblings, James and Pippa. As Carole explained to SheerLuxe, "Pippa wrote our 'Party Times' blog, James did the cakes when he first left school, and Catherine developed our first birthday and baby category."

Carole Allegedly Orchestrated William and Kate's Initial Romance

As for whether The Crown's depiction of Carole meddling is true, royal reporter Omid Scobie notes in his new book Endgame that “Carole set things up, and Kate took it the rest of the way.”

“As two caring parents who worked hard, made their mint, and climbed the social ladder (no small feat in a country still obsessed with class), the Middletons—mostly Carole—saw that the pretty and grounded Kate was ready to carry the family name further to the top,” he explained, per Marie Claire. “So they began orchestrating her life, ensuring she was at the right places at the right time and spoke the right way. Kensington Palace has never denied that Kate had several rounds of elocution lessons as she became more serious with William…The Middleton strategy involved more than just aristocratic affectation—Carole calculatingly placed Kate right at the center of young Prince William’s world.”

Omid Scobie went on to claim that “When Carole learned that Prince William was slated to attend the University of St. Andrews, she encouraged her daughter to turn down a spot at her dream school, the University of Edinburgh, take a gap year to study abroad in Florence, and enroll at St. Andrews the following year."

Everything clearly worked out, 'cause this is them at their daughter's wedding to the future King of England:

But the Middletons Deny Parts of This Story

Well, they do via a family member. There's a 0/10 chance Carole and Michael would speak out on the subject publicly, but The Telegraph reports Carole's brother Gary said back in January that "When your eldest child becomes the future Queen, you don’t get a manual on behavior and etiquette, but Carole and her husband, Mike, know instinctively what to do. 'Say nothing’ is their mantra and they have always maintained their quiet dignity. When Carole was vilified for chewing gum at William’s Sandhurst passing-out parade; when William’s friends taunted her with the nickname Doors To Manual because she used to work as BA cabin crew, she graciously kept schtum."

Again, Carole isn't typically one to speak out herself, but she did give an interview to The Telegraph back in 2018 saying she was super involved planning Kate's royal wedding: "We talked about music…everything. I was involved lots with both Pip’s and Catherine’s weddings."

She also told Good Housekeeping in 2021 about spending time with her grandkids, saying, “I want to run down the hills, climb the trees, and go through the tunnel at the playground. As long as I am able to, that’s what I’ll be doing. I cook with them, I muck around dancing, we go on bike rides.”

Carole Is "the Power Behind the Throne"

Royal author Phil Dampier told The Sun that Carole has had a huge influence on the Wales fam, saying, "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 stabilizing 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."

The Middletons are also said to be close to William, with royal reporter telling The Sun that “William learnt through the Middletons how a loving and supportive family works. It has been the bedrock of making Kate loving, calm, and confident."

They Live Super Close to William and Kate

The Middletons live in Bucklebury, West Berkshire. And now that Kate and Wills live in Windsor, they're even closer to Carole and Michael than they were before. Here's a look at the village, for vibes:

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