Kate Middleton’s ‘tension’ with ‘formal’ Charles and Camilla over royal children

Royal experts have claimed it would be ‘entirely wrong’ to assume that the King and Queen will have the biggest impact on Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis’ upbringing. Instead, Kate is believed to more often turn to her own family, the Middletons, for support.

Commentator Jennie Bond and author Tom Quinn spoke about the royal youngsters on Channel 5’s documentary, When the Middletons Met the Monarchy. During the show, Ms Bond claimed that mum-of-three Kate Middleton goes to her mother, Carole Middleton, for ‘help, advice, and guidance’ about her little ones rather than King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Mr Quinn believes this is because the royal family is “too formal and stuck in its ways.” Mr Quinn said: “I suspect everyone thinks that in terms of the children, the royal family will inevitably have the most influence, but that is entirely wrong. It will be the Middletons that have the influence, because the royal family is too formal, it’s too stuck in its ways.”

And Ms Bond added that the ‘tension’ extends to which side of the family spends more time with the children. Ms Bond added: “I suppose there is a little tension at times between who gets to see the grandkids the most. Kate will always turn to Carole for help, advice guidance, and just get together and romping around with the kids – possibly before she would get together with Camilla and Charles.”

Meanwhile, fellow royal expert Richard Kay went on to share how important Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael, are to William as well. He explained: “Prince William has said, ‘Look I am not always going to be available for the royal family, I have another family and that is Mike and Carole Middleton and that is very important to me and Kate and my children’.”

William is said to have regularly tried to include the Middletons in royal life, even asking the Queen to invite them to the carriage parade at Ascot and the Thames boat pageant for the late monarch’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. And he’s also become close with Kate’s siblings, Pippa and James, over the years, with Pippa sharing on the Today show in 2014, that she, Kate and William are “very close”. She added: “We support each other and get each other’s opinions and things.” Meanwhile James told in an op-ed in the Mail in 2019, how the royal couple had inspired him to be open about his mental health struggles.

I feel compelled to talk about it openly because this is precisely what my brother-in-law Prince William, my sister Catherine and Prince Harry are advocating through their mental health charity Heads Together,” he wrote. “I want to speak out, and they are my motivation for doing so.”

Kate and William met while attending the University of St Andrews and dated for years before announcing their engagement in 2010 and tying the knot at Westminster Abbey in 2011. Royal expert Katie Nicholl previously claimed in the Channel 5 documentary that Carole “knew her daughter was perfect future Queen material”, while Ms Bond added that the Middletons acted in an “exemplary” way when they joined the Royal Family, sticking to the Firm’s main rule of “discretion” amid public scrutiny.