Go back 25 years ago, when then-Kate Middleton had finally succeeded in throwing herself in Prince William’s path at St. Andrews, the university she suddenly applied to after William announced his university plans. Many within the royal family were okay-ish with Kate at the time because they saw her as William’s come-and-go college girlfriend, someone who would not stick around. They were surprised when Kate and Carole Middleton worked William like a rib, and they seemed equally surprised that Kate simply hung around, through several breakups and through William treating her like sh-t. During the decade-long Waity Years, it seems like Camilla Parker Bowles was Kate’s biggest critic. This is according to Christopher Andersen, author of Kate!, the new biography of the Princess of Wales.
Queen Camilla didn’t always think Kate Middleton was suited to be with a future king. The claim comes from author Christopher Andersen, whose new book “Kate!” explores the Princess of Wales’ rise from commoner to the heir’s wife and mother of the next in line. Andersen’s account is based on his reporting and sources and has not been independently confirmed by the palace.
“In the beginning, Camilla was one of Kate’s fiercest critics,” Andersen told Fox News Digital. “She did not think she was up to snuff, as it were. She was below the salt. She had no aristocratic blood.”
“Camilla always saw herself as the mistress of a king, not a queen,” Andersen claimed. “And she picked [Princess] Diana to be [King] Charles’ bride. So, she was very cognizant of the fact that a future king of England should have, she believed, a marriage to a royal personage, or at least a British aristocrat. Kate was none of those things, but she quickly became popular.”
He noted that Camilla’s early skepticism stemmed from concerns about royal tradition and social class. Fox News Digital reached out to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital, “We don’t comment on such books.”
According to Andersen’s book, Camilla “did object” to Kate’s “working-class roots” for a reason. Camilla is the granddaughter of a baron and a descendant of the Stuart bloodline, which ruled England from 1603 to 1714. Her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was also King Edward VII’s mistress, “an intimate connection to the royal family that Camilla had always taken immense pride in,” Andersen wrote. Unlike Kate, Camilla moved in royal circles throughout her life.
“Camilla had long lobbied on behalf of the highborn beauties with hyphenated names who swarmed around the heir,” wrote Andersen. “It was she, after all, who, along with another of Charles’ mistresses, Baroness Tryon, handpicked Lady Diana Spencer to become Charles’ bride,” Andersen wrote. He also claimed that an aristocrat with “homegrown blue blood” would be preferable than “a descendant of coal miners whose mother had grown up in public housing and once worked as a flight attendant.”
Camilla wasn’t the only one who questioned whether Kate could handle life behind palace doors.
“[Kate] has been with William for 25 years,” said Andersen. “People forget that. Don’t forget the ‘Waity Katie’ 10-year period there, where she put up with the slings and arrows of outrageous [comments] coming from every angle.
“The palace didn’t really want her. People like Camilla didn’t want her because they felt that she was too common to be the wife of a future king. And, of course, the press was vicious in England, portraying her family as a bunch of louts and criticizing [her mother] Carole Middleton for doing such horrible things as chewing gum while she was quitting smoking.”
According to Andersen’s book, Camilla was also wary of Carole, who was portrayed in the press as “a gauche opportunist,” a mother willing to do anything to ensure her daughter would marry a future king.
“Camilla, who felt she knew a schemer when she saw one, feared her mother,” wrote Andersen, referring to Carole. One former mistress of Charles also told Andersen that for Camilla, “it’s really all about [keeping] your friends close and your enemies closer. It’s her way of keeping her eye on you.”
One of my favorite theories or commentary threads about Camilla and the Middletons is that Camilla is THE reason why all of the blueblood women rejected William. Circa 2005-07, William dumped Kate several times to try his luck with those “highborn beauties with hyphenated names.” Those girls didn’t want William – they ran far away from him, encouraged by their highborn mothers who saw the way the Windsors treated Lady Diana Spencer. Camilla is, according to many royal theories, THE reason why William basically had to settle for Kate. True highborn aristocratic women avoided getting involved with William because they didn’t want to end up being treated like sh-t by the institution, by Camilla, and by William. Something else I’ve always believed is that Diana, had she lived, would have seen straight through the Middleton grift. Diana would have had little time for Carole. Meanwhile, Camilla seeing Carole as a schemer… lol, pot, kettle, etc.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
