The sixth and final season of “The Crown” portrayed Carole Middleton as the engine behind Kate Middleton’s pursuit of Prince William. The show, known for taking heavy liberties with facts, suggested Carole was the one who convinced Kate to take a year off and abandon her college plans when the now-heir to the throne announced his choice. While having poetic license on its side, the Netflix hit show didn’t come up with its plot from thin air.
Carole’s involvement in the making of Kate and William has been talked about for years. “[The Middletons] began orchestrating her life, ensuring she was at the right places at the right time,” Omid Scobie wrote in his 2023 book “Endgame,” (via Marie Claire) adding: “Carole calculatingly placed Kate right at the center of young Prince William’s world.” Carole had plenty of experience. Hailing from a working-class family with roots in the coal-mining communities of North East England, Carole made it her life goal to improve her condition.
And she did. After growing a small party-goods business into a multi-million dollar business, Carole became wealthy enough to send her children to prestigious schools, where they rubbed elbows with the cream of the crop. “She’s anxious to better herself and to make sure she is financially secure … She is ambitious, very ambitious for her family,” a family member told the Daily Mail in 2011. Even if Carole didn’t devise Kate’s plan, her daughter had someone to show her the way.
