As we learned on Friday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge plan to spend Christmas with the Middletons this year. I thought this was going to be the first time, but I forgot that Kate and William spend Christmas 2012 at Middleton Manor, because Kate was pregnant and sick. After that, the Queen gave Anmer Hall to the Cambridges so that they would always have a convenient country home within the Sandringham estate in which they could spend Christmas, and have Kate’s family over. Which is what happened every Christmas since – the Middletons decamp to Anmer Hall, and Will and Kate split their holiday between the royals and the Middletons. Of course, Will and Kate also live full-time at Anmer Hall now, so maybe the poor sausages just need a change of pace, a little holiday away from home so that Carole Middleton can fully play hostess, I guess. Well, the Daily Mail had more details, including what the Queen thinks about all of this (according to a source).
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to skip the Royal Family’s traditional Christmas celebrations at Sandringham in favour of spending the festive season with the Middletons. The couple, accompanied by Prince George, three, and 18-month-old Princess Charlotte, will enjoy a family get-together with all the trimmings at Michael and Carole’s £4.7million mansion in Bucklebury, Berkshire. Friends say they plan to pull out all the stops to mark the occasion as it will be Pippa’s last Christmas as a single woman. She will marry her multi-millionaire fiancé James Matthews in May and the couple hope to start their own family soon afterwards. It is understood that Kate’s brother James will also join in the fun.
The Queen however will not be without children on Christmas Day as granddaughter Zara Phillips, pregnant with her second child by husband Mike Tindall, will be bringing her mischievous two-year-old daughter Mia. William and Kate have missed the royal celebrations once previously – back in 2012 – when Kate was pregnant with her son and suffering from an acute form of morning sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum. But they re-joined the family at the Queen’s 20,000-acre Norfolk estate for Prince Philip’s traditional Boxing Day pheasant shoot and it is likely they will do the same this year.
Kate’s stance, it has been suggested, has led to tensions with her father-in-law Prince Charles, who is privately said to have bemoaned the fact that he does not see enough of his grandchildren. Clarence House has always publicly maintained he has an ‘excellent’ relationship with both, however. Royal sources said yesterday that the Queen understood and endorsed William and Kate’s decision not to spend Christmas Day with her.
One said: ‘Her Majesty understands that it is a dilemma that many young couples face and acknowledges how close Catherine’s relationship is with her family. Indeed that is why she has long included Mr and Mrs Middleton in family events. She thinks they have conducted themselves impeccably and with enormous dignity over the years.’
That royal source sounds like Carole Middleton! Like, is Carole a royal source now? I have an image of Carole calling up Daily Mail reporters and saying sh-t like, “The Queen adores the Middletons, the Queen thinks they’re very clever and dignified, almost regal!” As for the Queen basically shrugging off the Cambridges’ “snub” of the royal Christmas tradition… perhaps. I’m not sure it was aimed at the Queen as much as it was aimed at Prince Charles. William loves to get his little digs in, and not allowing Charles to spend any time with his grandkids at Christmas has Work-Shy Will written all over it. The Queen is probably fine with all of this because she’d rather spend time with her favorites, like: the Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal, Zara and Peter Phillips, the corgis and the Duke of York. More Scotch to go around! Merry Christmas!
Oh, and the Daily Mail reports that Will and Kate won’t even join the royal family for the annual Boxing Day (Dec. 26th) hunt at Sandringham. Will and Kate will still be with the Middletons. It does feel like a deliberate snub.
Oh, here’s a great portrait of Charles and the Queen, released by Clarence House over the weekend.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
The new portrait of Charles and Elizabeth is horrible…
It seems to sum up their relationship rather well…
It really does, yeah..
Oh my gosh, I was just thinking the same thing.
it’s funny! the queen has the best resting bitch face and she reminds me of my adorable yet often cranky granny. old ladies rule. may she live forever. i believe there is a good chance the monarchy as we know it will die with elizabeth.
That would be excellent. But I doubt it.
Really? I love it. Charles is looking down at his mom fondly and the Queen looks dignified but a bit vulnerable with her thinner body. Love her dress!
I rather like the picture of The Queen and Prince Charles.
I like it too! It’s adorable.
I really like it.
I love it too.
I like it to – u can see the humour twinkling in their eyes, TQs esp.
Add me to the “love it” list! The Queen seems to have a tiny smile on her face, and Charles is looking at her rather warmly. Plus – at least to me – it’s both formal and informal. Very well done, IMHO.
Supposedly he is telling a joke and she is attempting to maintain her composure.
I love that picture too. I think Charles looks very dapper.
I like it too, but where’s her brooch?
I think it’s a wonderful portrait.
I also really like it!
I like it as well.
“The Queen is probably fine with all of this because she’d rather spend time with her favorites, like: the Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal, Zara and Peter Phillips, the corgis and the Duke of York.”
Ouch – but I love it! LOL
The corgis, the servants, the drivers, the guy who shoes her horses, the pesky old lady down the street who sends awful fruitcakes, the mailman, and anyone who isn’t Waity.
lol 🙂
Isn’t Harry amongst her favorites as well?
Ugh, this is lame Daily Mail fan fiction. I’d rather read that the Queen is outraged.
I don’t get it: why the snub?!?!
Regardless of reasons to snub, there are only so many Christmases the Queen has left (shame, I love her so). It would be the adult thing to make time for family members who are nearing the end of their life. Petty of them.
Swedish chef…I agree. Whoever they are trying to snub (I don’t believe it is the Queen) they are just coming across as petty. Especially as they were given Amner so that they’d have a way of splitting Xmas with both Middletons and royals. Will and Waity are a couple of twats.
Totally not related-but have you guys seen the Instagram where they photoshop Donald Trumps face onto pictures of the queen?!?! It’s hilarious and also the stuff of nightmares. The one with the duck-omg the tears
http://mashable.com/2016/12/11/trump-queen-photoshops-terrifying/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link#qUeo27LbGkqQ
LMAO these pics are hilarious.
Oh my goodness, those are GENIUS!
Alternatively, you can do this. Not sure if it counts as animal cruelty-attaching kittens to everything trump related.
http://www.businessinsider.com/make-america-kittens-again-google-chrome-extension-replaces-donald-trump-with-kittens-2016-12/#when-you-search-make-america-kittens-again-on-the-chrome-web-store-youll-easily-be-able-to-find-the-extension-all-you-have-to-do-is-hit-the-add-button-and-the-extension-will-be-enabled-on-your-browser-1
It counts. Poor kitties!!!
love it… adding this to my Insta feed!
Scal: Thank you for posting Grandma Trump photos.
He makes quite the granny doesn’t he? 🙂
lol
The Queen seems unbothered. Which if it is an intentional snub towards her probably gets Will’s goat.
Maybe it’s a stupid question but does the Queen see (and like) Charles as her son or is he just the heir to her?
I think you have to care enough about someone to like/dislike them; and looking at the picture pretty much sums up her feelings (to me, anyway): he’s basically invisible to her, except for work related things he does.
This is a queen loving site but wth, imma speak my truth today. Elizabeth spent her life stuck in her own hype. “Duty this and duty that” as if she werent spending the bulk of her time doing the kind of stuff that other countries leave to celebrities. Celebrities who incidentally have earned their way to prominence through some kind of extraordinary talent. American charities raise manage to raise money just fine without a monarch to come cut ribbons. She also married a racist windbag who was probably even more distant with family than she is. Charles bears the most responsibility for his first marriage but I do sympathise a little with him picking a bride to please mummy except mummy is too self important to be pleased (see potrait above).
IAWY, Ramona!
well, if mummy is the queen of england, then her duties indeed extend further than her children. i really dislike all the passive aggressive shade thrown at the queen for her parenting. she’s the queen and while you can for sure criticize the institution she represents and how it’s funded, you can’t seriously criticize her sense of duty.
I think her parenting wasn’t any different from other women of her class and she was raised the same way.
We’ll never know if being a young mother and Queen impacted how she went about it, plus Charles seems to have been a sensitive child who needed extra attention whilst Anne was robust and simply got on with it.
Further, don’t be so harsh about Philip. He practically raised himself after his *older sisters married and his **parents abandoned him leaving a succession of relatives to host him as he grew up.
*by the time Philip was born, his sisters were more or less grown and had married by the time he was 8 or 9yrs old.
**his mother suffered a breakdown and was put into an asylum when he was 8. Meanwhile his father had separated/abandoned the family to live on his own in Monte Carlo. He rarely saw either one for the next decade. His father died before they could reconcile and his mother seems to have been a figure to be admired for her war effort when she had recovered than for family life.
@LAK – Didn’t the family keep her from him when she was eventually released from the asylum? From what i recall it was the ‘treatment’ that she was given and been kept from her only son that drove her to become a nun, she wanted a place in the world and they stopped her from being a mother. They had a close relationship when he grew up but I don’t think he ever forgave his father for the way he treated his mother and their children.
@LAK Thats fascinating! I’ll have to look that up. I wonder whether she legitimately had mental illness symptoms or if it was one of those situations where women were diagnosed for being untraditional. Also, what kind of treatment and later stigma she endured. I still dislike Phillip but this is very interesting. Thanks.
Ramona: she was diagnosed with Schizoprenia. Like you, i tend to side eye ALL women’s mental health diagnoses since being untraditional or objecting to a bad husband/ any man’s behaviour could land you in the mental ward.
After she was released, she went back to Greece, became a nun and worked to help Jewish refugees escaping the Nazis. For her efforts she was awarded a special honour by the Jewish state. She is buried in Isreal.
Also, though she was born partially deaf, she learnt to speak AND lip-read English and German.
In later life, she lived at BP with the Queen and Philip.
If you look at archive footage of the Queen’s coronation, she’s the woman in a nun’s habit leading the procession.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1d/d2/8c/1dd28cdd458af3620fe391c109bd1112.jpg
I agree that Philip has his faults, but some of it is situationual. Being mentored by uncle Dickie probably didn’t help in terms of habits picked up.
Betti: yes, they did.
@LAK – the thing that always sickened me about her treatment was that Freud treated her for a bit and, i think, was the one who recommended the treatment where her ovaries were zapped with radiation. I think he described her as being ‘sexually frustrated’ over a love that was not returned. Am not even sure she was ill, thou I have seen it suggested that it was the menopause. I have older friends who have gone through it and one said she thought she was going mad with the severity of the mood swings she was having.
@LAK, I’d be with you on the issue regarding how the Queen raising her children isn’t really that different from the way other women of her class raised theirs, except there’s ample evidence to the contrary. The Queen Mother’s family predates the Queen’s, and they were all exceptionally tight-knit and close with their parents as well as each other. Even Queen Mary, who gets a tremendous amount of flak from both Edward and Bertie for having “neglected” them and leaving them in the care of nannies who didn’t do a proper job, was a far more involved parent than has been claimed since. Of course, this doesn’t mean that her children saw it that way, but there are a lot more reports from both the RF as well as their contemporaries in every generation to disprove the fact that having parents who simply didn’t deign to pay attention to you was somehow the norm for people of their class.
I think it just comes down to the type of people your children wind up being. Some kids need a fair bit of hands-on attention, and others just don’t. It doesn’t make the former bad and the latter any better, and it doesn’t speak to anyone’s parenting skills immediately. It just is. I think Charles, from what I’ve read and heard about him, was just perhaps a more sensitive/perceptive child who needed someone to help him out in that respect. His parents wound up being fairly practical and utilitarian folks who didn’t understand right away what his needs were–and apparently neither did any of the folks who he was around as a child. I don’t think this makes the Queen or Prince Philip particularly neglectful, or even maliciously so. It just makes them the sort of people they are, and makes Charles the sort of person he is.
The queen actually does more than cut ribbons. Many Prime Ministers, including Tony Blair have commented about how valuable her advice has been and how unflabbable she is. It’s easy to forget that most of the ‘common wealth’ countries became independent just around the beginning of her reign. It was a lot of work, diplomacy on her and Prince Phillip’s part in representing the UK, that’s kept the commonwealth and UK’s soft power intact. What would you have her do? Sit at home and be a stay at home mom? Does anyone blame soldiers for neglecting their children? Then, why call them neglectful?
A: i think it’s some of column A and some from column B. No matter what type of parent one was, the fallback was always the way they were all raised which was somehat detached due to the staff raising the kids and the parents effectively being ‘fun’ parents when they saw the kids.
And of course the children’s temperements which were never truly considered because as you point out, Charles needed extra attention whilst Anne did not.
Charles is a nature lover, an ecological advocate and agrarian economy leaner. He paints landscapes. His father was a hunter, and found his son squeamish and wimpy! Anyway, his ideologies are completely different from his mum’s and that’s why she won’t budge, lol. She looks it too, in this photo. I’m a Queen! I’ll live forever!
Prince Philip is the one who implemented the overhauls at Sandringham and Balmoral, making them all organic and taking care of the estates overall. Charles gets his interest in ecology, land management, and the importance of sustainable food production from his father.
Also, Prince Philip founded the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme which served as the foundation/blueprint for the Princes Trust.
Charles is in many ways like his father.
Oh, and Philip also paints watercolors/watercolours.
So my comment is based on my recent fascination with the Netflix series The Crown, but MAYBE the Queen is okay with a lot of things they do (or do not do). Maybe she knows the amount of work it takes and since she had to start so young she wants Kate and Will to be able to enjoy themselves until the crown takes over. She wants them to get the life she didn’t? Again I really have no source other than Netflix so feel free to totally reflect my theory 🙂
I’m sorry, visiting your elderly grandparents over Christmas is just something you just do, even if you’re royalty.
At their age how many Christmas day dinners do the Queen and Philip really have left, sorry to be morbid but that is just a fact.
It might do Will and Kate well to remember that tradition is all that is keeping their lifestyle funded, they are not “needed” really.
Cindy and Z, I totally agree about the Christmas celebrations. I wish I had more time with my grandparents and would never have turned down a Christmas with them if they had made it into their 90s. I guess my statement was more of a blanket statement regarding why they don’t do more events or really work at all!
All my siblings just alternate between our side of the family and their in laws. Sometimes we cordinate, sometimes we dont. I dont think age of the relative should be the deciding factor at all. God forbid but you have no way of knowing if this will be the last Christmas George and Charlotte spend with their paternal grandpa. Who knows how much longer anybody has here. Besides, I have a feeling Christmas at Sandringham is an tediously formal affair with lots of power politics playing out in the background. If its a choice between that and a fun Christmas for the kids with people you genuinely like being around, I would also pick the second.
I’m not a royal basher like most on this site, but I do agree that Her Majesty and Prince Philip are not long for this world, so why not give them a few days at Christmas? They seem to spend a lot of time with the Middletons and not much at all with Charles. The Queen is very big on Christmas. For goodness sake, they can have the Middletons at Anmer Hall and split time with them like every year. I’m never critical of Will and Kate and defend them often, but this is bothering even me!
Ramona it isn’t just age that should be a factor. The reason this seems like such an affront is the Queen has a large and busy family, a very public role, and a very busy schedule. These are the two days she asks her whole family to be together and gets to enjoy time with the privately. Also, a lot goes into her Christmas tradition and while it may seem stuffy and formal to some, she demonstrates affection by planing it. Getting Pippa and James together is no where near the logistical nightmare of the entire BRF together. Also, without tradition there is no monarchy.
@cindyp — Ehh, I’m not sure about that. Then again, I come from a family that’s never really had a particular ego about when and under what circumstances you MUST spend time with them, no questions asked. If you have the time and the inclination, you make the effort and co-ordinate and get together, with or without a holiday looming over your head to mandate that you spend that quality time together. If I think about it, it would actually be considered tremendously rude in my family to outright insist or expect that people set aside what their plans might have been, just to indulge you. However, if you are consistently avoiding a visit, or a particular person, or turning down all overtures, then you can expect that people will know precisely what you’re up to, and they won’t think very highly of you.
I think I would have had more of an issue with the Wales’ this year if they had made it a consistent trend to not spend Christmas at Sandringham over the past couple of years. They’ve been fairly on the mark with at least that, excepting the one year she was “sick,” so I’m not at all fussed with the switch this year. In fact, I’d be really surprised if the Queen isn’t at all pleased to be well shot of Chutney and her awkward attempts at small talk for at least one Christmas.
I agree; you visit your elderly grandmother, especially if she is the queen and you are living off her (and the public’s) largess! There is NO WAY that this isn’t an insult, and I am so OVER this couple!! Ugh.
This. My husbands family does a lot of dinners over the holidays. One thing I’ve always stood firm on is that Christmas Day supper – I will ALWAYS be at my grandmother’s table. I don’t care if I go alone, or what. I will ALWAYS be at that table for Christmas. She turned 92 last month – and god help anyone who would dare expect me to show up for anything else.
Luckily, my husband happily accompanies me, but if he had his own obligations, I wouldn’t hold it against him. He no longer has any surviving grandparents, and my nan is the last one I have, and she adores my husband.
Yay erinn, exactly! grandmother loyalists represent!
We go to my grandfather’s house every year. He lives in Cleveland and I live in Virginia. It’s extra difficult because I have to drive with my awesome mom (who is severely disabled because of MS and has all sorts of health issues) and my older brother (who is generally an annoying jerk) 6 hours to get there. My grandpa is 82 and I don’t think I have ever missed a christmas with him, even when I lived in Asia. You spend Christmas with your grandparents, it makes them happy.
#GrandpaLoyalist
The Crown is a soap opera NOT a docu-drama. Plenty of details from actual events to sets to feelings are wrong or misrepresented.
It’s well done as a soap, but please don’t use it as your basis for information about the royals.
If you want to know how she feels about stuff, read Margaret Rhodes’s autobiography. Margaret, who died a fortnight ago, knew the Queen from childhood until her death. They were first cousins and best friends. She was very forthright in her opinions plus she got permission from HM to reveal true events/emotions around various events in their mutual lives.
The saying goes that if Margaret gave an opinion about an event affecting the Queen, it was a good indication of what HM truly thought about said event.
LAK, thank you for your recommendation I would love to read that. I honestly know nothing about the royal family, but am interested in learning more, and not from Netflix 😉
Frannydays: Given the production team and budget of The Crown, i was ready to love it, but unfortunately, from the opening scenes of episode one until i gave up at episode 4, i had a serious eye twitch at how bad it was.
Don’t get me wrong, i enjoy a historically inspired/themed drama, but where it is passing itself off as docu-drama i want the details to be as close to the truth as possible because truth is often dramatic enough without taking such obvious liberties.
And if it is going to take such liberties, i want them to be grounded in truth eg ELIZABETH starring Cate Blanchett. History doesn’t bear examination, but thematically they got it right.
Btw, Margaret approved of THE KINGS SPEECH.
Lak, I’m glad to hear that about The King’s Speech. I think it’s a fantastic movie.
Is “The Final Curtsy” the book you mean? I’d like to read it.
Shambles: Yes.
I watched the Crown, and liked it, but didn’t get the impression it was that realistic.
My take on this is more about the monarchy. I agree Kate and WIlliam should do what they want at Christmas, and they have a house that will accomodate all of Kate’s family. William, if he becomes King and if nothing changes between now and then, will be Defender of the Faith one day. As such, I think it should be mandatory that he is seen with The Queen on religous high holy days, which Christmas is. Who they are with privately on Christmas Eve/Day is their business. But William should be at church with The Queen on Christmas Day.
@Bluehare, I don’t think him and Kate are religious or worse even believe in God.
@Kitty I’ve been an atheist virtually my entire life. My grandmother was a ride or die catholic. You know what I did ever freakin Christmas and Easter? I put on my big girl pants and went to Church with her. Sometimes you just have to do things with your family (particularly grandparents) that you might not enjoy or agree with because you love and respect them. It made my grandma SO happy when my brother and I would escort her to church and she could show off her grandkids to all her church friends.
Will & Kate seem to live in this alternate reality where if they don’t like something they think they don’t have to do it. SUCK IT UP AND GO TO CHURCH WITH YOUR GRANDPARENTS. Jeez.
He’s going to be Head of the Church of England if he succeeds to the throne. As part of the job description, it’s probably helpful if you actually believe in God. Far better of course would be to end the outdated nonsense of having an established church – and preferably of having a monarchy.
@Melly, he is going to be the head of the Church one day so if he doesn’t believe in God or not as religious it would seem very hypocritical.
Carole has better crackers?
I so want to know that Boomf (sp?) marshmallows make it to the Middleton Christmas table. They eat pictures of Nicholas Witchell, betcha. Also, I want them to play post-dinner drunken darts like all good Britisher peasants. In my head, Kate aims at a picture of Meghan Markle.
Drunken darts sounds dangerously fun.
I am writing fan fiction in my head where this all revolves around outplaying the advent of La Markle and the wedding with the Flying Elvi.
I have to say I have I find great amusement in made up milestones. Pipps last single Christmas! It’s not as if she is going anywhere. Next Christmas she will be back in the fold, again stuffing herself with Carole’s excellent goose.
I’m fan fictioning the heck out of this in my head, too!
Do Americans not do drunken darts? Ours got so bad (not that drunken so not that dangerous, just noisy) that my mum put the dart board up in the garage. After that, the garage was known as the darts shed by all.
I wonder if Carole’s bubble and squeak is any good.
Will they talk through the Queen’s Christmas Message? Will they even have it on? Does Katie Keen dream of appearing in the Strictly Christmas Special? Could Meghan Markle PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do the Strictly Christmas Special next year? She could jive to an Elvis song and the Flying Elvi could do a dress rehearsal for the Bigly Wedding Day.
I want it to be like this! Mike Invisible Middleton having a meltdown about Carole the Controller.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KdtgoSCXpU
No drunken darts here, but it’s a big country, so it could be happening all over without my knowledge!
If Markle were to show up on a Christmas special my fantasy would be complete. In a sexy elf costume! Carole, Pips, and Kate all sniffing that her legs aren’t that great, and Wills, Mike and James pretending to agree, while secretly replaying her clip over and over on their cell phones.
Next christmas will be a celebration of Kate and Pippa’s first christmas as married women. The one after that as mothers etc etc and so forth.
Book 2: the #pippatips to BS milestones due in the stores next Easter.
I love the idea of BS milestone celebrations!
Carole buys a new couch Christmas!
Kate loses five more pounds Christmas!
Pippa completes 15 marathons in a year Christmas!
James shutters another business Christmas!
Michael makes an appearance Christmas!
Oh, the ideas are endless.
@suze, Mike, too? LOL!
Sixer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D6FU0cgg9ko
Sixer, you would love the Swedish royal weddings. Big occasions, boat rides around Stockholm, 15 minute wedding ceremonies complete with a cheesy pop tune sung in the church.
SCREECH! LAK – how have I never seen that?!
Nota – yes, yes, I would. Could the Flying Elvi at Harry’s wedding land in an open top red London bus, do you think?
Yes, but only if the bus has loud speakers playing the remixed Little Less Conversation while the jump occurs. And flashing neon lights trimming the open top to give it a little Vegas feel.
Sixer:. I was banned from drunken darts the year not a single one of my first round even hit the wall the board was on- a chair, the floor, the side wall, luckily nothing that bled, but not within ten feet of the intended target. In fact, I’m not allowed near sober darts. Unless they’re Nerf.
HA!
What is wrong with them? They can’t visit their elderly grandparents over Christmas? I can remember as a kid having to visit all the old aunts & uncles over the holidays. Hated it but in retrospect appreciate that my parents made us do it.
I ink part of the problem is that Kate is clearly not comfortable around his family, except Harry. When she’s at the big family set pieces she tends to stick to Williams side like glue and really interacts with others. I don’t think she’s gotten over the awe factor, plus Willy keep wanting to include her whole family ineverything and there is push back on it. If it were just her parents it could be tolerated but it’s not, it’s the whole lot of them. Neither of them know when to stop pushing.
I think you’ve summed it up perfectly. Waity is just not up to the job in public or in private.
I meant to say rarely – auto correct u r a PITA.
I just love the Queen and I am sure many things will change once she’ll pass away.
That will be a day to remember.. but of course, for now, long live the Queen.
Of course she understands she doesn’t want to rock an already rocky boat. The snide dig at the RF from William and the Mids is there to see. So much for having the NORMAL middle class xmas they blag on about every year, Carole has basically done a cut price Royal Christmas complete with pap strolls. She is showing her influence, plus I’ll bet this is part of the deal for Terribly Rich James, we’ll get u in with Willy if u marry our daughter. You just know that James will want a piece of the pie when willy inherits they Duchy of Cornwall. He’ll be angling for his firm to become financial consultants or something to do with managing the estate finances. There will be a deal in there somewhere for him.
Carole can pull all these stunts now but when Chuck takes the throne he will throw them under the bus. He can carry grudge and can be ruthless.
PS. The digs in ur the Middleton impeccable behaviour over the years really made me laff, shade?
I honestly believe Charles will never be king. He will pass it on to William straight away.
I am actually sorry that we will not have a Queen for a long time from now on.
Charles really wants to be king, so no. jmo.
Nope, Chuck has been waiting in the wings for too long to pass it over even if he is only King for 10/20 years. William will be middle aged when he takes over.
I am just curious for why you are saying this. I always thought he was never interested in the throne.
He needed to find something to occupy himself while he waited as he always knew it was to be a loooong wait. Plus showing he really wanted it would be like wishing his mother dead.
Oh no. Charles definitely wants to be king. Those of you familiar with the Godfather series will recall that Michael didn’t have his brother Fredo killed until after their mother died. Charles is biding his time until he is king and then he will “tighten the screws” I am sure.
Well I guess all we have to do is wait and see.. The idea of Charles being King after such a great Queen is a bit disturbing. I hope I am wrong.
In the 80s, Charles was frequently accused of being impatient about getting the top job.
It was all woe is Charles for having to wait to be King.
He has actually relaxed as he has aged or perhaps the media got bored with that angle.
Mind you, he has also been shadow Regent for the past ten years so he is more relaxed about finally reaching the top.
And whether he rules for 5mins or 10yrs, he will accept the job. Never doubt that.
Btw, considering how he has handled the duchy + all his outside concerns, Charles has the makings of a good King. Unless the Queen’s death causes a seismic call for a republic, Charles will be a safe pair of hands.
On current form, William won’t be.
William will be a far worse King than Chuck will ever be. For one Charles has a strong sense of duty and understands the relationship between throne and people, William has already shown he doesn’t care and is only interested in taking and not giving back.
William will very likely be the last King as he will piss the country off so much that we will get rid of them.
Oh God I hope NOT! Skipping Charles for William of all people would be a disaster.
Potentially about 100 years of being ruled by kings coming.
IMO Charles has been waiting his whole life to be king. He’s fortunate that the royal family has been humanized more recently and that he is now married to the “woman he loves.” I actually think he could be very good at the job.
Spot on, darling!
Every time I read about the normal Middleton Christmas extravagaza, it sounds closer to a shadow royal court tHan anything remotely middle class.
Yes. But they do it close but no cigar, right? So it’s all terribly gauche.
Doing the competing shoot on Boxing Day sealed that one for me.
I find it terribly declasse for them to hire a shoot, and a small one at that so they can play at pseudo aristocracy when William has a home grown proper shoot at home ( Sandrigham) that everybody who loves to shoot would sell their grandmother to receive an invitation to.
Also, if you have a homegrown shoot and or your friends have the same, why would you go to a rented one? A small one at that?
It’s so wannabe aristo that i have secondhand embarrassment for all of them. William included.
Can’t they get George Percy or the Grosvenors to invite them to their estates on boxing day?
Pippa used to show off her trophy posh friends with country estates and proper shoots. Can’t one of them invite them over?
The middle class fiction has been completely dropped.
Still, they have to incorporate activities to keep William interested. Shooting things and probably plenty of drinking are key.
IA, Lak. The shoot is so pretentious I can hardly believe Willie is going along with it. What’s next, a fox hunt? Oh, scratch that, I forgot the Midds don’t ride.
If the Middletons were really middle class, their organized shoot for William would be Duck Hunt on NES classic, which honestly sounds more fun to me than standing outside in the cold.
I suspect that the main reason for this is for Terribly Rich James’s benefit. To show off their aristocratic pedigree. They were prob hoping Willy would get them an invite to the Royal shoot so when that didn’t happen they went for the cut price, rented version. It’s also prob why Waity has been looking a bit chipper recently, she got what she wanted, xmas with her family and no public duties.
PS. Didn’t the article also say Carole got a discount and special treatment because of her Royal connections. Ouch, the shade at her cashing in is obvious, even for the Fail.
Yes she did. So she got a rent-a-shoot on a royal discount!!!!
The jokes write themselves
The Grosvenors may want a quiet family-only Christmas, as it is the first one without the late 6th Duke.
If the Middleton clan decamped to the Percys for a shoot and extended stay? It would prove that they didn’t want a “normal Middleton Christmas” at home in Berkshire. The constant excuses as to why W&K can’t be at Sandringham for a few hours each Christmas would fall apart.
Plus, wasn’t there talk that the France skiing holiday included Melissa Percy’s ex and a new date? Maybe the Percy family isn’t looking fondly at W&K right now.
@NOTA, i don’t think the Middletons would be welcome by the Pery’s. Didn’t they have to get a lawyer to run off Pippa when she and Carole kept leaking to the press that Pips and George were an item? They even released a press statement about it (via said lawyer).
Kate will be tolerated by William but Van S is one of Willy’s best friends so of course they would take his side.
The whole “It’s Pippa’s last Christmas as a single woman!” thing is SO.BIZARRE. I’m picturing Carole hiring male strippers dressed as Father Christmas or something.
Won’t anybody think of the Boomf?
They’re hiring a shoot? Man, they reallyyyyy want to seem like they are in fact royalty. I don’t think they want to seem middle class and that’s why that narrative has ended. They are pathetic.
It seems like the Queen has written them off or rather, she knows she’s done her job and as long as there’s not another divorce in her lifetime, she’s fine. Let Chaz deal with whatever comes afterwards. I do think that it’ll get more difficult for them once Charles is King.
I agree. I think this picture is striking and shows solidarity between HM and Charles. Good luck to the Middleton ladies, you are playing a dangerous game.
I think this is getting more and more true as the years go by. The Queen has always had a penchant for avoiding confrontations with her family, and is known to have a reputation for sticking her head in the sand about conflicts within the family in particular, insofar as they don’t affect the image or the work of the Firm. In that way, she’s more admirable, given that the respect she gets from those who give it in her family is respect that’s earned and not insisted upon without right or reason. Which makes the kinds of things Willy does even more egregious in retrospect.
At any rate, I’m sure the Queen prefers a quiet Christmas with the people she cares about without having to put on any pretenses, rather than put on a front of respectability for people like Waity and her family.
@A, I think she must know William and Kate won’t save the monarchy once she passes. Maybe Harry and his future wife will?
I don’t think the Queen is really the sort of person to speculate about those things. She always struck me as someone who is far more focused on tangible things and stuff she can control as opposed to things that are beyond her reach. She will do her work as long as she is queen, and I think for her, anything beyond or after that will be for those who assume to mantle of monarch to deal with.
@A but its obvious William is a reluctant King.
Sometimes I wonder if William or his son ever will sit on the throne.
I say a big NO!
The British royal family… what a farce.
…actually the Swedish & Japanese Royals are far crazier…& the Belgian & Dutch Royals have a history deeply steeped in exploitation…
hey-ya interesting, where can I find more about the Japanese royals?
Maybe Kate doesn’t want to go to Sandringham because Harry is going to bring Meghan and steal the spotlight?
Christmas is always married or engaged spouses. No exceptions.
LAK, do you know, does Kate ride? I have never seen any pics of her on a horse.
I don’t think any of the Middletons ride.
The Fail has shots of them at Heathrow yesterday or today where he’s seeing her off home.
Some people have commented that something seems off with Kate lately. Has anyone considered that one of her parents could be ill?
If spending time with an ill parent was the reason for this separate Xmas celebration, then an additional shooting party would not be needed. This is all because Will does not want to be confronted with his lazy ways by his family as what happened last year.
What happened last year?
I certainly hope not. I enjoy snarking on this family more than anything, but that would be terrible.
I have. It seems to make the most sense. It would explain why she seems off in public; why she’s doing even less than usual; and why they are spending Christmas with the Middletons. My sister and her husband usually spent Christmas with our side of the family, mostly because we lived closer. But when my brother-in-law’s father got cancer, they scraped together the money to travel to their house for Christmas because he wanted to spend one last Christmas with his father. Maybe that’s what’s going on here?
Well certain Carole to the has been seen out and about, looking fine. Not many pics of Mike though, busy running PP. I think Kate and Will don’t want a lecture or a look from the Queen.
As I said in another thread, I don’t think they were given the use of Anmer so the Middletons could move in en masse. Anmer came about to stave off W&K purchasing a private country home and causing all kinds of PR nightmares. The entire Middleton clan, including TR James Matthews and Donna Air, coming along for the ride wasn’t expected.
I don’t think HM ever had any intention of allowing the Middletons to move in for months on end like they appeared to do a couple years ago. The staff fled back to HM after only 5 months, most of which involved the Middletons being embedded at Anmer over the winter holidays.
Maybe HM finally put a foot down and said, “No, the Middletons will not live on my property, do a pap walk to church with us, play in the traditional royal football match, and they are not welcome at the shoot.” This is William’s response.
In all honestly, HM’s Christmas is probably nicer without W&K and their associated mess.
ITA – thou I don’t think Donna Air has ever been to any family events, she doesn’t even get invited to any holidays her BF goes on with his sister and her BF. The way James treats her is disgusting – he’ll happily pose with her for Hello spreads and society events but she has yet to be papped with his family. Considering who her ex is you;d think the Mids would be all over her connections, i think she’s good friends with Stella McCartney.
@NOTA. I agree. I feel bad for the Queen though.
I can not imagine having to live by what my grandmother wants for the entirety of her life.
Some of my relatives do though. I enjoy my life on a very different level than they do though.
Suffer no fools. Merry Christmas and all hahaha
When that grandmother (and the Family Firm she runs) provides you a free 50 room Palace, a free 10 bedroom country mansion, and a $4 million a year allowance in exchange for around 100 hours of work a YEAR? You show up for the one day a year she asks of you.
Or if you are a thoughtful human being who worries that at 90 and 95 this could be the last Christmas for your grandmother and grandfather? You show up and concede to their wishes for a few hours, no matter if they have money or not.
No the heck I don’t. See the part I said about I suffer no fools? Money doesn’t rule me. Neither does my mean granny. As a thoughtful human being I treasure my sanity and health above all material things. I don’t consider the elderly innocent little babies just because they’ve aged and gone back into diapers. pfffft
The grandmother doesn’t though? I thought it’s the government that allots the money spent by the RF? The Queen does a lot of good work for the family PR that keeps the whole crowd in the good graces of the people, which in turn keeps the cheques coming, but let’s not give the impression that she’s the one divvying up the assets here and then holding the proverbial carrot over the heads of Willy & Waity or anything. Everything the Queen and the RF does is ultimately subject to the rule of parliament, and she is far too diplomatic and level-headed I would say, in her personal and public life, to really warrant the “mean grandma who blackmails her family into spending time with her” label that she’s getting here.
@Nota a 50 room palace? I thought it was 22 rooms.
A, Sandringham is the Queen’s private property. Anmer is part of that private estate. They live in that home rent free, she did not give it to them outright. All kinds of monkey shines about taxpayer money being spent on fixing up that private property, plus the taxpayers paying for security at that private residence. But it remains HM’s private property, not the property of the state. The $4 million a year allowance comes from the Duchy (aka ultimately the taxpayers).
KP is a space provided for them by the taxpayers, fixed up with $7+ million of taxpayer money, but controlled by HM. HM leaned on Historic Royal Palaces and had their lease bought out when W&K demanded the largest space, which was already occupied by HRP and their museum.
All that sounds very welland good for you, but it is not what is happening to W&K.
On the phone I can’t tell who is replying to who. All I said was I can’t imagine my life being ruled by MY grandma. Their grandma is the queen. I’m not making assumptions about their life but they do answer to her. Over and out because this is an extremely stupid conversation I can no longer be bothered with. Good day to you.
LOL Ok, Jerkface! It was a pleasure!
Kudos to Jerkface for leaving comments that perfectly encapsulate his/her screen name.
I’m not royal and we lived by Granny’s wishes.
Preach!
If Wills was from an ordinary (normal?? LOL) family I would agree wholeheartedly. However he is part of the “family firm” and as he is not shy about taking the funding and other associated perks and privileges he should also be willing to partake of what he perceives to be the negative aspects.
It is what it is and let’s not pretend this is an ordinary family.
how is the queen of england cooler about missing one christmas than my MIL?
Funny! I hope for your sake she doesn’t frequent these pages, but LoL
😂😂😂😂
Ehhh. I want to be annoyed but I’m not. I think the Queen, given all the garbage she’s had to witness with her children over the last couple decades or so, is well past the age where she’d have given a crap about this sort of thing. We all get to an age where some things are just worth a shrug and a quiet, “Whatever, bitch,” muttered out of earshot followed by a swift moving on to bigger and better and more important things than Waity and her chutney plans for the year.
LOL….A I love your response. Waity and her chutney…….
Maybe Will and Kate were angling to get Terribly Rich What’shisname and Pippa invited to the Christmas festivities and as a clapback the Queen uninvited the Middletons AND Will and Kate. Bwahahahah!
Charles is looking more like his dad, especially in profile.
I know Michael Middleton has been “laying low” (ie not in the tabloids) is there any chance he is ill and that is why they will be at the Middletons? I know the work shy excuse is more likely but it did just occur to me that he is the right age to possibly have a serious illness, and it seems like he wouldn’t share it w the public.
Clearly I didn’t scroll far enough and I see someone else was thinking in similar lines!
Could it be that she’s pregnant and sick again?
I kind of wonder if Kate was pregnant and had a miscarriage before the end of her third trimester. It would explain the absence, and why she is being extra clingy to her parents.
Wow … this Queen has seen so much in her lifetime …. the steady diminishing of the once powerful Great Britain culminating in Brexit. Who knows maybe Russia had a hand in those elections as well as in the US. Regardless, there has been an easing up of Royal traditions over the years, some good some bad. Nowadays you can no longer get away with loping off someone’s head if you want a divorce and you can enjoy Christmas at the other grandma’s house where there are probably a lot more smiles.
It’s Kate s way of keeping Wills on a short leash so he respects her family as equal to his own in the class system. Let’s face it he missed a mates wedding in November. Most wives would absolutely insist he attended. I think the Queen is quite content for them not to be there it will allow the other royals to shine on the day to the British public. To be honest we can all have a nice rest from Willy and Katy a Christmas – and indulge ourselves in the gorgeous Harry.
I disagree – i can guarantee that part of the royal press pack will be camped at Buckleberry to get snaps of them going into church on boxing day and then for the shoot. Carole WILL have invited the paps -this is about her showing off her influence and giving an FU to Chuck and TQ in retaliation for being snubbed and not having a title. She has recreated the RF traditions (that Kate and Wills allegedly hate) on the cheap. The Cambridges have confirmed that they will be spending the whole of the festive season at her parents – his family will not be seeing the children.
But what about the chutney? Maybe Waity will drop it off at Sandringham before heading to Bucklebury? Or maybe she and Carole are in the kitchen at Bucklebury RIGHT NOW making it and they’ll send it by the helicopter to Sandringham?
Maybe she burned the chutney and that’s why they’re not going. Can’t show up empty handed, that would be rude.
The royals. Give each other silly gifts as what do you give a royal who has everything and royal warrants on goods they can have at the drop of a hat. I think Diana made the mistake of giving expensive items one Christmas – so anything homemade is actually the only thing you can give. I wouldn’t envy trying to think of getting a gift for the Queen
Absolutely no chance of the throne going from the Queen to William unless Charles has died because thats not how it works.
I think the Queen has done an excellent job as monarch but when she was younger she was often criticised in the UK for being cold and unsmiling.
I think she put first her husband then the throne before Charles and Anne at any rate. Anne coped but Charles was sensitive and was the favourite of the QM as opposed to either of his parents. Even in the early years before she was Queen, Elizabeth was sometimes away from him at his birthdays and Christmas even when not on royal duties. She lived in Malta for a few months when Charles was about a year old and he was left in England.
I dont think William and Kate are carrying out their roles as they should be. Also hope that in years to come they get back some of which they are dishing out. I am also one of those who thinks Kate had no idea what she was getting into. The glamorous bits are great but not the rest.
Just my thoughts – of no interest to anyone else!