Here are more photos of Carole and Michael Middleton at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. I didn’t catch it at the time, but Carole styled herself more like Camilla for the funeral, especially with that big onyx necklace. Camilla has several similar necklaces and chokers, given to her by Charles. Queen Consort Carole vibez, right? Anyway, last year, we heard an interesting story about Carole’s business, Party Pieces. It makes zero sense from a business standpoint that Party Pieces would still be a profitable, successful business providing a millionaire-lifestyle to Carole and Mike, and it absolutely looks like the bottom is officially dropping out of Party Pieces. Last year, PP recorded losses of “more than £1 million.” In 2021, PP owed £1.2 million to creditors. Now it looks like PP is recording even more losses this year:
The Princess of Wales’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, made enough money from their party paraphernalia business to put three children through boarding school and buy a manor house for £4.7 million.
Yet their mail-order company, Party Pieces, made a loss of almost £300,000 last year.
Newly published figures disclose that Party Pieces Holdings racked up a loss of £285,506 in 2021, making its net deficit on the balance sheet £1.35million.
The Middletons own just over half of the business, with lingerie tycoon Steven Brentwood and Darryl Eales also listed as shareholders.
A business review at the end of the accounts reports: ‘During the year, the company has seen an impressive 18 per cent increase in retail revenue despite a challenging time for UK retailers. The post-tax loss represents the continued investment in the company’s growth plans, including the launch of a wholesale division and the opening of new territories in the U.S., Europe and Middle East.’
“The Middletons own just over half of the business, with lingerie tycoon Steven Brentwood and Darryl Eales also listed as shareholders.” That’s interesting, when did the Middletons sell a chunk of PP? Was it several years ago, during/after Carole’s media blitz where she was seemingly looking for people to bail out her failing company? Anyway, it sounds like PP is losing money hand over fist. I wonder when PP last turned a profit, and whether they can continue using PP as some kind of money laundering front for their marijuana factory (ALLEGEDLY).
PS… The Middletons couldn’t afford to buy their manor home – Prince William gave them the money for it.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton arrives at the state funeral and burial of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, at Westminster Abbey in London, Britain, September 19, 2022.,Image: 724081127, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph / Avalon
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- Carole Middleton (third from left) and Michael Middleton (fourth from left) at the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, held at Westminster Abbey, London.,Image: 724111600, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Dominic Lipinski / Avalon
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- Michael Middleton and Carole Middleton The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, West Door, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724158040, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- Carole Middleton The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, West Door, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724158170, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- Carole Middleton The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, West Door, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724158734, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Veysey/Shutterstock / Avalon
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- WINDSOR, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 19: Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton arrive at Windsor Castle ahead of the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, 2022 in Windsor, England. The committal service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, took place following the state funeral at Westminster Abbey. A private burial in The King George VI Memorial Chapel followed. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8, 2022, and is succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III.,Image: 724191188, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Leon Neal / Avalon
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- Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton arrive for the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II held at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, Berkshire.,Image: 724210286, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, Model Release: no, Credit line: Kirsty O’Connor / Avalon
Prince Louis really looks like his grandfather.
I can’t imagine PP will be able to last much longer. I’m amazed it’s still operating at this point with Amazon in existence. I hope Middleton Manor was paid in full.
On another note, that first picture of Carole made my mind immediately leap to Lynne Spears. These stage moms are all starting to look alike.
It will last as long as there are shady investors looking for access.
Did you read where it stated PP would be expanding into the USA. I mean LOL are they serious. We can literally purchase cheap party supplies like EVERYWHERE.
Smells like a money laundering operation to me.
I’m just astounded at how benign the DM, of all places, made this all sound, “Lost money,” (It’s six figures this year alone!), and “lingerie tycoon” (Oh my God, think of how they would have made it sound if this involved Meghan’s family.) These people sound so tawdry, but if that’s what the English adore, I love that for them.
I’m convinced that Patry Pieces is a front for Uncle Gary’s drug business.
Yea, I would absolutely believe that PP used to be a front, and these “losses” are just them cleaning up and returning to legitimate business now that they’ve achieved their goals and don’t want to risk the potential exposure.
Omg that first pic of Carole legit reminded me of the funeral scene in Death Becomes Her.
I thought Carole looked like a corpse or melting wax figure in these funeral pics. If there is need for proof she dresses her daughter, this is it. She is wearing almost the exact same outfit as Kate. Jewerly and all. Kate has no sense of self whatsoever.
OMG it does and I’m crying
I suspect any business in the party/event space lost money in a global pandemic
Yes, it’s totally shocking that it is still running considering it’s coming up to 3 years of people not being able to have parties! Many similar businesses folded before the end of 2020.
I’m not surprised they’re losing so much money. Even with the pandemic, it feels like specialty party stores are just not really necessary anymore. We’ve had one in my area for about 20 years and its sadly closing next month, but I think the main reason people use it is to fill up balloons with helium (balloons they bought elsewhere.) Even growing up that was the main reason we went to Party City or wherever, it wasn’t for the paper products, it was just for the balloons. Well PP isn’t selling helium filled balloons online I’m assuming.
Anyway, so yeah, between Amazon, Target (or the UK equivalent) and other online retailers – I just feel like Party Pieces’ demise was kind of inevitable. I just went on their website and it doesn’t seem they’ve pivoted at all. It’s all things that I can buy on amazon or at target/walmart etc. I’m not sure how they “could” pivot, but regardless they haven’t.
and yeah I think PP was used a lot for Uncle Gary.
It is quite something that this business afforded them such a life style. The kids education and activities alone must have been a chunk. I know people say that Wills paid off their house,but Will wasnt there earlier. Carole was definetly shrewd.
Ma Middleton’s skeevy brother Gary used it to launder shady money and paid for the kids’ uni. It’s all a shell game.
Carole’s brother is a known drug dealer, PP was all just a money laundering business.
I didn’t know they were trying to expand their failing business. US, europe and middle east? There’s nothing they sell that we can’t already buy so how does that work?
That stood out to me too. Something is not quite adding up here.
I don’t think the Mids care – they have a well that’s deep and it’s even deeper now since it’s located on the Duchy now.
Yep, now that Katie has access to that wonderful Duchy of Cornwall wealth, the Middletons will be on easy street. They’re going to get all the gravy.
I get it, the business is Carole’s entree into polite society and continues to be a status symbol for her but continuing this business makes no sense.
So,it was not only for titles.
Uncle Gary financing their lifestyle so that Kate could stalk Will and Pippa managed her own pocket aristocrat makes a ton of sense from a business perspective, as we know the royal family never gets investigated and never faces any consequences.
Guess Peggy getting control of his own money is just in time to bail out the failing in-laws.
I always wonder with these “this business is losing SO much money” stories. I mean, at the very least isn’t it just a business tactic to avoid taxes? They “record significant losses” so that on paper their net profits look low (or nonexistent), and they get a tax break.
I’d read somewhere at the time of Peg & Bones’ engagement that Michael’s father had left a trust fund for his grand children’s education. He comes from a wealthy family with some distant aristocratic connections and was also privately educated.
I believe this too, that the trust was established by one of michael’s ancestors and the trust is still in existence to this day. that may have helped the kids with their private education, but doesn’t explain how they were able to purchase their home without a mortgage or the london flat that kate used.
Beyond Michael’s trust fund, I’m positive it was a combination of Uncle Hookers-n-Blow who financed the business and put the kids through uni, then William came along and funded the purchase/updating of Bucklebury Manse. The Meddletowns are nothing but grifters.
I’ve heard the trust fund story but I’ve also heard (no idea where but I think it was in an article, not just a rando on twitter or something) that it wasn’t very big by this point. Like there was enough to finance some of their HS educations and that’s it. There wasn’t enough to cover their university tuition I think. (but isn’t the high school the more expensive one in the UK anyway?)
I think Pippa getting a full scholarship helped the situation.
becks i think the boarding school, marlborough, is probably more expensive than the university! my daughter’s classmate left this year to attend there and she has an older sister there too. i need to fact check the fees. unless they blew that money away, i have seen trust funds since the 1800s that grew manifold! you would not believe how those work.
jaded i am not convinced about snorting uncle divvying up the funds. did he just give money carte blanche? what did he get in return.
@RoyalBlue — I imagine he saw Party Pieces as a way of funneling money into Kate and Pippa’s “wisteria sisters” social climbing, aided and abetted by their mother’s machinations to get them into high society, especially when Kate started seeing William. Gary only has one daughter, Tallulah Goldsmith, who hasn’t nearly the social cachet of the Middleton sisters. It’s interesting that he isn’t pushing her into the public eye as much as he’s done with Kate and Pippa, I think mainly because Kate managed to bag the FFK (now FK) and he saw it as a way of self-aggrandizing his connection with the royal family and bloviating about how Kate and William should be the current King and Queen Consort, not C&C. His ambition to rise above his seedy past is blatantly obvious.
I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that Prince William and James Matthews have been bailing out not just Party Pieces but also James Middleton.
The Middletons didn’t pay for the children’s education. There was a trust fund from Michael’s historically wealthy that paid for it, and Pippa to her credit got an all rounders’ scholarship to Marlborough that would have either paid for or alleviated part of the cost.
I read that they remortgaged their previous home 2 or 3 times before Kate got married. Financially l think they needed this marriage and also for it to work !!!!!
I also read an article from a local paper that said Uncle Gazza paid for their Education as he was a millionaire after he sold his tect computer business ????
Seriously that necklace Carole suppose it matches de feathers on her hat !!!!!!
Stuff to say but I won’t because I’m trying to be better. But, who is throwing parties during these last few years anyway? During a global pandemic and now worldwide inflation. Please.
When I see the necklace, I think of Princess Diana. I especially remember the pearl multiple strand necklace with a huge blue stone, maybe a sapphire?
I will always think of Diana when I see it, the other Royals or Royal adjacents came after Diana ‘s multiple photos with this style…
I kind of think that was the idea. Since Carole is royal-adjacent, she likes to pretend she is royal, though with fake statement jewelry. Ugh, so try hard. On another note, she should maybe focus on the fact that her husband looks shabby as his pants look miles too long. Maybe they were borrowed from Willnot at some point.
I can believe that when it was founded, PP was a legitimately successful business and did generate profit for the Middletons. Enough to make them millionaires like the media says? No but enough to live a comfortable lifestyle.
Now though? As others have pointed out, speciality shops are dying in general so yeah it makes sense that they’re seeing losses. I don’t think PP will ever shut in Carole and Mike’s lifetime though. I reckon once their gone their kids will sell it off. Kate can’t take over obviously, James is terrible with business and I don’t think Pippa’s interested so yeah, selling it off or dismantling it makes sense.
The pearls in that necklace are fake, and not even good fakes at that. Too shiny. But props to whoever strung them to give the illusion of them being real by tying a knot between each bead.
It never made sense to me that this was a business that (allegedly) made millions. Most of the stuff it sells is cheap plastic tat – you can pick up better stuff from any supermarket or on the high street, or even Amazon. It was never going to make big ticket money, and was never a well-known brand in the UK. I simply don’t believe that the Middletons’ apparent wealth is down to this business.
I guess they’ll eventually either quietly fold the business and walk away, or there’ll be a big fat injection of their son-in-law’s newly-acquired Duchy money.
“recorded losses” after paying salary and expenses to all the Middletons and securing capital infusions for “expansion.” I would love to go through their books.
It’s losses on paper, it’s a financial deflection tactic, and it’s the reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It very well may be all the things that we’re discussion (shady Uncle Gary fronts, etc), but it also may just be an excuse for avoiding taxes; knowing they are less likely to be audited because their daughter is the future QOE.
Big time Camilla vibes, it’s not just the choker, the whole ensemble–that a line coat is very Camilla.
To me it appears as though Carole has the same hair color as Kate. Do they share hair pieces?
Carole is definitely wearing hair pieces.
Digging into the Middleton finances is always one of my favorite topics, because we need to get to the bottom of the source and application of their funds. They are public figures now you know.
I found the comment about how this business has afforded them SO MUCH to be a slight warning. They moved on quickly but it was introduced as HOW CURIOUS.
The answer is really in what they don’t say.