Those of us hoping for some shady revelations about the Middleton clan are feeling a little bit let down by Omid Scobie’s Endgame. While he did give some shady and interesting details, there was precious little about the insolvency of Party Pieces, nor the many lies told about the Middletons’ wealth and success, nor the control exerted by Carole Middleton over Kate. Still, Scobie makes it perfectly clear that Carole was the driving force behind the Middletons’ plan to honey-trap a prince, and Scobie gives credit to Carole and Kate for being able to navigate the Waity Katie years without much in the way of palace support. Some highlights from the Middleton section:

Carole’s orchestrations: As two caring parents who worked hard, made their mint, and climbed the social ladder (no small feat in a country still obsessed with class), the Middletons—mostly Carole—saw that the pretty and grounded Kate was ready to carry the family name further to the top. So, they began orchestrating her life, ensuring she was at the right places at the right time and spoke the right way. Kensington Palace has never denied that Kate had several rounds of elocution lessons as she became more serious with William. Friends have noted over the years that her accent now sounds “posher” and “even more plummy” than her husband’s.

Calculated Carole: The Middleton strategy involved more than just aristocratic affectation—Carole calculatingly placed Kate right at the center of young Prince William’s world. It was first reported in royal biographer Katie Nicholl’s Kate: The Future Queen that when Carole learned that Prince William was slated to attend the University of St. Andrews, she encouraged her daughter to turn down a spot at her dream school, the University of Edinburgh, take a gap year to study abroad in Florence, and enroll at St. Andrews the following year.

Off-and-on relationship: Carole set things up, and Kate took it the rest of the way. It wasn’t long before William and Kate’s friendliness turned into a loving relationship, one that included natural ups and downs—periods when they were on and times when they were off.

William doesn’t spend much time in Bucklebury now: During the flush and passion of their early romance, the pair spent lots of time with Kate’s family in Bucklebury. William took to the cozy Middleton enclave in a village where time seemed to stand still… He also fell for the Middleton family. Although less frequent these days, William has always looked forward to Sunday roasts at their house and helping load the dishwasher at the end of it.

The 2007 breakup: Knowing he would soon be immersed in his monarchical duties, William struggled to commit for the long haul, even pushing the two to completely break up in spring 2007. Kate retreated to Bucklebury for Carole’s motherly advice, while William took refuge at Bovington Army Camp in Dorset. Kate didn’t pull back for long. She soon resurfaced and demonstrated some of that Middleton determination and took a few bold steps of her own. While William was off in Dorset—ostensibly for armored reconnaissance training, but photographic evidence suggests he spent much of his time sowing his wild oats—Kate rallied her sister, Pippa, and some close friends for London’s nightlife scene. The paparazzi swarmed, and Kate was regularly photographed on raucous nights out. Long before my royal reporter days, I saw her inside the members-only Boujis club in South Kensington a few times, where she and her friends would knock back complimentary trays of shots and jump up on the seats and tables to dance to whatever hip-hop or house music the DJ was spinning. There was an option to leave the building secretly, but Kate left through the main doors, where the photographers waited.

From Middleton schemer to a creature of the palace: In many ways [the wedding] is where Kate’s personal story comes to an end: she traded in Carole’s training for the Palace playbook, and the young woman disappeared behind a Palace-constructed mold. Before her engagement to William, Kate was left to fend, manage, and ward off the stalking tabloid press who seemed to buzz around her wherever she went and create whatever narratives they pleased. There may have been no social media negativity or online trolls to deal with, but Fleet Street’s interest was obsessive: Kate was regularly tailed by paparazzi, her voicemails were repeatedly hacked (155 times alone by one reporter at News the World), the likes of the Daily Mail poked fun at her un-royal family and former air hostess mom, and body-shaming commentary was written about her weight loss. The misogynistic and snobbish way many of the tabloids wrote about Kate was reprehensible. After her marriage, however, she had full Palace protection and spinmeisters on the payroll to assist her with media harassment and reputational management.

[From Omid Scobie’s Endgame]

“There was an option to leave the building secretly, but Kate left through the main doors, where the photographers waited.” I have strong memories of this period – the spring of Kate’s discontent, where Carole advised her to go out with all of William’s friends and look like she was having the time of her life. William came running back to her because he basically had no other option at that point – all of the aristocratic girls, all of the titled toff girls, all of the nouveau riche girls, all of them turned him down or friendzoned him. Kate was the only one who really wanted it and she “played” it perfectly. The problem, as everyone soon discovered, was that Kate and Carole had only planned to get the ring. They never planned past that.

“Although less frequent these days, William has always looked forward to Sunday roasts at their house…” Yeah… William distanced himself from the Middletons several years ago, circa 2020-21. Suddenly, Carole’s trickery and surrogate-mothering didn’t work on him anymore.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.