Kate and Pippa Middleton

[hellosally]

I'm reading about Pippa's new £15 million home and another pregnancy. I am sure both sisters are lovely people but looking at their lives, it seems like neither ever had any intention of working and used school and university to get themselves mixing in affluent circles to bag a wealthy man to fund their lifestyles.
Do people like this still really exist? I know we all have choices but at times in my life when I have mixed in more affluent circles in university and London, men would spot gold diggers and women who would need to be financially supported a mile off and would not contemplate taking them seriously. I dont know any women who havent have some kind of career or any men that want someone who hasnt worked.
is there anyone bringing up their daughters(or sons) like this in this day and age? would you bankroll them if it all went wrong? just curious.

@DogsAndGin I agree with this take 100%, women can’t seem to win, it’s genuinely sad to see.

Seriously though, all power to her. She used all the resources at her disposal and went and got what she wanted - a Prince, and life as wife to a hugely important/powerful public figure within a supremely wealthy and powerful organisation. It’s a rebuke of sort to the feminists who believe women can only achieve self worth/self actualisation through their work.

MN is full of women who have never worked and use pregnancies to ensure they don't have to. What's the difference? It's all about the choices we make and I know which one I think is the better option 🤷‍♀️

I think part of why I find it strange is that my dad and my maternal grandfather have enough wealth that I probably didn't really need to work but my family have always wanted me to be successful in my own right. I was never encouraged to marry the investment banker but to be the investment banker (if I wanted it).

I am not bitter or envious of the Middleton sisters, I am very happy with my life - I am weirdly fascinated by women being brought up in this almost 19th century way through!

I studied hard all my life, started work at age 15 and continued. Worked in crappy jobs during my two degrees to fund them then worked in various challenging places such as secure forensic units etc to gain experience in my chosen field. It was exhausting, hard work and I worried constantly about money, often being only a few quid away from managing my rent/food. Yes, I have achieved much but the stress/anxiety and sheer hardness of those years took its toll on me. My mum got really sick during that time and the NHS misdiagnosed her which led to her death. Looking back, I'd swap to be Pippa in a heartbeat. Money buys you freedom, choices, and the best medical care which can literally save your life.

Its all very well banging on about the nobleness of making it on your own and struggling but thats a very rose tinted view and personally, I dont blame them one bit for choosing an easier lifestyle. I would do the same if I had my time again.

See that’s the thing. I find it deeply misogynistic that networking and forming connections is somehow the same trying to bag a rich husband etc. Especially when people use “think” and somehow confuse their opinion with an actual fact. Or not even use words like “think” and just state their opinions as facts.

Unless you know firsthand or have primary sources or reliable secondary sources, it’s important to try to fact check. I always thought that was good practice for anything I read. But I guess it was wrong of me to assume that others also do the same.

In my twenties I was sent on a secondment at an investment bank. Lovely female partner on other side of deal I was on at the time took me to one side and said “some career advice for you. Find one of the bankers and marry him”. She was working insane hours herself and was juggling 2 kids.

Strikes me that we only ever discuss the Middleton women, James gets a much easier time. Surely if the girls were raised to find rich husbands, then James would've been raised to BE the rich husband but I'm not aware that he's an investment banker, city lawyer, property mogul etc. All I know about him is the marshmallows and that he's struggled with his mental health over the years.

I love the two of them, I even stole the name Pippa for my daughter!

Seriously!!?? You actually believe (read the Daily Fail) and think that Catherine was ordered to meet and marry William so had absolutely no say in which university, course or anything to enable her to do this? And William just happened to go along with it as he is obviously a bit dim, easily led and not able to make choices in who he spent time with never mind married. Are we in the 15th century??

Can it not just be that two sisters and two men met each other, fell IN LOVE and married, had families and led the life THEY ALL chose?? Huh??

SO well said!

I notice you'll never see threads condemning men for their life choices eh?

Its always women. Marry a man with money?- "goldigger"

Have nannies or send your kids to nursery whilst you work?- "lazy parenting, why bother even having kids if you arent even going to raise them?"

Stay at home mum- "not contributing to society, just sitting on sofa all day eating bon bons"

Women. Cant. Win.

Does anyone actually know the Middletons on here?

She might think of herself as working, but what does she do that actually needs to be done? And a job is something you can be sacked from if you don't turn up or don't do the work to a reasonable standard. No such sanctions apply to the royals.

... are no longer Middletons. Just saying, because this annoys me! Infantilising two adult women, mothers.

Dunno why you are even surprised?
Nice middle class girls have a private education and go off to posh uni and marry well? Have kids and are sahm?
Well, one of them married the future king.
Yes, there are, of course, people like this, always have been, always will.

This is so bloody true. I had so much judgement from people for the few years I was a SAHM, another primary school parent, a dad, got nothing but adulation for being a SAHD despite being Ivy League educated.

@TalkSomeSense1

No I don't believe she was 'ordered' at all. The situation was manipulated so she could study at the same university and the same time as William.

FWIW I have never read the DM.

Oh yes, every single job is so hugely rewarding and fulfilling, some jobs are fucking boring and people are treated like shit. There really is nothing amazing about working. My mum died less than a year after retiring from a draining job, all her plans for finally getting time to do things for herself came to nothing. She also did virtually all of the childcare and housework. Presumably she deserved a pat on the head though from the OP.

Well somebody clearly has mutual acquaintances as a poster upthread said Kate wrote to her friend's parents after he died.

I certainly don't know them! Irish living in Ireland, although, I did used to work for Ropner Insurances! A couple of times some parody of a posh bloke would saunter in and treat us all like the minions we were. I figure Henry Ropner (an x of Kate's) is connected to that crew.
So if she hadn't married william she'd have married somebody like that. She would have been free to live a more relaxed life.

I agree that Carol seems to be a very interesting lady. I went to school with some girls like this albeit on a much smaller and parochial scale.
It's quite bizarre to bring children up with the view that they don't need to work and life can change very quickly for all of us.

I find the Middleton girls fascinating - like a modern day Pride & Prejudice. I know lots of girls from similar families but not many had the single minded focus on ‘marrying well’ that the Middletons did.
Almost certainly Kate switched her university place to St Andrew’s when it was realised that’s where Prince William was going (apparently quite a few people did the same!)

And I remember when Pippa split up with Nico Jackson - I think he just didn’t want the fame that came with being linked to the sister of the future Queen. Pippa was already in her 30s and I just imagined Carole Middleton in a total panic looking for a new beau!! And it was fine - they found James Matthews who was conveniently very wealthy. Relief all round!

''This is so bloody true. I had so much judgement from people for the few years I was a SAHM, another primary school parent, a dad, got nothing but adulation for being a SAHD despite being Ivy League educated.''

Can well believe this. Everything dads do is viewed through a very forgiving lens and everything mothers do is given the worst interpretation (where two interpretations are possible)

Pippa has just finished a degree and passed with a distinction, that’s pretty impressive

I know of two men (and I’m sure there are many more out there) who married women with family money and who don’t work now (well, they do work officially but they are vague “property development” type jobs where they don’t actually work much but have something to talk about). In both cases, the man are significantly more attractive looks wise, but the marriages seem happy enough. Both those men had been to private schools and weren’t really poor to start with, but certainly “married up” and are now supported.

It’s women who are always described as “gold diggers” though. Everyone brings different things to a relationship though, for some on might be youth and fertility, for others status, some earning power, some a “good listener” who balances someone who likes a lot.. and the examples could go on.

I read an interesting book once which described it as “the economics of dating”. It’s none of my business what other peoples set ups are and I hope it works well for them, I doubt they waste too much time worrying about the judgement of others.

How do you pass a degree with a distinction and how do you know that?