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.

They're very typical society wives. University educated, whippet thin and obsessive about exercise, groomed to within an inch of their lives, and trotting out large multiples of children to be raised by nannies. London and the Home Counties are full of them. Very much the norm in their social circle.

I'd choose Pippa's life anyday over Catherine's though - can you imagine having to be followed everywhere by protection officers, even on the school run? It's not a life I'd want to raise a family in, and surrounded by stuffy royal protocols and traditions.

James has also married well - a very beautiful, very smart tech exec (former banker I think?) who is multi lingual. He breeds dogs and works outdoors on his brother in law’s estate. He’s done very well.

whats quite possibly the thing about these Middletons is that they’ve all married well quite simply because they’re all very nice, popular people. Shocking to consider for some I realise. They’ve had the benefit of a very secure supportive family driven by Carole who seems to put great emphasis on fun and family events. It might just be that it’s created people who are lovely to be around and who prospective spouses think “I’d like that for my family”.

As long as each are fulfilled why does it matter if they have a career or not ? They have a high level of education, they made their choice. Not everyone needs a job to make them feel they have achieved. Not everyone takes peoples jobs i to account when they decide if they are a decent person or not. Your job pays a wage, it doesn't make you a good likeable person and certainly doesn't make you a better person than the woman that pours your drink in a pub.

Shame her rich husband couldn't have bought himself a chin.

Misogynist much?
Anyone who has children is working. Get over your jealousy of other women.

Why does no one ever mention Camilla in these snide threads I wonder? She has never had a job in her life! Neither has she got a degree. Somehow that’s not as galling to the critics. Why?
Margaret never worked a day in her life either.

@TreePoser

Wow! Would William & Kate really have been embarrassed if Pippa had not married someone wealthy? If say, she had instead married a perfectly respectable teacher, nurse, etc.
That sort of attitude is pretty unacceptable and I doubt William & Kate would sink that low. (Anyway it was never going to happen - Pippa would only ever have married someone rich but still…)

I once taught an absolutely lovely girl. Beautiful on the inside and outside. She also really struggled academically. Her mum was a “trophy wife” (again very lovely but had never worked - perhaps done a bit of modelling?) and dad was a high roller.

Both parents said the daughter would never have to worry about academic success or working as she would marry well.

This was an independent school and the family clearly moved in wealthy social circles. It was eye opening to me but I’ve never come across this attitude since.

@TreePoser Goodness me, can you imagine the level of scrutiny Kate’s siblings are under? Not just her siblings but if anyone member of her family who puts a foot wrong, it probably would be plastered on the papers. Must be very stressful as she made her choice but they haven’t so it is indeed a tightrope! I feel stressed thinking about it 😅

I agree about the misogyny. I've been married 20 years and have been labelled a golddigger all through my marriage- most recently last week when I told someone upon asking that I was taking a year out of my job as a solicitor. The comment was; 'That was always the end game, having [DH's name] keep you wasn't it'.

Fucking tedious and frankly if people can't see beyond a cliche other than to repeat it there is no bloody helping them.

Personally I think people are ghastly about the Middleton women. Carol is portrayed as a social climbing schemer, Kate as a social climbing lazy arse and Pippa as using her sister's fame to bag herself a husband. The men are barely mentioned.

I suspect the truth is that they are a regular family, much richer than most who are close, loving, probably quite decent people and Kate just happens to be 'lucky' (if you think it is lucky) to fall in love with PW.

Is the OP really imagining that Kate could end up an impoverished single mother, getting no child maintenance from William? Or that she would have been unemployed all her life if she never married or started a family? Or that William would prefer her if she had a career outside the Royal Family? Or that Pippa Middleton’s husband would love her more and be less likely to leave her if she had a career earning money the family patently don’t need and from which she never took a break? Or that Pippa Middleton will be incapable of earning money in future if she doesn’t have a full time job right now?

Is this some new fairytale fantasy where the girl will only live happily ever after if she has a glorious career all her life and marries a man with an equally glorious, lifelong career? Or some weird world view where a human being is solely defined by the paid work that they do and becomes null and void if they cannot define themselves by their career?

I think there is something wrong with people believe someone’s career should be the thing that defines them and showcases their merit as a human being. The fact is, different people have different circumstances and if they are unwilling to be flexible and react to the reality of their own situation, and lack resilience, then they may well be heading for trouble. Where is the evidence of a lack of flexibility or resilience in the Middleton family? Whether such extreme differences in wealth and life opportunity should exist in the first place is another question altogether, of course, but as they do, I don’t think you can really judge people for taking advantage of them.

I know people who have been to the types of university where this happens - Durham, St Andrews etc. Not RG per se. And I know of women who absolutely did go there to bag someone to financially support them - it's not even hidden, it's just the way it is. The men are complicit in it too, there is no expectation
that their wife will work.

I'd say it's not a common thing but it is something endemic in a small very privileged few who go to certain very exclusive boarding schools and are raised in an old-fashioned and anachronistic way.

Firstly, they both come from money

Not buying £15m houses in their own right, but still serious money

Secondly, you mixing in ‘affluent circles’ at uni is still a million miles away from the sort of elite world they exist in and have always existed in, despite the ridiculous and horribly sexist narrative that Carole was some sort of scheming dragon who groomed her daughters to be trophy wives

The reality is that they are both privately educated, grew up in a house worth millions, are conveniently beautiful, intelligent and have enough family money that they could explore fun jobs after graduation without worrying about how the rent would be paid, which gave them plenty of time to party and socialise in the rarified section of very upper-middles London partying

People working in senior roles in hedge funds, private equity, investment banking, are making millions a year. They don’t need a wife with a pin money job, and they absolutely know the difference between someone just out to ride on the coat tails of their income for a good life, and someone who is able to join them on a ski/shoot/St trop trip and fit right in. Most men in this world want the latter

If you need to learn more about this world, get yourself a subscription to Tatler and read every month about the women restoring the big houses and running their ‘interiors business’ after meeting their wealthy spouse. It’s really not something unique to Pippa and Catherine

Some people marry and date within their social circle. But Pippa would have been scrutinised either way by the Press and be accused of social climbing or criticized as embarrassing Kate or the royal family. I don’t think it’s to do with Kate/William but rather the opinion of the general public and the Press.

We considered a prestigious independent school for dd1 and went to have a look. They proudly showed us the textiles and art departments and then music. I had to ask to see science rooms and they weren’t set up for the tour so we had to look through the windows as the doors were locked. They then gave a speech about how the girls had termly dances with the boys from the boys school. I was rather perplexed - so the girls sew and play music then marry rich?! Near the end there was a vague mention of their “women as leaders” course that they planned to introduce but it was in development. This was 3 years ago. Dd didn’t go to that school! So to answer your question, yes they do seem to exist and pay lots of money for it. Seems a miserable life aim to me but I guess it works for them.

I think fair play to them both for the paths they have chosen. I hope they’re happy and living their best lives.

And she has 3 nannies, several maids, two cooks, a butler and two personal assistants, which makes her job of waving, smiling and wearing pretty dresses much easier.

The reality is she was unlikely to meet a nurse or teacher unless they were independently very wealthy aside from their job

they don’t tend to go to the sorts of restaurants, bars, dinner parties etc where she went, and where she met the men she dated

so I doubt it’s a conundrum anyone have much thought to

Look I obviously don't know them personally but you do sound jealous. When you move in their social circles chances are you would end up marrying a wealthy man (not because you are deliberately looking, but because most people in your social circle would be wealthy).

And when a man is that wealthy they don't really care if their wife works or not, as long as she has something to do in their life that makes her feel fulfilled. What's the point of earning all the money if you can't have a nice life?

She finished her Masters and got a first I believe.

I agree. Attractive and outgoing young woman starts new relationship with man in her affluent circle.

What have her parents got to do with it?

Is Pippa doing anything different to the tens of thousands of women on Mumsnet who are in a similar situation, staying at home after having their first child while their husbands provide the funding for evermore?

She’s just doing it on a larger scale.

James has also married well - a very beautiful, very smart tech exec (former banker I think?) who is multi lingual. He breeds dogs and works outdoors on his brother in law’s estate. He’s done very well*

Hes also severely dyslexic and has poor mental health. Life isn’t really a bed of roses for him so yes, he has done very well.

seems its more of a class/type of profession issue then. if you are wealthy you will automatically mix in affluent society and be given financial support by your family whilst awaiting marriage. if you were poor and want this you end up on benefits and labelled a scrounger(either sex). bankers earn so much they dont need more income but most doctors/lawyers seem to marry within the profession for example.work commitments usually get reduced by either partner as time goes on to juggle everything but they started off working, lots of people dont enjoy their job,but if your relationship fails it can bring more than money to your life(speaking from experience here).self esteem, socialising etc.

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.

This. I have been bored for most of my working life, and before people start telling me I could have done x, y or z to improve myself I honestly think I would have been bored whatever I did. I'm not working at the moment and I'm the happiest I've ever been - even if I do absolutely nothing it's better than being bored and working with people I wouldn't associate with if I didn't have to.