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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Aibu to think it was not possible for Carole Middleton to engineer her daughters marriage?

330 replies

Bahhumbug23 · 30/11/2023 10:05

https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/royals/carole-middleton-master-plan/

Kate was staunchly middle class. The royals are notoriously snobby. Aibu to think that Carole did not & wouldn't be capable of engineering this? How the hell would she be able to do this?!

It Was Apparently Always Carole Middleton’s Master Plan for Eldest Daughter Kate to Meet and Woo Prince William, New Book Claims

“Carole set things up, and Kate took it the rest of the way.”

https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/royals/carole-middleton-master-plan

OP posts:
newnamethanks · 30/11/2023 10:08

Agreed. I think Prince W will have received a LOT of 'advice' and ignored it.

Naptrappedmummy · 30/11/2023 10:08

YANBU. You can of course move in the right circles but you can’t force somebody to marry your daughter it’s ridiculous. I find a lot of people to be very jealous of the Middletons.

Headband · 30/11/2023 10:10

You can put yourself in the right place but how on earth can you force someone to be attracted to you?

KrisAkabusi · 30/11/2023 10:14

Headband · 30/11/2023 10:10

You can put yourself in the right place but how on earth can you force someone to be attracted to you?

It helps when you look as good as Kate does. Then you arrange to take the same classes as them so they see lots of you, pretend to be interested in their hobbies and interests, laugh at their jokes, flirt, etc. It's not difficult and it's not news either. Kate Middleton has always been the world's most successful stalker.

Bahhumbug23 · 30/11/2023 10:15

newnamethanks · 30/11/2023 10:08

Agreed. I think Prince W will have received a LOT of 'advice' and ignored it.

That's what I think too. I honestly don't think Carole could have possibly engineered it.
If I wanted my daughter to marry Prince George or Prince Louis I wouldn't have a clue where to start. I think even the most aspirational of parents would struggle to know where to start especially as the royals circle is so small & water tight!

OP posts:
bellac11 · 30/11/2023 10:15

Yes, Ive never understood why this is said about Kate and her mum, its impossible to manage to do things like this. She might not have got on the right course, might have hated him, or him hated her, might have been ill and therefore deferred her course.

bellac11 · 30/11/2023 10:17

KrisAkabusi · 30/11/2023 10:14

It helps when you look as good as Kate does. Then you arrange to take the same classes as them so they see lots of you, pretend to be interested in their hobbies and interests, laugh at their jokes, flirt, etc. It's not difficult and it's not news either. Kate Middleton has always been the world's most successful stalker.

She's pretty, but shes not a stunner. And she is brunette and willowy, what if William's choice of woman was blond and curvy?

You can be around someone a lot but not make a lot of impact unless theres a genuine interest and there must have been a genuine interest.

FelicityFlops · 30/11/2023 10:19

Absolutely impossible.
However, if you have the means etc., there is nothing wrong with ensuring your children have a good education and other opportunities to engage in a wide social circle.

astraq · 30/11/2023 10:19

Yawn

BringItOnxxx · 30/11/2023 10:19

I find it believable that she attempted to engineer the relationship. Obviously there was no guarantee it would work out but this type of thing had been happening for thousands of years. Look at the accounts of Jane Austen.

Hecate01 · 30/11/2023 10:20

@KrisAkabusi how do you ensure you take the same classes as someone? Surely that's dependent on grades and down to each uni? It's not the same as making sure you are in the same pub as someone.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 30/11/2023 10:21

She couldn’t engineer it. The most she could do was raise the chances of them meeting but it would never be a certain thing.

There were lots of other girls who were probably “engineered” to be in his path to the same extent- this one came off but it doesn’t make it “engineered”. Just promoted maybe.

TeaMistress · 30/11/2023 10:23

KrisAkabusi · 30/11/2023 10:14

It helps when you look as good as Kate does. Then you arrange to take the same classes as them so they see lots of you, pretend to be interested in their hobbies and interests, laugh at their jokes, flirt, etc. It's not difficult and it's not news either. Kate Middleton has always been the world's most successful stalker.

What a nasty thing to say. It's utterly vile to refer to someone as a stalker.

VikingLady · 30/11/2023 10:27

I had a friend who was at St Andrews at the same time. He said that according to staff there was a huge increase in posh girls that year. Many wearing far fewer clothes than appropriate for the weather, draping themselves artistically across the bar when William went out, trying to get transferred to his course - he's used to it! Some of them working in small friendship groups trying it on with his security staff to get one of them closer. Every member of his family will have warned him about it from early childhood.

I suspect it's partly why he was sent to a single sex school.

Bahhumbug23 · 30/11/2023 10:28

Personally I think that Carole & Michael appear to be very warm, supportive & have a great relationship with their children. They have put up with so much flak & the majority of it is jealousy.
Anyone who know any upper middle class knows how difficult it is to break into that network. Look at the "doors to manuals" & other insults thrown at the Middletons from William's circle of friends.
There was no way Carole had any part in engineering the relationship. It's simply impossible.

OP posts:
ActDottie · 30/11/2023 10:28

I think it was engineered to some degree for example making sure she studied at the same university as William and same subject. But obviously them falling in love was completely out of her control.

bellac11 · 30/11/2023 10:30

How would you pick the same subject. Where was it known what subject William was choosing at the time that Kate will have been making her university applications?

What was the subject anyway?

bestbefore · 30/11/2023 10:30

I don't really get why you would want this! I wouldn't - ok they have money but not much privacy and simple things are v complicated

Rewis · 30/11/2023 10:30

Obviously you can't force a prince to marry your daughter. But it is totally possible to push your child to that direction by picking the right schools and activities. I don't know about Carol but I'm sure a lot of parents do this and people themselves. Not likely to meet the future king but to meet affluent partners.

Whataretheodds · 30/11/2023 10:31

I have no problem believing that she could have made choices to significant improve her daughter's chances of making a "good match", in specific social circles. Possibly some specific moves to improve her chances with William (especially once their paths crossed). But of course she couldn't manufacture the whole thing.

OhComeOnFFS · 30/11/2023 10:33

Kate Middleton has always been the world's most successful stalker.

What a really horrible thing to say.

CuteCillian · 30/11/2023 10:34

I think it was engineered to some degree for example making sure she studied at the same university as William and same subject.
And deferring her place to ensure she was in his year.

LakeTiticaca · 30/11/2023 10:35

Didn't a young teenage Diana proclaim she was going to marry Prince Charles?
When he was going out with her sister?
( I think he married the wrong sister)

Bahhumbug23 · 30/11/2023 10:37

I just think it's so far fetched especially as he was surrounded by beautiful, very posh girls who's parents would have been friends with his etc.. It just seems so far fetched.
I think Kate herself was very sporty, musical & smart & her skill set probably helped her ease into the upper middle classes easier than most. But that can probably be said for the majority of private school children.

OP posts:
TheClogLady · 30/11/2023 10:40

bellac11 · 30/11/2023 10:30

How would you pick the same subject. Where was it known what subject William was choosing at the time that Kate will have been making her university applications?

What was the subject anyway?

He did Geography

She did History of Art

so any supposed machinations to get Kate on the same course as William were a total failure!