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

[Bahhumbug23]

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?!

bitchiness about a woman they don’t even know. [….]

they seem genuinely happy together bringing up lovely children

You know the children, then?

Lots of the girls there could have been there as their parents were engineering it. Kate would have been the one that we saw succeed.
But he could have met another girl whose parents had engineered it and we could be talking about them instead and asking the same question.

An interesting question would be: How many girls at St.Andrews were there to try to meet William and how many had tried to do things to try to appeal to him

I agree. OP is being U just for even giving this headspace. Who on earth could really care whether it was orchestrated or purely happenstance, she’s not trying to besmirch the family or the country. She got the job and she’s not stabbing people in the back doing it.

It’s disgusting isn’t it. A woman (Catherine) who has harmed NOBODY is getting vilified, called boring and beige but at the same time alluded to be being cunning and devious by other women! wtf!

Bah absolutely. Our measured knowledgable advice about university choice has been utterly ignored. Can imagine how any meddling in love lives would go…

@willWillSmithsmith

It’s disgusting isn’t it. A woman (Catherine) who has harmed NOBODY is getting vilified, called boring and beige but at the same time alluded to be being cunning and devious by other women! wtf!

Don't think she’s being vilified. People are asking to what extent her family played a part in arranging for her to cross the radar of a prince.

I have absolutely nothing against her, or her parents I just think it’s a hideous role to have. She seems a very smart and competent person and in another world could have done something much more interesting with her life. And I’m interested to understand whether her family played a role in engineering this pretty regressive (albeit very comfortable) life.

I have no idea whether anyone engineered anyone. But St Andrew's is tiny. W and C both lived in a hall of residence with less than 100 other first years and both did a first year subject favoured by the very posh. It's not hard to imagine that they might have at least bumped into each other occasionally!

Incidentally- while there might have been a little latitude for PW, CM would have had to perform well to get a place. St Andrews is by no means a haunt of the "nice but dim."

Personally I don’t think it’s a particularly hideous role. Working in a toxic nhs dept was hideous, doing a job that seems to have given me unending back pain was hideous, cutting some ribbon, meeting lots of different people, travelling the world, never having to worry about money or bills or food or clothes, having the best of everything isn’t hideous to me. I’m thick skinned so I’d happily put up with first class everything for the bitchings of people (famous and not famous) who don’t matter to me. Maybe she feels the same 🤷‍♀️

@willWillSmithsmith

Personally I don’t think it’s a particularly hideous role. Working in a toxic nhs dept was hideous, doing a job that seems to have given me unending back pain was hideous, cutting some ribbon, meeting lots of different people, travelling the world, never having to worry about money or bills or food or clothes, having the best of everything isn’t hideous to me. I’m thick skinned so I’d happily put up with first class everything for the bitchings of people (famous and not famous) who don’t matter to me. Maybe she feels the same 🤷‍♀️

Clearly it has a lot of perks and I imagine a lot of people would happily trade a life of luxury for their freedom to define themselves as they want. I don’t blame her for that.

It’s just very striking to me that there’s clearly far more potential to Kate than her extremely restrictive role allows. In another life she could have done something very impressive under her own steam which is not historically the case with the kinds of women who were chosen as royal princesses. Maybe I am projecting but I find it hard to understand why she doesn’t find it incredibly stifling.

William’s own mother, for example, was basically a very high status brood mare. Very elegant and charming but not particularly intelligent and without much ambition. Her only job was to provide male heirs and keep her mouth shut. Kate Middleton can’t have failed to notice that.

It makes me wonder whether the role itself has changed to allow these royal princesses to have more autonomy or whether Kate is an anomaly who chose to subsume her life in this very restrictive system.

None of us know her, obviously, but my guess is that she still gets to do the things she loves. She was always going to marry a rich, high status man, have kids and be a community figure, even if it wasn't a prince she married. But by all accounts she loves fashion, sports, art and family. She still gets to do those things, in fact it's expected of her and part of her job, so she's probably as fulfilled as anyone else.

Nobody has any dirt on her, even people who knew her from school, so she probably doesn't have any dark secrets that she can't indulge. She's also described as always having been perfectly polite and pleasant but very guarded - again, exactly what the role requires. It's probably more or less the life she'd have wanted whatever happened; the husband just happened to be even higher status than was usual for that circle.

At the end of the day it’s a job and like most people you have your job you and in private your real you. I don’t see this as any different. She’s not sitting around having grapes peeled for her, she’s getting out and about and doing her ‘job’. If you don’t want the job don’t apply for it and if you do want it then like most people you have a job spec and you follow it if you want to keep it.

To me the RF is very much a family run business. She’s working for her in-laws and her husband will take over the business one day. No different to wives of old entertaining their husband’s boss with a fancy dinner party and bright smile because hubby is going to be made partner.

Interestingly, despite apparently having more potential than Diana, Kate has obviously found the job much easier and does it pretty flawlessly. But I think she and William are a genuine love match, bearing in mind he was never completely free to choose since he needed someone to work with his position...but then again, that will itself have shaped his desires.

This is true. Her mental health is clearly much more robust than Diana’s as well which is no doubt a factor.

Her family come in for a lot of crap (especially her mother) but they seem very secure, happy and loving.

Catherine’s mental stability seems to be rock solid (thanks to her own upbringing no doubt). Diana was probably always going to be a challenge whether she married a prince or an aristocrat (or anyone). Unfortunately her mental health was fragile from the off.

Because of Diana’s early passing she has been given a goddess status she might not have retained over the years. H has inherited her instability and feels at home there but William probably put mental robustness very high on his list. No matter what people think or assume of Catherine no one can deny she has been a positive and benign asset for the RF.

people really feel that they know these people and their inner workings.

the same way as a 14 year old I really felt I knew Christian Slater.

Catherine’s mental stability seems to be rock solid (thanks to her own upbringing no doubt).

Maybe. But hasn't her brother spoken publicly about his mental health struggles? Same upbringing. It can just occur, whether one has a nice childhood or not.

@NonPlayerCharacter

Her family come in for a lot of crap (especially her mother) but they seem very secure, happy and loving.

Agree and I think the vilification of Carole Middleton is pure snobbery. A lot of people are just outraged that the family have been financially and socially successful and that their child married into the RF and has so far managed this very difficult role successfully and without drama.

I’m usually suspicious of people attributing everything to jealousy but in this case I think it’s textbook.

no gossip really just very rude, entitled and demanding. Expects everyone to know who she is and move out of the way/ jump to attention. Not pleasant

I mean to be fair most of the royals are like that, no? Kind of hard not to be like that in the RF.

Who, Carole? Have you met her?

To be honest- if it could be done anywhere, it could be done at St Andrews. It's tiny and was much tinier. The halls or residence are tiny. The wide range of first year subject choices make some very tiny classes. And there are some subjects that are traditionally taken by the posh.

You sound nice.

88.6% of UK students at St Andrews are white - that should suit Racey-Katie!

Why are you calling her Racy Katie?