Kate (25 page)

During the week, Kate immersed herself in her work and added another string to her bow, selling online advertising for the company. She cold-called companies, asking if they wanted to advertise on the site, and introduced herself as “Catherine from Party Pieces.” She also attended marketing fairs and used her new connections to boost the website's profile. She consulted Sir Richard Branson about a potential online partnership and was often in London for development meetings. She was still involved with Starlight and making regular visits to the Naomi House hospice, and quite remarkably, the trips had still not been leaked to the press.

It wasn't just her charity work that Kate was keeping below the radar; both she and William were making an effort to maintain a low profile. They stunned their friends in May 2009 when they decided not to go to Fergus and Sandrine's wedding at the Château de Boumois in the Loire Valley, despite having RSVP'd their attendance. According to one former St. Andrews student, they canceled at the last minute, citing William's work commitments. Kate had no real excuse for not being there, and their absence was the talk of the reception. William and Fergus were close friends, and it was out of character for him not to be at such an important occasion, especially when all of their friends from their university days were there. According to one source, William was worried that there would be too many guests they didn't know, while Kate apparently didn't want to have to face the inevitable question: “When will you two be next?”

Not being seen and photographed together seemed to relieve the pressure because it gave the press less chance to speculate on the state of their romance. These days the couple rarely went out and had become rather reclusive, apart from attending the occasional polo match. The paparazzi were at the couple's favorite nightclubs in June, hoping to catch the prince celebrating his twenty-seventh birthday, but together with Harry and a couple of their friends, they were in Cornwall. Kate had found a private house to rent near the seaside town of Fowey, so they spent the weekend surfing and enjoying pints in a local pub, where they watched England play rugby against South Africa. There wasn't one photograph of the weekend in the newspapers.

It was a great relief to the Queen and Prince Charles that William and Kate were going out less. Britain was going through its worst economic recession since the 1930s, and the Queen didn't think that partying at expensive nightclubs projected a favorable image for the royals. Her view was that the family should be setting an example, which did not mean running up expensive bar bills at Boujis. There was also the thorny issue of privacy, which never seemed to go away. The Queen had recently asked her lawyers to consult the Press Complaints Commission about greater privacy for the royal family while they were in royal residence. The paparazzi staked out Sandringham House with alarming frequency, and she wanted this intrusion to end. William and Kate had been photographed shooting on the estate a number of times, and the Queen had not escaped the long lens, photographed some years previously, wringing the neck of a game bird. She had instructed a leading privacy lawyer to write to national newspaper editors explaining that action would be taken if they
published pictures of the family and their friends on the royal estates. William backed his grandmother enthusiastically, but though the Queen was prepared to take legal action in order to protect the family, she also believed that her grandchildren had to tow the line. According to one royal source, “The Queen cannot understand why William, Kate, and Harry choose to go to well-known nightclubs and then complain about being harassed. Her view is if you don't want to be photographed, don't go.” Kate, who had never really enjoyed clubbing, was more than happy to pare down their social lives. Instead of nightclubs, they went to the theater, slipping in once the house lights were dimmed, and they enjoyed dinners out at restaurants, where they made reservations under false names.

The one negative effect of William and Kate ducking out of the limelight was that the media's attention switched to Kate's family. James was still recovering from the humiliating coverage of his twenty-first birthday party when he had suddenly found himself back under the spotlight in the summer of 2008. A picture of him dressed in one of his sister's dresses had been leaked on the Internet, prompting taunts about his sexuality. Beer bottle in hand and red lipstick smeared across his face, James was clearly having fun with some university friends, but the photographs didn't seem so amusing when they were published in the
Daily Mail
beneath the headline, “Wild Side of Kate's Family.” Shortly afterward, photographs of Pippa dancing in her underwear and wrapped up in a minidress made from toilet paper were anonymously leaked to the newspapers.

Carole was concerned that her family was coming under fire and that they did not have a public relations expert to
guide them through the minefield of adverse publicity. Although Carole had generally taken care not to say anything in public, she had once let her guard down to a reporter from the
Daily Telegraph
during a day out at the races in November 2008. She told the journalist that she and her family felt “vulnerable.” “I'm not a celebrity and I don't want to be one. Celebrities have minders and PR people. I don't want a PR person and wouldn't want to have to pay to employ one. I haven't asked for all this,” she complained. She also said that James had found himself in a difficult situation while trying to promote his cake business: “James is very good with it all. He writes articles and has business projects which he wants to talk about, but then it's difficult when everything else is going on around him and people don't just want to know about his projects.” Cake Kit was doing well. Gary had given his nephew a $16,000 loan and James had not been shy about promoting the business, but when he baked twenty-five cakes for
Hello
magazine's anniversary edition, one of which featured an image of Princess Diana, royal eyebrows were raised. It was the sort of publicity the Palace abhorred, and the newspapers accused James of cashing in on his royal connections.

This, however was not the only scandal to rock the family; the summer of 2009 saw the Middletons weather their greatest storm yet. On Sunday, July 19, the
News of the World
's headline read, “I Called Wills a F——.” Kate couldn't believe it. Her Uncle G—as he was affectionately known—who had looked after her when she broke up with William, had been filmed at his Spanish home by undercover reporters. Described in the article as a “braggart,” he had been secretly filmed cutting up cocaine in his kitchen and rolling cannabis joints. Kate had never taken drugs, and she was equally horrified that Gary
claimed to know how to organize prostitutes on the island. More worrying for Kate, he was incredibly loose tongued about her and William's relationship and talked openly about the holiday they had enjoyed at La Maison de Bang Bang. He was reported to have claimed that they would be announcing their engagement that year and joked that he would be giving Kate away. The Middletons were devastated, but as always, they stuck together. According to Gary, Carole telephoned him that morning. “The minute that story broke, Carole was on the phone apologizing to me on behalf of the family, specifically Kate, about me being suddenly thrust into the limelight,” he later told the
Mail on Sunday
. It was a terrible time for the family, particularly for Gary, who had always had a love-hate relationship with his sister. “We are both headstrong and can bicker. But we are very close. We tease each other relentlessly,” he said.

Whereas Carole was family oriented and sensible, Gary could be reckless. “The problem for Gary is that Carole never approved of Gary and his lifestyle,” said a family member. Ultimately, Carole, who was in some ways more like a mother to Gary than a sister, forgave him and urged him to seek some help. Gary had been devastated when their mother, Dorothy, died. Perhaps that helped explain why he had fallen off the rails. He had made millions of dollars in IT recruitment, which afforded him his playboy lifestyle in Ibiza, but his marriage had collapsed. “Carole and Mike have an amazing relationship. They have nurtured three amazing kids,” he said. “I should have taken more lessons from them on how to make the marriage work.” Carole promised to help Gary, but first she needed to avoid the media storm and decided the best thing to do was to head to Mustique until the situation died down. William and Kate had actually been planning to go to
Ibiza at the end of the summer, but in light of these events were compelled to cancel. They had no choice but to distance themselves from Uncle G for the time being. The Palace declined to publicly comment on the story, but William was as supportive as he could be, and when he and Kate attended the summer wedding of his old friend Nicholas van Cutsem, it was his turn to show the world he was standing by Kate.

In the summer of 2009, they returned once again to Mustique, and at the end of August headed to Scotland for the bank holiday weekend. Although Kate had been to Balmoral many times, this trip was significant because it was the first time she had been invited to the main house while the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were in residence. The news was greeted with much excitement in the press, with unconfirmed reports that the Queen wanted to lunch alone with Kate. Kate had not been invited to Her Majesty's eighty-third birthday celebrations in June, but as she knew this was a matter of protocol, she did not view it as a snub. Until now, the Queen had met Kate only fleetingly at the wedding of Peter and Autumn Phillips, but she went out of her way to make her feel welcome, giving her permission to take pictures at Balmoral—a true gift to a photographer, with its turreted and Gothic-inspired architecture. As a woman who has lived her entire life in the public eye, the Queen rarely lets her guard down, and very few apart from her family and closest friends get to see the real Elizabeth. Now Kate was being granted an audience in a most intimate capacity. It was a generous move on the part of the Queen and an astute decision, given that the romance seemed to be very serious.

During her summer stay at Balmoral the Queen traditionally holds meetings with her most senior staff and her family,
during which issues concerning the royal family—everything from overseas tours to marriages, birthdays, and state occasions—are discussed, and on this occasion, William was one of the subjects.

Once known as the “Way Ahead” group, started by the former Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Airlie, in 1994, its gatherings are essentially an in-house royal forum and have proved to be very successful for planning the future strategy for the House of Windsor. The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and their children were all invited, and William and Harry were recently asked to attend. According to one senior aide, “Philip traditionally chairs the committee, and there is always a twofold plan, the immediate future and the long term.” The purpose of the summer 2009 gathering was to discuss the Queen and Philip's overseas tour schedule over the coming months. The Foreign Office had scheduled trips to New Zealand and Australia, Bermuda, and Canada, and the Queen felt that it was too much for her and the Duke of Edinburgh to take on, so she wanted to pass on some of her duties to younger members of the family. She was in robust health, but the four hundred or so engagements the previous year had taken their toll on the Duke of Edinburgh, who had been in and out of the hospital. William had been developing his philanthropic role, and he and Harry were planning to launch the Charitable Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry, which was to serve as an umbrella organization for all of their charity work. William had said he wanted to be more than “just an ornament,” and according to one well-placed courtier, the Queen felt now was the time to prove it. “The Queen is aware she is not getting any younger and she wants the new generation to start doing more. She sees
Charles and now William as her substitutes, and she wants to get them off the bench,” said the source. It appeared that a very subtle handover of power was being put in place. William was being lined up as a “shadow king” alongside his father for the very first time, and it was agreed that in the new year, he would go to Australia and New Zealand on behalf of the Queen. It was a momentous decision and a huge responsibility for the prince, as well as a key step in moving him to center stage alongside his father. It was an honor to be asked, and although he was excited to be representing his grandmother, it was a huge pressure and responsibility. William knew that it was a sign of things to come. Although his military career afforded him some relief from becoming a full-time royal, he would be expected to carry out more duties on behalf of his grandparents in the near future. His grandmother's Diamond Jubilee celebrations were already under discussion, and there was a strategy in place at the Palace not to overburden the Queen with official engagements.

Although there was no suggestion of Kate joining William, there were murmurs about creating a “princess-in-waiting role” for her. The Queen was pleased to hear that Kate was now so closely associated with Starlight. As well as her private visits to children's hospices, she was working on the committee for the “Maggie and Rose Art for Starlight” campaign, which involved running artwork shops for some of Starlight's children at the Maggie and Rose children's playgroup in Kensington. A number of leading artists had volunteered their time to teach the children, so Kate had helped organize the workshops. She was also involved in planning a gala dinner at the end of September to launch an exhibition of some of the children's paintings at the Saatchi Gallery. On the night itself,
she walked up the red carpet with William. “We didn't know William was coming until about 6:00
P.M
., when the sniffer dogs were brought in,” recalled Neil Swan. “It was absolutely wonderful to have him there.” It was an important night for Kate, and it had meant a lot to her that William and her family were supporting her, though Carole nearly upstaged both of her daughters in a stunning off-the-shoulder coral minidress. Party Pieces had donated a children's birthday party as one of the lots in the auction, but the greatest excitement was that William and Kate had arrived together. Even at a charity event, they were wary about being photographed together, and they refused to pose for the cameras. Society photographer Dominic O'Neill was asked to stay away from the event. “I got a note from the prince's office saying that Kate wouldn't attend the dinner if I was there,” he recalled. “She was upset that I'd photographed her flat on her back at a charity roller-skating disco because the pictures had made the front page. There's definitely been a tightening up over the past year, and I suspect it is all preparation for a royal wedding.”