The Crown Portrays Carole Middleton As A Matchmaker & Meddler — Is That Even True?

If you’re looking for anyone to thank for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s love story, The Crown contends that you should be thanking Carole Middleton. Two episodes of the final season of the Netflix series, “Alma Mater” and “Hope Street,” are largely focused on the future king’s mother-in-law and her machinations behind-the-scenes to orchestrate her daughter’s future marriage. But did she really go to such great lengths in an effort to secure the crown for Kate Middleton? Or was it all just down to fate?

According to Season 6 of The Crown, it all started when a young Kate Middleton (played by Meg Bellamy) was out Christmas shopping with her mom Carole (Eve Best) and saw Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) handing out copies of the Big Issue with Prince William (Ed McVey). In the Netflix series, the two smiled shyly at each other and said hello, and we could all see the lights go on behind Carole Middleton’s eyes. From that point forward, she appeared to have a plan. Subtly at first, watching the news for mention of Prince William, which would not be difficult as he was constantly in the news. But eventually, when Carole finds out that he is planning to take a gap year before heading off to St. Andrew’s College in Edinburgh, she really sets the plan in motion.

The Crown suggests that it was Carole who encouraged her daughter to switch her college. Kate herself calls her mother out for meddling. “I was all set to go to Edinburgh University straight out of school with all of my friends. Then you suggested I change it to St. Andrews after a gap year. With none of my friends. That was no coincidence,” Middleton says to her mother over the phone. “Was it a coincidence you encouraged me to sign up for the art school in Florence where William was expected to go? And then to the expedition in Chile as well. Once you had the idea fixed in your head, you never stopped.”

“You said you liked him!” Carole replies in The Crown.

Did Carole Middleton really push her daughter into a relationship with Prince William, as The Crown contends, even going so far as to ask her daughter “Does he know you’re back on the market? Find out a way of letting him know,” when Kate broke up with a college boyfriend?

Royal biographer Omid Scobie claimed that Carole Middleton, a former flight attendant-turned-millionaire entrepreneur, did indeed actively encourage her daughter. “As two caring parents who worked hard, made their mint, and climbed the social ladder (no small feat in a country still obsessed with class), the Middletons — mostly Carole — saw that the pretty and grounded Kate was ready to carry the family name further to the top,” he writes in his new book End Game, per Marie Claire. “So they began orchestrating her life, ensuring she was at the right places at the right time and spoke the right way. Kensington Palace has never denied that Kate had several rounds of elocution lessons as she became more serious with William…The Middleton strategy involved more than just aristocratic affectation — Carole calculatingly placed Kate right at the center of young Prince William’s world.”

Annie Sulzberger, The Crown’s head of research, explained to Vanity Fair that the speculation behind some of Kate Middleton’s post-secondary choices might not be verifiable, but her change in plans did happen. “She really did leave Edinburgh and go on a gap year and reapply to St. Andrew’s because of this new student [William] who was matriculating that year. We tried our darnedest to find other things that would’ve impacted her decision-making,” Sulzberger told Vanity Fair.

Sulzberger went on to say that “Edinburgh had the better art history program. Edinburgh was a better school. All of her friends were going to Edinburgh. She had never talked about doing a deferment — a year off. So it was a little disheartening, actually, to come to the conclusion that a lot of the media had come to, which, in this case, we felt was accurate.”

However Kate Middleton and Prince William’s relationship started, it certainly appears to be standing the test of time. They’ve now been together for more than two decades, married for 12 years, and have three children. Carole Middleton has proved as skilled at matchmaking as she did at building a successful business.