Prince Charles was hardly ever going to be a nominee for dad of the year.
He conducted a secret affair with Camilla Parker Bowles from the early days of his marriage and sold his own kids out, sanctioning stories about Harry taking drugs in return for coverage praising his reaction to the alleged transgression, in an effort to spin his way into the affections of the British people.
So it should perhaps come as no surprise that Prince William is going out of his way to make sure that his own child will be protected from any potential parental toxicity by spending waaaay more time hanging out as family with his wife Kate’s parents than with his own father.
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That fact has been apparent for some years now, but it was bust into the open when it emerged that the Cambridges controversially broke with every tradition in the book by hosting Christmas dinner for the Middletons at their country pile rather than driving through the Sandringham estate to the Queen’s.
The social diarist Sebastian Shakespeare now reports that Prince Charles is increasingly miffed at being cut out of Prince George’s life, and that he is complaining at what he calls the “Middletonisation” of his son William’s life. William has made barely any trips en famille to Prince Charles’s country home of Highgrove, but the family regularly stay with Carole and Mike Middleton at the house William actually lent them a significant amount of money to buy.
Shakespeare writes: “So vexed is Charles about the so-called ‘March of the Middletons’ that he has complained to friends: ‘They never let me see my grandson.’”
A source says that Carole Middleton, Kate’s mum, has “rather taken over, dictating when George naps, when and what he eats. All in all, behaving like she’s Queen Carole.”
There was certainly disbelief among the royal household when William and Kate issued an unparalleled snub by declining to take Christmas dinner with the Queen at Sandringham this year, hosting their own lunch for the Middletons at William and Kate’s new country home, Amner Hall, instead.
They also broke with the royal tradition of giving presents on Christmas Eve, as Kate takes steps to ensure her kids will have a more normal upbringing than that endured by William and Harry. Additionally, Kate insisted on stockings for the whole family on Christmas morning.
None of this is thought to have gone down particularly well with the Queen, but she has, as always, kept her own counsel. It is interesting that Charles’s hot-headed nature has once again seen him mouthing off to friends.
If he is jealous, one can hardly blame him.
William is known to call Kate’s father Michael “Dad,” albeit in jest.
When asked when Charles had last seen Prince George, a Clarence House spokesman told the Mail, ‘His Royal Highness enjoys an excellent relationship with his grandson.”
