Prince Charles ‘Frustrated’ By Middletons?, The pain for the Prince of Wales must be considerable. In the early days of his son William's courtship of Kate, the waspish Duchess of Cornwall would jokily refer to the Middleton family as 'meet the Fockers', a reference to the Hollywood comedy about unconventional in-laws.
How completely that joke has now been vaporised by Carole and Michael Middleton.
As they play a major role in the upbringing of the soon-to-be 20-month-old future King George, Charles complains that he 'almost never' sees his grandson.
The Mail's Shakespeare diary revealed this week that Charles is becoming increasingly perplexed about the peripheral role he plays in the young Prince's life.
Specifically, it's said that he is frustrated by the amount of time George spends with his Middleton relatives, with whom he recently holidayed in Mustique for Carole's 60th birthday.
Well, the situation could get even trickier.
For there is a 'definite feeling' among friends of the Duchess of Cornwall — George's step-grandmother — that Kate's parents could be thinking of buying a place in Norfolk, where William and Kate will soon be living virtually full-time at Anmer Hall, near the Queen's Sandringham Estate.
Kate's new baby is due to arrive next month, and William will be starting his new job as a helicopter pilot with East Anglian Air Ambulance in the summer.
The Middletons have often stayed with their daughter and son-in-law at ten-bedroom Anmer — they spent Christmas there, fracturing the tradition of the normal royal get-together at Sandringham House when William and Kate were absent from the Queen's lunch.
But Carole, a miner's granddaughter raised in a council house, and founder and driving force of the family online shop Party Pieces, is a formidable, self-made woman of independence.
Getting a place of their own nearby would, of course, mean she could see lots more of Kate and her children without people thinking she was installing herself at Anmer. She is, after all, the only mother, and grandmother for George, that Kate and William have.
For Prince Charles, though, the dismay of seeing much less than he expected of his first grandson is heightened by his dreams of 'mentoring' the future king.
How completely that joke has now been vaporised by Carole and Michael Middleton.
As they play a major role in the upbringing of the soon-to-be 20-month-old future King George, Charles complains that he 'almost never' sees his grandson.
The Mail's Shakespeare diary revealed this week that Charles is becoming increasingly perplexed about the peripheral role he plays in the young Prince's life.
Specifically, it's said that he is frustrated by the amount of time George spends with his Middleton relatives, with whom he recently holidayed in Mustique for Carole's 60th birthday.
Well, the situation could get even trickier.
For there is a 'definite feeling' among friends of the Duchess of Cornwall — George's step-grandmother — that Kate's parents could be thinking of buying a place in Norfolk, where William and Kate will soon be living virtually full-time at Anmer Hall, near the Queen's Sandringham Estate.
Kate's new baby is due to arrive next month, and William will be starting his new job as a helicopter pilot with East Anglian Air Ambulance in the summer.
The Middletons have often stayed with their daughter and son-in-law at ten-bedroom Anmer — they spent Christmas there, fracturing the tradition of the normal royal get-together at Sandringham House when William and Kate were absent from the Queen's lunch.
But Carole, a miner's granddaughter raised in a council house, and founder and driving force of the family online shop Party Pieces, is a formidable, self-made woman of independence.
Getting a place of their own nearby would, of course, mean she could see lots more of Kate and her children without people thinking she was installing herself at Anmer. She is, after all, the only mother, and grandmother for George, that Kate and William have.
For Prince Charles, though, the dismay of seeing much less than he expected of his first grandson is heightened by his dreams of 'mentoring' the future king.
