Pippa Middleton could be in line for her own royal role
· Toronto Sun
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Princess Kate may be considering expanding royal duties to include her own family.
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Insiders believe that the Princess of Wales is preparing to set up her younger sister, Pippa Middleton, with a big role when Prince William becomes King.
Pippa Middleton is celebrating her 43rd birthday on Sunday, Sept. 6, and while the famously close-knit Middleton family is likely celebrating quietly at home, Princess Kate’s younger sister could accept a more front-and-center role in the Royal Family when Prince William becomes King.
Companion vs. lady-in-waiting
“In the future, I wouldn’t rule out Pippa becoming one of Kate’s companions,” Grant Harrold, King Charles’ former butler at Highgrove House, told Marie Claire . “Like what Queen Camilla is doing right now with her sister.”
While Queen Elizabeth had ladies-in-waiting, Camilla opted to have her closest friends, as well as her sister, Annabel Elliot, take on more modern roles of what she calls “companions” — who support her in her royal duties.
Harrold noted that if Kate follows in Camilla’s footsteps and goes the companion route, Pippa would be a shoo-in.
He pointed out how the entire Middleton family — Kate and Pippa’s younger brother, James Middleton, and their parents Michael Middleton and Carole Middleton — “manage to stay out of the limelight” — which is no small feat — and that they provide Kate with support from behind the scenes because “they respect the [Royal] family and traditions enough to be strictly private.”
Pippa, in particular, would make the ideal support system for her big sister, Harrold added.
“Pippa does her own thing,” the former butler explained. “She keeps herself very low-key, and I think she does a really good job of it.”
The Middletons bring the normal
And it’s not just Kate who benefits from her family’s assistance and encouragement.
Harrold shared that the Middletons also give her husband a place where he can relax and be himself.
“Pippa and the wider Middleton family are really good for William, as they’ve offered this whole other side of family life,” Harrold revealed.
“We know he is the future monarch, but he gets a wonderful normal lifestyle when he’s with Kate’s family.”
Following their engagement in 2010, William acknowledged Kate’s family in their joint ITV News interview .
“I get on really well with them, and I’m very lucky that they’ve been so supportive,” William said at the time. “Mike and Carole have been really loving and caring and really fun and have been really welcoming towards me, so I’ve felt really a part of the family and I hope Kate’s felt the same with my family.”
What is Pippa up to now?
For what it’s worth, Pippa has her own busy life.
She and her husband of nine years, financier and former professional racing driver James Matthews, share three children — Arthur, 7, Grace, 5, and Rose, 4.
Matthews is heir to the feudal title of Laird of Glen Affric, a Scottish estate, making Pippa the future Lady Glen Affric.
The family, who live in a 32-room mansion in Berkshire, near her parents’ Bucklebury home, lead a “quiet life” and have long had a “deep desire” to disappear from the spotlight, People previously reported.
But perhaps Pippa becoming Kate’s companion would be a seamless transition given how tight they are.
In 2014, Pippa noted how she and Kate are “very close” and have always shared a “normal sisterly relationship.”
She detailed to NBC : “She has pressures that she’s taken on and things, but we spend a lot of time together. We still do a lot together as a family and I think that’s sort of the heart for all of us, is having a really close family that we can be normal with each other, treat each other normally and that kept us all fixed to the ground.”