Royal baby: Supergrans - Camilla Parker Bowles v Carole Middleton

The son is out and the first women to visit the royal bundle were Carole and Camilla, the grandmothers. Maxine Frith reports on how the two matriarchs will shape the future
24 July 2013

From their backgrounds to their relationships and careers, Carole Middleton and the Duchess of Cornwall couldn’t be more different.

One is a finishing-school-educated former debutante who’s always moved in royal circles; the other is a miner’s daughter who went to state school, became a flight attendant and then made a fortune in business.

But the two women now share the role of grandmother to the future King. Both are feisty individuals, so who will be first to change the royal nappy, and which one is more likely to spoil the young prince? We tot up their gran credentials.

EXPERIENCE

Carole, 58, has the edge on 66-year-old Camilla when it comes to youthful vigour but the Duchess can already boast grandmotherly experience — she has five.

They include Lola, seven, and three-year-old Freddy from her food writer son Tom’s marriage to fashion editor Sara Buys, plus Eliza, five, and twins Gus and Louis, three, from her daughter Laura’s marriage to aristocrat (and accountant) Harry Lopes. Tom has described Camilla as a hands-on mother whose roast chicken lunches were a family favourite and she is regularly seen snapping up toys for her grandchildren when on official visits.

She said recently: “I just love them all to bits. Obviously, I am being called on more and more for babysitting duties but it’s wonderful.”

Carole, meanwhile, is known for her strong relationships with her three children and there is already a newly decorated nursery waiting at her home in Bucklebury.

Carole is expected to spend the next few days visiting Kate and the baby at Kensington Palace.

And she may also be a step-grandmother in waiting — her son James is dating former TV presenter Donna Air, who has a 10-year-old daughter, Freya, from her relationship with zoo owner Damian Aspinall.

FAMILY LIFE

Prince William is known to love the middle-class ordinariness of the Middletons’ lives and frequently enjoys kitchen suppers at Carole and Mike’s £4.8 million home in Bucklebury. Throughout his adult life he has made it clear he wants to live as normally as possible, and that he wants the same for his children.

Pippa Middleton’s book, Celebrate, may have been panned by the critics but it did offer an insight into an idyllic childhood spent enjoying bonfire nights and birthday celebrations with her brother and sister — all helped no doubt by props from their parent’s successful party-planning business.

The fact that the Party Pieces company is run from the family home means that Carole may also be more on call for babysitting.

While Harry has already been described as the world’s coolest uncle, it remains to be seen how Carole’s brother takes to great-uncle-dom. Gary Goldsmith has already been caught up in tabloid stings and sold his story to a glossy magazine.

Camilla’s life, meanwhile, is much more regimented, with a rigid schedule of royal engagements and formal entertaining and life divided between Clarence House and Highgrove.

And Prince Charles is said to dislike the noise and chaos that descends on his Highgrove estate when the grandchildren visit, meaning that Camilla often chooses to entertain them at Ray Mill, the nearby house she bought following her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles.

PKT5461-358219 SOCIETY/ GIRLFRIENDS - CAMILLA PARKER BOWLES (UPTO 1993) 1995 THE œ850,000 RAY MILL HOUSE, LACOCK, WILTSHIRE Camilla Parker Bowles is ready to make herself at home here, which is closer to Highgrove, Charles's house near Cheltenham. This is the elegant Wiltshire mansion in which the woman who has been Charles's great love will carve her new life after he divorce. She is keen to move into the œ850,000 Ray Mill House, near Chippenham, by mid November, so she can prepare for her first Christmas apart from ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles. But she is already a regular visitor to the 17-acre estate on the banks of Avon, and has spent hours there with the current owners, art historian Worthy Gilson and his wif Gill.

EDUCATION

Camilla’s educational CV is not exactly inspiring — she left Queen’s Gate School in Kensington with one O-level and didn’t stay on for A-levels, instead opting for finishing school in Switzerland (called Mon Fertile, yes really) before becoming a debutante.

Tom, however, fared better, studying at Eton and then Worcester College, Oxford, while Laura went to St Mary’s in Shaftesbury, Dorset, and studied history of art and marketing at Oxford Brookes University.

Carole attended a local state school in Southall and trained as a flight attendant.

Kate, Pippa and James all boarded at Marlborough College where, among mothers, Carole was revered for her perfect name-tagging, trunk-packing and the generally spotless state of her children when they arrived for the start of each term.

Kate went to St Andrew’s while Pippa studied at Edinburgh. James dropped out of his degree at Edinburgh after a year in order to go into business.

Neither grandmother is likely to be geared up for helping with Latin homework or algebra but at least it means they’ll both be impressed with whatever exam results baby Cambridge does get.

ADVICE LINE

Prince Charles often confided in his grandmother, the Queen Mother, and William has always been extremely close to the Queen, so it’s likely that Cambridge Jnr will be encouraged to develop the same relationship with his granny and stepgran.

Carole and Mike have been married for 33 years and even in the glare of massive public scrutiny there has never been a hint of marital discord, meaning that they can set the perfect example for the new heir.

When William and Kate split in 2007, it was Carole who Kate turned to for solace and advice.

Camilla, on the other hand, can be said to have more life experience when it comes to relationships, and while she may have a failed marriage behind her, her long affair and later marriage to Prince Charles is certainly the stuff of romance novels.

She is seen as the only person who can lure Charles out of his occasional bad moods and her diplomatic handling of William and Harry as she and their father’s relationship was formalised also won her their approval.

While the Middleton siblings have always been impeccably behaved, Camilla has also had to deal with a scandal surrounding Tom after it was revealed he had bought cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine for himself and friends at Oxford. Tom is now a successful food writer and chef and is said to have become close to William following Diana’s death.

Charles and Diana’s divorce may have been acrimonious but Camilla and her ex-husband Andrew managed to remain friends.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

Kate and William’s approach to royal life has always been low-key and tradition-breaking, and it’s likely they will imbue their son with the same values.

One Indian guru has already predicted that by the time the baby prince is 25 there won’t be a British monarchy left, so perhaps Carole’s canny business acumen could come in handy if he ends up competing on the job market with commoners.

But Camilla can also help with the King-in-training’s apprenticeship for his future role (if it still exists).

She has been at Charles’s side as he spent decades preparing to become King and knows the intricacies of court life, dealing with the press and smiling through many a tedious royal engagement.

They may have very different backgrounds, daily lives and families, but with their blend of aristocracy and middle class, regal bearing and ordinary life, Carole and Camilla make the perfect tag team when it comes to baby Cambridge’s grannies.

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