Last week, we heard all about Kate Middleton’s dodgy uncle Gary Goldsmith. Gary’s the player brother of Kate‘s mother, Carole. News of the World sent an undercover reporter to Gary’s Spanish home, and the results were extraordinary. Gary offered the reporter hookers and blow, and talked openly about his niece Kate and Prince William, even saying that they’re already engaged. At the time, I didn’t really think Kate would take a big hit on this one. Everyone has a dodgy uncle.

It seems Kate’s having a tough time with the whole situation. Many of the British papers are reporting some of the snobbiest comments from the aristocrats, all questioning whether such a “middle-class” girl could or should really be queen. To their credit, the royal family hasn’t seemed too perturbed by the dodgy uncle – Prince Charles even offered Kate his support, according to the Daily Express. Dodgy uncles aside, though, it seems the family Middleton family member that people are really worried about it none other than Kate’s mother:

[The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton] has become the most eagerly awaited royal union since the marriage of Prince Charles to Princess Diana and even Prince Philip is said to be losing patience with the delay in announcing an engagement. He is reported to have urged his grandson to “stop dithering” as this 21st-century courtship moves at a pace more associated with a bygone age.

Yet despite the slow progress, the feeling has been that William and Kate are moving serenely towards the altar. However Kate, 27, has just endured one of the most difficult weeks since she and William began their relationship as her family has come under scrutiny.

An uncle called Gary Goldsmith was exposed by a Sunday newspaper for offering cocaine. The brother of Kate’s mother Carole is allegedly organising sex and drugs parties on the island of Ibiza, where he lives in a £5million villa. In the past Kate and William have stayed at his home – a visit which Goldsmith, 44, bragged about to undercover reporters. He was also reported to have claimed that he expected his niece to become engaged this summer.

For Kate, the very public exposure of her family’s black sheep is both embarrassing and hurtful. Although she has done nothing wrong the Middleton name is being dragged through the mire as her suitability to marry the second in line to the throne is again questioned.

Although Kate’s mother is descended from a line of impoverished Durham miners and builders, the family is now solidly middle class. Carole is a former air hostess but she and her husband Michael now run a successful mail-order business, selling novelties and accessories for children’s parties. They live in a £1million property in the Home Counties, where they ride and play tennis, and have been able to put their three children through public school.

So far, so respectable. But ever since Kate began dating William there have been those who have sneered at her roots and suggested that she is too common to marry into the Royal Family. There’s a view in some circles that the future King of England can do a lot better than a middle-class girl from Berkshire. Although it comes from the dark ages, the belief survives in some quarters that William’s future Queen should come from an aristocratic background.

In reference to Kate’s mother’s former job at BA, it’s also said that members of William’s upper-class inner circle would mutter “doors to manual” whenever Kate arrived at a social event. Kate’s mum Carole was further accused of greeting members of the Royal Family the wrong way by saying “Pleased to meet you”, instead of “How do you do?” At one stage it was even implied that her behaviour was a factor when William briefly split up with Kate two years ago.

Carole found herself charged with being a social climber who had herself “married up” and somehow engineered her daughter’s relationship with William, earning herself the nickname “Mrs Meddleton”.

One royal observer said sniffily: “The only thing counting against Kate is her mother. The father is terrific. The Queen approves of him and he is liked; the mother has big question marks. She is very pushy, rather twee and incredibly middle class. She uses words such as ‘toilet’ and ‘pardon’.”

Kate faced more family embarrassment when photographs of her younger brother James wearing a French maid’s outfit were posted on an internet forum.

[From Daily Express]

Oh, but there’s more! Apparently, the aristocracy thinks it’s “vulgar” that Kate’s parents are self-made millionaires. The bluebloods also would rather “see William end up with some obscure foreign princess in what would amount to little more than an arranged marriage.” Then the piece goes on to defend Kate, saying that Prince Charles “has been impressed with the manner in which she has handled ­living in the glare of being the girlfriend of a prince.” The royal family even liked the way she behaved when she was the ex-girlfriend of a prince:

Despite all the “waity Katy” barbs aimed at her over the length of time it is taking for William to get round to proposing, her behaviour has been exemplary. Even when Kate and William separated she kept a dignified silence, instructing her friends not to spill the beans about her relationship with the prince. At the time media fixer Max Clifford said Kate was ­sitting on “the biggest kiss-and-tell story in history” which could have earned her £5million.

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, says she has been impressed by Kate. “I don’t think anybody should care about her background. Most girls of Kate’s age will have skeletons in their cupboard but nobody has found hers, so they have focused on her family. She has always been very dignified. It is a long way off but I think she will make a very good Queen. She has all the attributes.”

William is said to have dismissed the storm over Kate’s drug-abusing uncle as a flash in the pan but it will have been made clear by senior courtiers that she must, in future, distance herself from Goldsmith. Don’t expect any more holidays in Ibiza for the royal lovebirds.

Perhaps, as Kate copes with her family crisis in her usual dignified manner, a few of her detractors will come to realise that she really is royal material.

[From Daily Express]

Okay, but how much credit should we give people for just being quiet? In general, I do respect celebrities who don’t give it all away, but the whole thing about how Kate never speaks to the press is kind of crap. She’s just like any other high-profile celebrity – she has people talk to the press in her place. It’s all a bit silly, but I agree that the whole dodgy uncle bit won’t hurt her in the long run.