THE Princess of Wales will rely on her “strong” bond with her sister Pippa and family as Kate battles cancer, a royal expert has said.
Royal commentator Richard Fizwilliams has said her tight-knit family is “absolutely pivotal” to Kate Middleton, 42, at this key moment.
He told The Sun Online: “We know that she’s got a very close and supported family, and secondly, that the support is under the radar.
“The Middletons are clearly a very, very important part of her and William’s life.
“At the moment absolutely pivotal. I would say.
“We know that there is a tremendously strong bond between her mother in her parents, also siblings, and also that they live in close proximity or relatively close proximity.
“So yes, absolutely, I think that this is important.
“I think the Middletons will be her rock, and they will be also tremendously helpful, and especially regarding the children.”
CLOSE BOND
Kate and Pippa, 40, have always shared a close bond and have gone from sharing a flat in London’s fashionable Chelsea in their 20s to Pippa now living not far from the Princess’s home in Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor Estate.
Kate shocked the world on Friday with her announcement she had been diagnosed with cancer, following her abdominal surgery.
It’s thought Kate will now be relying on support from her sister as her family go through a tough time.
Pippa was thrust into the limelight as Kate’s bridesmaid at her dazzling wedding to Prince William in 2021 as she carried her sister’s train up the step to Westminster Abbey.
Rumours of a potential blossoming romance also circulated as Pippa and Prince Harry were seen giggling together on the big day.
While Kate has constantly been in the headlines as the wife of the future King, Pippa has stepped out of the spotlight and now lives with her husband James Matthews and their three children Arthur, Grace and Rose.
Just before Pippa’s 40th birthday it was reported the family had moved from their £17million Chelsea home to a quieter property in Berkshire, where she and Kate spent a good part of their childhood.
BONDED OVER LOVE OF SPORT & EXERCISE
Growing up the sisters bonded over a love of exercise and sport.
Both attended Marlborough College where they enjoyed hockey, tennis and athletics.
Speaking to the Telegraph in 2018, mum Carole gave an insight into her daughters’ childhoods.
She revealed she had instilled a strong work ethic into them both as they focused on their studies at school.
Carole also revealed that when Kate and Pippa weren’t at school they “did a lot of modelling” for their mum’s company at the time Party Pieces.
She said: “Catherine was on the cover of one of the catalogues, blowing out candles.
“Later on, she did some styling and set up the First Birthday side of the business.
“Pippa did the blog. I still value their ideas and opinions.”
The siblings stayed close as they went off to university, with both of them studying in Scotland, with Pippa going to Edinburgh and Kate attending St Andrews, after a brief stint in Edinburgh as well.
Once they’d graduated, they moved down to London and shared an apartment in Chelsea.
Kate had a job working for Jigsaw while Pippa took up a career in events and PR.
The pair were often spotted enjoying London’s nightlife and pictured going to the fashionable clubs of the day.
While Pippa was thought to be the more outgoing one, during Kate’s engagement to Prince William she supported her elder sister.
A source told the Daily Mail at the time: “It’s all Kate, Kate, Kate for the moment, because [Pippa is] her closest ally and, genuinely, they are best friends. But even if they weren’t, Kate would struggle to trust anyone who wasn’t family.”
Since Kate has married into the Royal Family and gotten old, nights out have turned into attending sporting events and the sisters have often been seen in the Royal Box at Wimbledon for the annual tennis tournament.
It looked at one point Pippa might turn her royal connections into a thriving career.
It was announced in 2012 she had landed a book deal worth £400,000 with Penguin to pen a party planning guide.
In the foreword to Celebrate, Pippa wrote: “It’s a bit startling to achieve global recognition before the age of 30 on account of your sister, your brother-in-law and your bottom. One day I might be able to make sense of this.
“I certainly have opportunities many can only dream of. But in most ways I’m a typical girl in her twenties trying to forge a career and represent herself in what can sometimes seem rather strange circumstances.”
However, the book was given a critical panning and sales were poor.
In the same year though, Pippa became a regular columnist for a number of publications, contributing articles to The Spectator.
Then in 2013, she started writing a food column for Waitrose Kitchen.
And later the same year she was named as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, writing a string of columns for the glitzy magazine.
Pippa was also kept busy penning a fortnightly sports and social column for The Sunday Telegraph in September.
In 2014, rumours circulated Pippa was hoping to land an “upward of $500,000” job reporting on lifestyle and health issues for NBC.
Reports suggested serious talks took place but ultimately no deal was forthcoming and she also parted ways with The Telegraph.
In 2015 her last columns for the Spectator and Vanity Fair magazines were published.
Nowadays, she runs the Bucklebury Gift and Farm Shop, in the Berkshire countryside, near to her £15million country home.
Pippa and husband James Matthews bough the 77-acre site in 2020 with plans to turn it into a commercial enterprise.
The farm shop is already equipped with a petting zoo, a café and cabin accommodation for 30 guests and well as provision to host birthday parties and tractor rides.
While Kate’s life had been turned upside down with her marriage to Prince William, her strong bond with Pippa hasn’t been affected by the royal connection.
Pippa told Today in the US in 2014 that she and Kate “spend a lot of time together” despite the “pressures” her sister faces.
Pippa said: “We still do a lot together as a family and I think that’s really the heart for all of us is having a really close family that we can sort of be normal with each other, treat each other normally.
“And that’s sort of kept us all, you know, affixed to the ground.”
She also revealed she is able to call Kate whenever she likes for a bit of “girl talk” and they have a “normal, sisterly relationship”.
Pippa told the US outlet: “We’re very close. And, you know, we support each other and get each other’s opinions and things.”
Speaking to NBC, she also revealed she hadn’t been fazed by taking part in her sister’s big royal wedding even though millions had tuned in around the world.
She said: “It sounds funny to say, but we saw it as just a family wedding. And actually, I didn’t realise, perhaps, the scale of it until afterwards. We all took on the roles as any family would.”
WIMBLEDON WITH KATE AND MEGHAN
Pippa has maintained that supportive role to her elder sister, even going along with Kate and Meghan Markle to Wimbledon in 2019, which was said to be a tense outing.
In the run up to the public engagement, rumours had been swirling tensions had been building between the two royal wives.
Pippa sat alongside Meghan in the Royal Box and was spotted laughing and joking with Prince Harry’s wife.
She has also regularly attended Kate’s annual Carol Concert held in Westminster Abbey and took part in a display of solidarity at the concert two years ago.
In December 2022, the Christmas event landed on the same day Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Netflix series arrived.
Pippa rallied around her sister, along with other women in Kate’s inner circle as they arrived at Westminster Abbey all wearing the same coloured outfits in burgundy.
Although it is more than likely the outfits were planned well in advance of the Netflix series dropping.
It’s expected that Kate will now be leaning on her sister since she was given the cancer diagnosis.
A source told The Times: “The three siblings are incredibly tight… Pippa not only as a sister but as a best friend she can confide in. They are extremely loyal to one another.”
According to the paper, the pair had gone on a trip to the ski resort of Meribel with their respective families last winter, a holiday that had been kept out of the public eye.
Royal insiders have claimed Kate will “come back stronger” after both her and her father-in-law King Charles have both been diagnosed with cancer.
