A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
Kate married into staid royalty while Pippa is to wed a high-flying financier. We look at how their lives and loves differ
MOMMY Middleton must be delighted. It’s long been rumoured she sent her first daughter to the University of St Andrews in Scotland in the hope of catching a kingin-waiting – now her younger daughter has landed a Prince Charming too.
Not a royal one maybe but a well-off member of English high society capable of giving her the kind of lifestyle that even a duke could find daunting.
There were declarations of happiness all around when Pippa Middleton (32) recently announced she was engaged to James Matthews (40).
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were “absolutely delighted”, while Pippa’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, were “thrilled” at the news.
And Pippa? There’s little doubt she’s as pleased as punch. The young woman who nearly upstaged her big sis on her wedding day with a posterior so pert it garnered global acclaim is living her moment in the sun with gusto.
Her dazzling engagement ring – pricey enough to buy a three-bedroom house in middle-class South Africa – has been flashed for the world to see as she runs errands and goes to gym near her home in West London.
James, a hedge fund manager with mountains of moolah, is clearly smitten with his wife-to-be. The ring is just the start.
Once married, Pippa will live in James’ £17-million (R323-million) London mansion and fly all over the world in her The year Philippa Charlotte Middleton was born, in Reading, Berkshire. Compiled by NICOLA WHITFIELD husband’s jet.
She may even get a title – Lady Glen Affric – as a result of the Scottish estate her future father-in-law bought in Scotland in 2008.
Yet eyebrows have been raised. Uppercrust England is arguably the snobbiest society in the world and the “nouveau riche” – that cluster of self-made people James’ family are well and truly a part of – are frowned upon by the guardians of the “old-money” elite.
If you’re nouveau riche (NR) you’re crass and brash, not gentile and classy like old money (OM).
Pippa, thanks to James – and also her own parents, let’s face it – is NR. Kate, thanks to William and the House of Windsor, has become OM.
And now, as Hannah Betts of The Telegraph newspaper puts it, the stage has been set for rivalry between OM frumpery and NR bling.
Kate, Betts continues, may have the prince but Pippa looks set to have the ball.
And Carole Middleton? She’s surely the mother who has it all: the societal status of mom to the future queen and grandmother to England’s most cherished children, as well as a future of fun and fabulosity as Pippa prepares to wed into a family where having money is something to be revelled in.
The sisters’ lives couldn’t be more different. Kate has chosen one of servitude and protocol, forever beholden to the British people and the royal family.
Pippa has chosen one of hedonism and unashamed extravagance. £3-million (R57 million) private The number she occupied on Tatler magazine’s Society Singleton list in 2008. £20 000 (R380 000) Estimated cost of the Alexander McQueen dress she wore to sister Kate’s wedding.