Kate’s mum: I taught myself to earn fortune

CAROLE Middleton has revealed she had to abandon her dream of becoming a teacher because her parents were hard-up.

Carole, 63, mother of the Duchess of Cambridge Kate, said: “When I left school, I wanted to be a teacher.

“My parents couldn’t afford to send me to teacher training college, so I decided to get a job with the idea of raising money by myself.”

She set up Party Pieces, now a multi-million-pound business, in 1987, the year her son James was born.

Carole said: “I got married quite young and had children, so when the time came to work again, it seemed a better idea to set up Party Pieces.”

Carole, who is married to Michael, 69, a former flight dispatcher with British Airways, said all their children had helped out with the business, with Kate, 36, developing her own brand and catalogue.

Pippa, 35, was in charge of producing the company’s first blog, while James, 31, came up with the idea of a personalised cake service.

In the Good Housekeeping interview, Carole, said: “Party Pieces has been very much part of our lives and what we talked about. I still ask their advice and say, ‘What do you think of this?’”