Carole and Michael Middleton’s beautiful home reportedly "nearly" had the roof "blown off" by Prince William once.
The Middleton family were thrust into the royal spotlight when Kate married Prince William and they have been embraced into the Royal Family with open arms. From being invited to King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation in 2022, to paying their respects at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, Carole and Michael in particular have been regularly included in royal family occasions. The two families now live closer than ever since the Waleses relocated to Adelaide Cottage in Berkshire, which isn’t too far from Carole and Michael’s Bucklebury home.
However, one royal home visit from years before will seemingly never be forgotten. It’s been suggested that in his Father of the Bride speech at the couple’s wedding, Michael jokingly recounted the time that Prince William supposedly "nearly blew" off the Middletons’ roof.
As reported by The Telegraph after the Prince and Princess of Wales’s wedding in 2011, a guest claimed that Michael shared how his son-in-law once arrived by helicopter in their garden.
"He also mentioned the day William landed the helicopter in the garden and how it nearly blew his roof off, and spoke of how brilliantly William fitted into his family," the guest alleged.
Prince William worked for many years as a Search and Rescue Pilot and is known to still love flying helicopters - to the point where the late Queen Elizabeth reportedly asked her grandson to be mindful of the royal line of succession when he flew all his family together. In light of this it’s perhaps no surprise that he flew to visit the Middletons at least once.
The moment Prince William "nearly blew" the roof off has clearly become a funny family story and shows just how powerful the rotor blades of a helicopter are.
Elsewhere in his speech, Kate’s dad apparently joked about the "awkward" conversation he had with the Prince when he asked for her hand in marriage. Prince William had previously opened up about when he proposed to Kate in their engagement interview with ITV News’s Tom Bradby in 2010. The King’s son was asked whether he asked Michael and he revealed he’d been "torn" over this.
"Well, I was torn between asking Kate's dad first and then the realisation that he might actually say 'no' dawned upon me. So I thought if I ask Kate first then he can't really say 'no'," the Prince explained. "I did it that way round. I managed to speak to Mike soon after it happened, really, and then it sort of happened from there."
It seems like Prince William asked for Kate’s hand in marriage after he proposed, but either way it was a heartfelt moment and he went on to describe Carole and Michael as very "supportive" of him and Kate.
"Kate's got a very, very close family. I get on really well with them and I'm very lucky that they've been so supportive," he said. "Mike and Carole have been really loving and caring and really fun and have been really welcoming towards me so I've felt really a part of the family."
Thirteen years later and Prince William and Kate are still so close with her family and the Prince of Wales was spotted having a brilliant time with his parents-in-law at Royal Ascot 2024. It’s likely that they will spend more quality time together this summer before Prince George, Charlotte and Louis return to school for the autumn term.
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