Royal wedding: Prince William insists on role for Kate Middleton's family

Royal wedding: Prince William insists on role for Kate Middleton's family - Prince William is determined that Kate Middleton’s family will not be “airbrushed” out of royal life when she becomes a princess next year.

Generations of royal in-laws have complained that they have been largely ignored by the Royal family once their sons or daughters have married. But palace aides say the Prince has made it “absolutely clear” that the Middletons will not suffer the same fate, and that they and the Royal family will play an “equal part” in the couple’s lives.

Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton pose for photographers during a photocall to mark their engagement in the State Rooms of St James's Palace

Kate Middleton's engagement ring was the ring Princess Diana was given by William's father Prince Charles

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in an official photograph taken after the announcement of their engagement in 1981. Prince William gave his fiancee Kate Middleton his mother's sapphire engagement ring

“Prince William has always been close to the Middletons and that will remain the case,” a senior royal source said. “They will be as much a part of his family as the Royal family. There is no suggestion whatsoever that they will be airbrushed out of the picture.

“The Prince has made it absolutely clear that the Middleton family is incredibly important to him and he will do things his own way.”

In the past, the Queen and other senior members of the Royal family have been accused by their in-laws of freezing them out, while their sons or daughters are expected to attend every Royal family event, such as the traditional Christmas at Sandringham.

The parents of Capt Mark Phillips, the former husband of the Princess Royal, once claimed that after the wedding it was “as though we don’t exist” and that they “never got invited to anything”. Earl Spencer, the father of Diana, Princess of Wales, never became part of the Royal family’s inner circle, while Major Ronald Ferguson, the Duchess of York’s father, remained an outsider.

Unlike his predecessors, however, Prince William has had seven years to get to know his future in-laws, and has been a regular guest at their home in Bucklebury, Berks, where he treats Carole and Michael Middleton like a second mother and father.

“The Prince is very close to his grandmother, the Queen, but he doesn’t live with her and he will take his own decisions when it comes to who he spends time with,” the royal source added.

“Having said that, you won’t see the Middletons suddenly taking a front row in public life. They are a very private family, they have got two other children and Mrs Middleton is just as protective towards them as she is towards Catherine.

“They will want to remain private, but they will still see their daughter as often as possible, and they will still see Prince William.” The Middletons are expected to be regular guests at royal residences. Miss Middleton’s brother, James, and sister, Pippa, have stayed several times at Birkhall, the Prince of Wales’s residence on the Balmoral estate, which Prince William takes over for one weekend every year.

Last month Miss Middleton’s parents stayed there for the first time, when they were pictured being taught how to shoot by one of the Prince of Wales’s gillies.

The Prince showed his loyalty to the Middletons when he chose to ask Mr Middleton for his daughter’s hand in marriage before informing his father or the Queen of his plans.

Mr Middleton was so discreet that his daughter was not even sure whether he had told his wife that they had got engaged in Kenya.

Miss Middleton said there had been an “awkward” meeting when she could not discuss the engagement with her mother because “I wasn’t sure whether Dad had told her”. As if to prove her intention of staying close to her parents and siblings, Miss Middleton returned to their home the day after the engagement was announced. ( telegraph.co.uk )