This story is really great gossip. It comes from Sebastian Shakespeare, one of the Daily Mail’s many insider-y gossip guys. He’s been getting more and more tips about the royal family, and his tips usually end up to be the truth or close to it. Some background for this royal story: in Prince Charles’ recent “unauthorized biography,” there were many claims that Charles is quite disturbed by the way his oldest son, William, conducts his life. Charles worries that William has become too “Middletonized,” that William is too close to the Middletons and that they affect and dictate William’s actions too often. Also backstory: after five months of working for William and Kate at Anmer Hall, two staffers up and quit very suddenly about a month ago. Here’s the new Daily Mail piece:

Following the birth of Prince George, the Prince of Wales described the experience of becoming a first-time grandfather as ‘a unique moment in anyone’s life’. But nearly two years after this very public display of affection, Charles is said to have become increasingly perplexed about the peripheral role he occupies in the young Prince’s life.

At the heart of the heir-to-the-throne’s frustrations is the so-called ‘Middletonisation’ of his son William’s life — specifically the inordinate amount of time he spends with his in-laws Michael and Carole, with whom he recently holidayed in Mustique for Carole’s 60th.

In fact, so vexed is Charles about the so-called ‘March of the Middletons’ that he has complained to friends: ‘They never let me see my grandson.’ Adds a source: ‘Carole has rather taken over, dictating when George naps, when and what he eats. All in all, behaving like she’s Queen Carole.’

It is certainly true there have been few, if any, trips to Charles’s Gloucestershire home Highgrove over the past year. Some think it’s a deliberate move on William’s part to protect his young family from suffering the same stiff, and often unhappy, upbringing he endured. Certainly, Carole, who is the granddaughter of a miner and was brought up in a council house, is not thought to enjoy any particularly strong bonds with Charles’s wife, Camilla.

Most of William and Kate’s time is spent at their Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, on the Queen’s Sandringham estate, where the Prince has been busy revising for his Air Transport Pilot’s Licence. The Middletons are frequent visitors and play an active role in the household. They stayed there over Christmas, when William pointedly hosted lunch for them on Christmas Day rather than eat with the Queen, as is traditional.

Last month, it emerged that William’s housekeeper and gardener had abruptly quit after just five months at Anmer. The couple, Amy and Colin Wood, have returned to their previous jobs at Sandringham.

‘Staff have complained that Anmer is not run like a proper royal household,’ says my source. ‘It is too middle class.’

Yesterday, when asked when Charles had last seen little George, a Clarence House spokesman unusually issued a statement: ‘We would not comment on the specifics of private arrangements. ‘His Royal Highness enjoys an excellent relationship with his grandson.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I believe this. I believe William and Kate keep George away from William’s side of the family. I believe Carole Middleton spends A LOT of time with her grandson and Charles probably only sees George on major holidays, if that. While I think it’s a fair criticism of the royals to say that a growing child should get to enjoy their childhood without a lot of interference their emotionally stunted royal relations chiming in about every little thing, the fact is that George is going to be king one day (probably, if the monarchy doesn’t fall). George is going to miss out on so much just because William is a sullen man-boy determined to stick it to his father.

As for the household being “too middle-class”… I’m not even sure what that means! I think it means that Carole is ordering the staff around?

Photos courtesy of WENN.