What to know about Kate Middleton’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton

As Catherine, Princess of Wales, informed the public on March 22 that she was undergoing treatment for cancer, she acknowledged the significant impact her diagnosis has had on her entire family.

The public has long been interested in the parents who raised the princess. Read on for what we know about Carole and Michael Middleton, Kate's parents.

Who are Kate Middleton's mom and dad?

Carole Middleton (née Goldsmith) was born in London and spent her first six months in a "council flat," or a British public housing apartment, in Ealing, she told The Daily Telegraph in 2018.

Her father, Ron, was a painter and decorator, and her mother, Dorothy, was the family's warm-hearted matriarch, doting on both her children and grandchildren, she told the publication.

She met Michael Middleton, who was born into a wealthy family in Leeds, England, during the 1970s when she was flight attendant for British Airways and he was one of the company's flight dispatchers, the publication reported. Michael Middleton was, she said, “rather shy” but very handsome.

The couple welcomed three children (and several grandchildren)

Carole and Michael Middleton welcomed their first child, Catherine, in January 1982. Their second daughter, Philippa “Pippa” Middleton, arrived in 1983 and a son, James Middleton, in 1987.

The couple are grandparents to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, Catherine's children with Prince William.

They share four other grandchildren: Arthur, Grace and Rose, Pippa Middleton's children with husband James Matthews, according to People; and newborn baby boy Inigo, James Middleton's first child with wife Alizee Thevenet, according to People.

The young family relocated to Jordan in the early 1980s

Nearly three years after marrying, the Middletons and baby Catherine relocated to Jordan, where Michael Middleton worked as an aviation manager for an international air station, Carole Middleton told The Telegraph in 2018.

After three years in Jordan — and the arrival of the couple's second daughter, Pippa —  Michael and Carole, who was then pregnant with the couple's third child, decided to return to England.

"I wasn't convinced I wanted to be an expat mum and Mike's job there was coming to an end," Carole Middleton told The Telegraph.

The Middletons founded Party Pieces, a successful party planning company, in 1987

Carole and Michael Middleton launched Party Pieces, a party planning company, in 1987, the same year their son James was born.

The company's beginning were humble: Carole Middleton worked in her kitchen selling festive paper plates and cups she sourced from local wholesale sellers at a profit, she told the Telegraph. In those early days, she hung up self-designed flyers at daughter Catherine’s playgroup.

Business picked up after the resourceful young mom and entrepreneur began advertising with The Red House, a children's book club. The Middletons moved Party Pieces' headquarters from their home to an office unit. Michael Middleton quit his day job at British Airways to focus on the company.

"My mother thought that was big, because at that stage he probably wouldn't have got employment again, but we could see this was a business we could scale up," Carole Middleton told the publication.

"We were pretty much the only ones doing this sort of thing when we started," she added. "It was really clear almost from the start that this was going to work."

Party Pieces later would grow to be a thriving online operation until it was hit hard by the COVID pandemic.

In May 2023, The Middletons sold the business to entrepreneur James Sinclair, Sky News reported.

Carole thought nothing of juggling work and motherhood

Carole Middleton was a busy young mother of three when she and her husband got Party Pieces off the ground. To hear her tell it, juggling work and motherhood was no big deal because the couple's children always considered the company a family affair.

"Mike and I often talked about work in the evenings or on holiday, but we enjoyed it. I never really felt I was a working mother although I was — and the children didn't either. They grew up with it," she told The Telegraph.

Carole was close to Queen Elizabeth II

Carole Middleton struck up a close friendship with Queen Elizabeth II that surprised many royal watchers.

The Party Pieces founder was photographed riding in the front seat of the queen's Range Rover in September 2016 as the queen drove through Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

"Because of the circumstances of William’s childhood, the Queen has made a big effort to include the Middletons much more than she would have done otherwise,” royal expert Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of "Majesty," told People in November 2016. “She is recognizing they have a big role in the lives of her family — and she is happy with that.”

Robert Lacey, one of the consultants to the "The Crown," said Queen Elizabeth appreciated Carole Middleton's perspective.

“In the past, (young Princess) Elizabeth had a Scottish nanny who was the daughter of a railway signalman and actually slept in her bedroom until she was a teenager. She would teach her the habit of unwrapping your presents carefully and then ironing (the wrapping paper) and putting it back in a drawer so you could use it again," he told People.

“That sort of contact with ordinary life came through the servants in that generation — and now it’s coming through Carole," he added.

Prince William gushes about 'my in-laws' in 2021

Prince William opened up about his fondness for Carole and Michael Middleton while speaking to emergency personnel in Scotland during the COVID pandemic.

“Some people are quite happy they haven’t seen their in-laws for a year. I love my in-laws," the prince said after some attendees joked about how the pandemic allowed them to dodge certain family members.

"The funny thing is when I spoke to my family, I found it so good to catch up, but then you haven’t anything to catch up on because no one had done anything," he added.

Catherine blew a sweet kiss to her parents at Wimbledon in 2022

Catherine, who was then the Duchess of Cambridge, took a moment to say hello to her parents from afar, when she and Prince William attended Wimbledon in July 2022.

As the royal couple arrived to the event, Catherine spotted her parents, who were seated far from her in the Royal Box, and she blew a cute kiss their way.

She also waved to them and mouthed the word “Hi.”

Carole and Michael attended King Charles III's coronation

The Middletons attended King Charles III's coronation at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com