KATE Middleton’s parents are the target of a cruel poster campaign — after the collapse of the family party business.
Malicious messages have been put up on lampposts and trees around the couple’s home village, with Kate’s brother James seen tearing some down.
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Angry suppliers are still owed money after the closure of Party Pieces, which was sold by Kate’s mum Carole, 68, and dad Michael, 74, shortly before it went bust earlier this year.
Some want the couple — also parents to Pippa, 40 — to pay debts out of their own pockets.
However locals have been appalled by the posters, plastered around Bucklebury, where the family have lived for several decades, and the neighbouring West Berks village of Yattendon.
A source said: “Carole and Michael are incredibly popular. Everyone is horrified by these posters. It’s unfair to do this in their home village, just yards from where they live.
“Their son James lives nearby and so does Pippa who has moved around there recently with her family so they all have to be confronted by this.
“They are doing their best to make things right and don’t deserve this kind of abuse.”
James, 36, lives in the area with his pregnant French wife Alizee, 33.
Prince William also regularly visits with wife Kate, 41, who was spotted last month enjoying lunch with her parents in the local pub.
Profits helped pay Kate’s school fees Party Pieces folded this summer with £2.6million of debts, sparking outrage from suppliers.
The Middletons started it in 1987 at their kitchen table, selling treats and decorations for kids’ bashes from catalogues.
It was transformed by the internet revolution of the 1990s, and its website began selling thousands of different products.
The company’s profits helped the couple put their three children through Marlborough College, where fees are £42,930 per year.
They also bought a £5million seven-bed Georgian mansion.
But the firm suffered when children’s parties were cancelled in the pandemic, and an emergency Covid loan was taken out.
Business continued to slump in the cost of living crisis, and the firm fell into administration before being sold to Scottish businessman James Sinclair.
The former children’s entertainer, who calls himself the “Millionaire Clown”, operates £30million conglomerate Partyman Group which includes an ice cream company, nurseries and soft play areas.
However, a fortnight after news of the sale emerged, Party Pieces went under in June.
Carole, a former British Airways stewardess, was said by a friend to be “desperately sad” to see the company flounder under “a new management team”.
Pals claimed she was trying to make sure creditors were paid.
Kate’s parents are believed to have stepped away from the day-to-day running of the firm several years ago.
However suppliers have criticised the couple for the “galling” way invoices were left unpaid before the firm went bust, and have called on them to pay outstanding debts.
The administrator’s report made it clear that creditors — including small companies supplying balloons, toys and party bags — were unlikely to be repaid cash owed.
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