Life as the Middleton ‘spare’: How Pippa has endured string of failed career moves… and ridicule
As Pippa Middleton and her high-flying husband James Matthews finally give up on their £1.3 million petting zoo, one wonders what the future might hold for the Princess of Wales’ sister.
Kate became an overnight sensation with the body-hugging dress she wore to her wedding to Prince William in 2011, but the socialite has struggled to truly escape her sister’s royal shadow.
According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, Pippa’s departure ‘mirrors’ the experience of Prince Harry, who has frequently complained about his royal upbringing as a ‘Substitute’.
Mr Fitzwilliams told the Daily Mail: ‘Life’s lottery can be very cruel. No one can influence their birth. But if your oldest sibling becomes famous, the spotlight usually falls on you, too. If you don’t have the talent, the obstacles can be insurmountable.
‘Despite its appeal, it may not be wise to try to cash in on this secondary fame. ‘It’s a shame, like Harry and Meghan, he seems to want to prove a point.’
Pippa, 42, dabbled in the world of books, fitness writing and even a brief TV stint, but none of those ventures materialized. Instead he suffered financial loss, was subjected to public ridicule, and the deals were quickly canceled.
Her recent grand plan was to turn the 72-acre Bucklebury Farm into a thriving business and family attraction with her husband, James.
But the company faced six-figure losses every year, ending up with debts of £807,543 in 2025.
Plans to expand the site have been repeatedly criticized by the local highways authority, while a nearby resident described the initiative as an “arrogant cash grab” that has become “a place of snobbery and middle-class inclusivity”.
While many locals have welcomed the collapse of Bucklebury Farm, it marks the latest in Pippa’s list of ‘unhappy business experiences’ spanning more than two decades.
Pippa Middleton became an overnight sensation with the body-hugging dress she wore to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 wedding, but the socialite hasn’t really managed to escape her sister’s royal shadow since.
Although 42-year-old Pippa has dabbled in the world of books, fitness writing and even a brief TV stint, none of these ventures have been successful. Instead he suffered financial loss, public ridicule, and deals were quickly canceled
Pippa, who attracted attention all over the world with the body-hugging bridesmaid dress she wore at the royal wedding of Kate and Prince William in 2011, quickly entered the world of fame and embraced lucrative deals.
In 2012 it was announced that Pippa had secured a £400,000 deal from publishing house Penguin for a book on party planning.
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But the party planning book Celebrate was not well received and sales were poor.
Mr Fitzwilliams explained: ‘There are echoes of Harry here; his ill-advised memoir Spare makes clear that the supposedly inseparable siblings were far from close.
‘Meghan’s hit cooking series for Netflix, With Love, Meghan, met a similar fate to Pippa’s book with critics, with viewing figures poor.’
Launched to much fanfare in October 2012, critic Jan Moir, then writing in the Daily Mail, noted that it was less than original in its ideas and lacked obvious qualifications beyond writing the blog on its parents’ Party Pieces website.
“From the moment she wore butter satin to her sister’s wedding, Pippa impressed no one as the kind of girl you’d always find in the kitchen at parties,” Moir continued.
‘And if his sister wasn’t married to a member of the Royal Family, would she really have won a lucrative publishing contract to write about something she calls ‘simple, creative and entertaining’?’
Not-so-profound advice in the book included lighting a bonfire on Bonfire Night and serving pumpkin soup in a hollowed-out pumpkin on Halloween.
Other tips included telling readers to prepare ice for drinks by ‘filling trays with water before the party’.
Two weeks after its publication, the glossy volume had fallen to No. 180 on Amazon’s bestseller list, and the online retailer dropped the price of the book in an effort to replace copies.
Despite flying to New York to promote her book, Pippa’s efforts worsened on the other side of the pond; Celebrate ranked #308 on Amazon’s US bestseller list the month after its release.
According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, Pippa’s departure ‘mirrors’ the experience of Prince Harry, who has frequently complained about his royal upbringing as a ‘Substitute’
According to the Daily News, Pippa started negotiations for a new job with NBC after interviewing with Matt Lauer. However, the deal never materialized. Talks over £40,000 contact ‘stalled’, according to reports at the time
Meanwhile, Pippatips, a fake Twitter account mocking the ‘casual’ party tips featured on Celebrate, quickly gained 20,000 followers.
Reflecting on the failed attempt in a 2016 interview, Pippa said she felt ‘unqualified’ to write such a book and was ridiculed for being a list of blindingly obvious clues.
‘I believed it and I can’t blame anyone else, but maybe it would have been better if I had waited a little longer before doing it.’
However, she was not deterred by dismal sales and public ridicule, and in 2012 Pippa became a regular columnist in various publications and contributed several articles to The Spectator magazine.
From the spring of 2013, she started writing a food column in the supermarket magazine Waitrose Kitchen.
But experienced chefs were appalled that a woman with no cooking experience was hired and accused Waitrose of seeking publicity; Pippa was once again accused of taking advantage of her royal connections.
In March 2013, David Godwin, the literary agent who had helped her launch Celebrate!, dropped her.
Speaking after the news broke, he said: ‘I’m so sorry this has happened but yes, it’s true: I no longer represent Pippa and I wish her the best of luck.’
Subsequently, plans for a sequel to Celebrate were quietly shelved due to lackluster sales in the publisher’s mind.
In 2012 it was announced that Pippa had secured a £400,000 deal from publishing house Penguin for a book on party planning. But the party planning book Celebrate was not well received and sales were poor.
However, in June of that year he was named one of Vanity Fair’s contributing editors and wrote a number of columns for the magazine.
Pippa also began writing a fortnightly sports and social column for The Sunday Telegraph.
In January 2014, its US publisher Viking dropped it altogether, selling just 18,000 copies of the book, with a source telling the Sunday Times that ‘sales of Pippa’s Celebration are nothing to celebrate’.
‘After the wedding he became a superstar and everyone thought it would be a success. Even Sarah Ferguson sold more books when she started her writing career.’
According to the Daily News, Pippa started negotiations for a new job with NBC after interviewing with Matt Lauer.
NBC News has previously denied a deal was in the works, but the network has reportedly been in serious talks with Pippa for months about becoming a lifestyle and health correspondent.
However, the deal never materialized. According to reports at the time, talks over a £40,000 contact ‘stalled’; sources described how ’embarrassing’ a particular scene involving the Wild West Dance was.
Meanwhile, Pippa’s Telegraph column, which lasted just six articles, was taken down after the paper discovered its readers were “not interested in it”.
Speaking at the time, a source added: ‘There was a lot of negative mail coming after every column and there were too many off-limits topics for him. ‘They’ve run out of ideas.’
Meanwhile, her column in Vanity Fair was ridiculed and Pippa was once again accused of trading on her royal connections and stating the obvious.
In 2014, she published a celebrity cookbook called Heartfelt to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
By 2016, Pippa was reportedly being ‘quietly and diplomatically reined in’ by Prince William, who was apparently advising her about her future role. Calculated changes ended Pippa’s life as a media personality
But by 2016, Pippa was reportedly being ‘quietly and diplomatically reined in’ by Prince William, who was apparently advising her about her future role.
The current Prince of Wales was said to be aware that business ventures linked to the Royal Family, including Pippa’s projects, could bring their own challenges.
A friend of Pippa said at the time: ‘William in particular felt she needed some guidance and support. It was felt that something had to be done. So Pippa was quietly and diplomatically reined in.’
The calculated changes ended Pippa’s life as a media personality and replaced it with a life of constant charitable fundraising.
She married high-flying James Matthews in 2017, and the pair later hired PR genius Jo Milloy, who worked closely on Brand Beckham.
But the royal couple now tend to live a simpler life with their three children: Arthur, 7, Grace, 5, and Rose, 3, and they remain close to the Prince and Princess of Wales.
