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Though the manipulated Mother’s Day photo issued by Kate Middleton and Prince William prompted so much buzz that the princess issued an apology for the “confusion” prompted by her “experiment with editing,” one new defender of the portrait has emerged. In an interview with Good Morning Britain, Kate’s uncle Gary Goldsmith told the hosts that he thought the picture looked “really genuine” even if it did go through some adjustments.
“The smiles on faces said it all for me,” he said. “I thought it was beautiful.”
Goldsmith’s turn on the morning show came after a five-night stint on the current season of Celebrity Big Brother. The entrepreneur, who reportedly became a millionaire in the 2000s after becoming a director at an IT recruitment firm and selling his shares, was one of the season’s marquee casting choices. But he was the first person ejected from the house last week. During his stay, he spoke about his famous relative in glowing terms, saying he thinks she and William were both the “savior of the royal family.”
Still, he kept tight-lipped during the show when the subject turned to Kate’s recent break from the spotlight. “It’s difficult to get hold of Kate at the best of times,” he said. “She’s got children, and I love the fact that she’s putting family first.”
On his Monday Good Morning Britain appearance, Goldsmith said he doesn’t keep in regular touch with Kate. “I haven’t spoken to Kate for ages. Years, maybe a year,” he said, adding that he typically only sees her at “weddings and funerals.” He added that he is closer to Kate’s siblings, Pippa Matthews and James Middleton, and spoke to his own sister, Carole Middleton, in January. “My sister I checked [on] when Kate was in hospital,” he said, adding that he hadn’t spoken to any members of his family since leaving the Celebrity Big Brother house last week.
It isn’t unheard of for a royal relative to appear on a TV show. Prince Edward brought Princess Anne and Prince Andrew along for an appearance on The Grand Knockout Tournament in 1987, and Mike Tindall had a well-received turn on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! just weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. But Goldsmith’s entry into the house was a dicier proposition after a series of negative headlines that spanned a decade.
Ever since Kate and William became a serious item back in the early 2000s, the extended Middleton clan has been famously tight-lipped about the state of the Couple and William’s royal relations, and Kate’s parents, Carole and Micheal Middleton, are said to be close to their son-in-law. But in 2009, Goldsmith became one of the first relatives of Kate’s to give an inside look into her courtship with William when Goldsmith was the subject of a sting investigation by the now defunct tabloid News of the World.
According to its report, Goldsmith told undercover journalists that Kate and William had visited him at his home in Ibiza, nicknamed “La Maison de Bang Bang,” providing a few details from their stay. “My friends were here teaching William how to mix [music on DJ decks],” he said. “Yeah, it was brilliant. And they told him he needs [to] shout, ‘The King’s in da house!’ He’s a very friendly guy.”
He was in the news again in October 2017, when he was arrested after a late-night argument with his ex-wife Julie-Anne Goldsmith on a London street. According to The Independent, he later pleaded guilty to one count of assault by beating and was sentenced to a 12-month community order. Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he responded to a question about the incident. “There was one thing that happened seven years ago,” he said. “I’m not a serial wife-beater.”
During his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, where he was joined by well-known figures like Sharon Osbourne, Marisha Wallace, and Simon Cowell, he admitted that his notoriety can be traced back to his niece. “To be fair, people were asking me about it but they didn’t know what else I was,” he told the show’s hosts, AJ Odudu and Will Best. “Why are you here if not for that? People were asking me a lot of questions because they didn’t know what to ask. I did volunteer a lot.”
In the interview, he also hinted at his status as the Middleton family’s black sheep. “I wanted to change what people think of me and who I was,” he said of his motivation for appearing on the show. “It does hurt when you’re always referred to being a ‘bad uncle.’ I wanted to change that.”
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