Queen Elizabeth’s children didn’t have the greatest track records for royal marriages, with three out of her four children winding up divorced. It’s a situation the late Queen is said to have found “deeply upsetting,” but when Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton, one aspect of the future Princess of Wales’s life gave William’s grandmother comfort.
“The Queen always wanted her children and grandchildren to be happy, and she recognized what a huge support Carole and Michael Middleton were to William and how they welcomed him with open arms into their family,” Queen Elizabeth’s former press secretary, Ailsa Anderson, told Hello! magazine.
Prince William is famously close to his in-laws, and Anderson added that this gave the late Queen confidence after watching Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor go through divorces.
"It distressed her much more than she let on," royal biographer Robert Hardman wrote in his book Queen of Our Times, adding that Queen Elizabeth was deeply bothered by so many of her children getting divorced.
A staffer revealed to Hardman that "one shouldn't underestimate the pain she's been through," with the late Queen once exclaiming, "'Three out of four!' in sheer sadness and exasperation."
In the Middletons, however, Queen Elizabeth saw a strong and stable family that would help William and Kate through the tough times. "My family are paramount," Carole Middleton once said. "They come first and that will always be the case, even when I have more 'me time.'"