Kate Middleton’s mom faces ‘devastating’ business debt as she supports daughter through cancer

As Kate Middleton reportedly relies on support from her close-knit family during her cancer treatment, her mother has been dealing with the collapse of the famed family party supply business that propelled the Middletons into the upper middle class and allowed so-called “commoner” Kate to move in the same social circles as her future royal husband.

Carole Middleton’s Party Pieces company went “into administration” — the British version of entering bankruptcy — last year, owing creditors some $3.2 million, according to the Times of London. Now, what’s left of Party Pieces can’t come up with the $329,000 it needs to pay the London firm handling its insolvency, The Times also reported.

That has left Carole Middleton and her husband, Michael, scrambling to deal with a series of devastating business blows. But according to reports, these concerns have not stopped the Middletons from doing all they can to help their daughter and her husband, Prince William, deal with her health crisis. Since Kate underwent surgery in January for what was initially believed to be a noncancerous condition, the Middletons have been on hand to support their daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, the Times reported.