Okay if Kate Middleton's parents have millions from their business, why are they considered middle class?

Answer 1

In Britain, unlike the U.S., your class has less to do with money and everything to do with your family. The upper class is the aristocrasy, royalty is so high they are the uber-upper class. A rich family with no title would be considered middle class.

Answer 2

Kate Middleton's parent is middle class. Kate mother Carole Middleton was a former airline steward. They live in a modern five-bedroom detached house. Her father is a self made man. He runs a mail-order firm. Now that hardly upper class or of noble lineage is it? Remember this is not America. The British have a class system. The working class the lower middle class the middle class, upper class etc. Even if your Kate father was as rich as Bill gate doesn't mean your upper class. In the UK it about breeding what school you went to. What University i.e. Cambridge or Oxford. Has your family served in the military? I give you an example here: working class and middle buy their own homes. But the Upper class inherited houses meaning old manor house or castle. You have to understand the class system. The different between the late Diana Princess of Wales is she came from an aristocratic family been the daughter of an Earl. Diana family are old money. Diana grandmother the late lady Fermoy was lady in-waiting to the late Queen mother.

Answer 3

Probably because in England, among the upper class and royalty, they still draw class lines among the old system (think before French Revolution), when the monarchy was more powerful. There's the lower class, then the nobility and monarchy. You don't even need to be rich to be considered nobility. You just have to have some kind of title. Then there's the middle class, which is everyone else. Middle class is the shopkeeper down the street to millionaires and CEO's. When they say the prince is marrying a middle class girl (Kate), they mean he's marrying someone who's family has no ties to nobility or royalty - there's no one in her family that's the Duke, Earl, etc. of something.

Answer 4

yeah, there is no royal lineage or any significant titles in the family history. Diana for instance, was a very distant cousin of Charles, and was descended from an illiegitimate child of King Charles. She had some royal ancestry and was the daughter of an Earl. She also had the title of "Lady". Kate does not, and therefore, no matter how wealthy she is, she will never be considered upper class. She is middle class.

Answer 5

Class has very little to do with wealth. It's a way of life which has its roots in previous generations.
Somebody like Paul Macartney would not be considered upper class just because he is one of the richest people in England, his middle class origins will define him.

Answer 6

They don't earn millions, or else they will be in Forbes 500 at least (or any UK version of Forbes). She is "common" not only to the royal family, but to everyone else.
If she marries a royal person, she will be called Lady or maybe higher than that, but she will never be Queen. But then again she can make money being real life Cinderella, that's not bad is it?