London Evening Standard/London

 

 

A handout image obtained from Markosia Enterprises shows an illustration for the novel ‘Kate and  William: A Very Public Love Affair’. The comic book is due to be published in April

He’s more accustomed to wild parties at Maison de Bang Bang than historic ceremonies dripping with protocol. But doubtless Kate Middleton will be hoping that tattooed Uncle Gary will remember to mind his P’s and Q’s when he is let loose at her wedding.

Gary Goldsmith, the black sheep of the Middleton family, had always been expected to join 1,900 guests at the ceremony. But the 45-year-old, who once dated a lapdancer and is said to have kept a box of cocaine at the bottom of his bed, was reported to have been frozen out of two receptions reserved for the couple’s closest family and friends.

In fact, he will included at every part of the day – including an intimate banquet at Buckingham Palace – likely to involve face-to-face encounters with up to 50 members of the royal family including the Queen.

It is not the kind of occasion Carole Middleton’s younger brother is usually associated with. He brought shame on the clean-living family when he was filmed apparently cutting cocaine and boasting about meeting Prince William.

At the time he was living in a sprawling £5mn villa named Maison de Bang Bang – crude French slang for House of Sex – on the Spanish party island of Ibiza. Prince William and Middleton holidayed there in 2006. A Sunday newspaper expose showed him supplying undercover journalists with drugs and introducing them to a pimp in July 2009.

The Middletons and members of the royal household were said to be ‘shocked’ over his lifestyle. Sources later described Goldsmith as a ‘borderline genius’ who had built up a £25mn fortune after selling his stake in an IT recruitment business he founded. But “he had a very dark side” and life was “beginning to spiral out of control”, a close friend said at the time. Goldsmith was also alleged to smoke cannabis.

He has been married three times and has a young daughter. The Mail revealed that his third wife, blonde accountant Julia Leake, had a church blessing in London but called off their planned £250,000 second ceremony in Spain amid misgivings over his lifestyle, insiders said.

Leake, 33, filed for divorce, which came through days before the newspaper sting.

Goldsmith, whose birthday is on April 29, the wedding day, returned to London and is thought to be living in a £1mn house in Marylebone.

He has been “on his best behaviour”, sources said and has declined to talk about his niece. The only comment he has made was to congratulate the couple on their engagement. “I am very excited,” he said. Senior courtiers confirmed that he will attend the 11am service at Westminster Abbey, a private wedding breakfast for 600 guests hosted by the Queen, and a dinner dance put on by the Prince Wales for just 300.

The landlord of Kate Middleton’s local has also been invited to the wedding, it has emerged. John Haley, 55, who runs the Old Boot Inn in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire, just two miles from her family’s home, received his invitation to the ceremony on Saturday.

He was told several weeks ago to expect an invitation, and said: ‘It’s been nerve-wracking keeping it quiet. They do come in here but I’m very discreet.”

Goldsmith brought shame on the clean-living family when he was filmed apparently cutting cocaine and boasting about meeting Prince William