In the popular imagination, Gary Goldsmith is the bête noire of the Middleton clan – tattooed, shaven-headed, an embarrassment to his sister Carole with his louche antics.
When undercover reporters filmed the Duchess of Cambridge’s uncle apparently cutting up lines of cocaine at the colourfully named La Maison de Bang Bang – his eight-acre hideaway on the party island of Ibiza – it seemed that the string of lurid headlines that followed would see him banished by his image-conscious family.
But predictions of Goldsmith’s downfall have proved to be wide of the mark.
For as he reveals today in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the reaction of the Middletons was not to cast him off – but, extraordinarily, to apologise for all the trouble they had caused to him.
He says: ‘People like to think that I’m this black sheep, a bad boy. I’m not really. I’ve had my moments – I’m not totally innocent – but am I disliked by my family? No, that is simply not true. I’ve got a good heart and I care about people. We have never fallen out.
‘The minute that story broke, Carole was on the phone apologising to me on behalf of the family, specifically Kate, about me being suddenly thrust into the limelight.’
Later, there was speculation – incorrect, again – that he would be banned from Kate’s wedding to Prince William in Westminster Abbey in 2011.
On the day he was accompanied by his ex-wife Luan and their 11-year-old daughter, Talullah.
My second wedding: Shy teenagers Kate and Pippa, far right, at Gary's wedding to Luan in 1997
...And My First: Carole withh 11-year-old Kate, right, and sister Pippa, nine, at Gary's wedding to Maranda Foote in 1991
At the reception, Goldsmith found another, even more surprising source of sympathy – the Duchess of Cornwall.
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Camilla went out of her way to welcome him, saying she knew all too well what it was like to be vilified for supposed past misdemeanours. ‘Camilla made a beeline for me,’ he recalls. ‘She was absolutely adorable. She stretched out her hand and said, “It’s Gary, isn’t it?”
‘I couldn’t believe she knew who I was. We made small talk – about how fabulous the room was, that sort of thing.
‘Then I plucked up the courage to say, “I’m sorry for the bad press”. She just smiled and said, “Don’t think twice about it. I get the same myself.” She was beyond amazing.’
So far as Gary is concerned, the wild days are well behind him and, rather than being an embarrassment to his family, he has in fact impressed them by winning acceptance from the Royals.
On the day of the wedding, he earned the approval of the Duchess of Cornwall by exchanging seats with her daughter Laura so that she could get a better view of her own daughter, Eliza, three, who was a bridesmaid. ‘So we ended up sitting with Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in front and the Beckhams at 11 o’clock,’ Gary says.
His past, he readily admits, has had moments of excess, but he insists they have been blown out of any reasonable proportion.
‘I was manipulated and set up,’ is how he prefers to put it, even if, for an obviously canny businessman, a multi-millionaire in fact, you might have thought he would know better.
Revealing all: Kate's Uncle, Gary Goldsmith, says he is amazed at how she has flourished in the spotlight
Hideaway: The colourfully-named Ibiza villa La Maison de Bang Bang where Kate and William visited Uncle Gary
Introductions: William first met Gary when he visited his villa in Ibiza with Kate in 2006
But on the key allegations, he is clear: ‘I didn’t take drugs or pimp for anyone. I was asked if I knew where to find a hooker. All I said was I’d heard of a taxi driver who could help with anything they wanted on the island.’ He adds: ‘I did say I had a wing in Buckingham Palace, but that was a joke.’
Despite the experience, and an understandable degree of caution about discussing his relatives, he says he now feels ready to talk about his bond with nieces Kate and Pippa, nephew James and his new nephew-in-law, Prince William – who all, affectionately, call him Uncle G.
Gary says he never doubted for a moment he would be on the invitation list for the wedding. After all, when he met Prince William – who spent a holiday with Kate at Maison de Bang Bang in 2006 – their introduction was no different from that of any large and loving family.
‘William was unfailingly polite,’ Gary says. ‘The first thing he said to me was, “I’m so pleased to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.
‘Thank you very much for letting us stay in Ibiza”.
My Second Mum: A beaming smile from baby Gary in the arms of big sister Carole, who is ten years older than him
‘So I just sat down on the sofa and chatted to him and Pippa while Kate cooked. Pippa and James treated William as if he was their sibling. At one point one of them said to him: ‘Go and make the tea.’ So off he went to make it. He was just like one of the family. He was so relaxed in his own skin, but he does try very hard to be a gentleman.
‘It was a very funny supper and everyone was just cracking jokes. He was very attentive to Kate. He was very much at home in the whole family setting.’
By the end of the evening Gary was so relaxed with his Royal guest that he indulged in some banter. ‘Some ornaments – large glass pyramids – had been broken when a ball was thrown around,’ he says. ‘I jokingly accused William and he immediately jokingly dumped the blame on James. It was all good-natured fun.’
As for the wedding itself, Gary recalls a carefree day, punctuated with lots of family laughter.
He says: ‘I didn’t meet Prince Charles but he gave a wonderful speech at the reception.
‘It was just like that of any other father of the groom. He told a lovely story about buying William an electric car when he was a child and having to chase him around the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Apparently William managed to hit the only tree by mistake.
‘As for Kate and William, I have never seen smiles like it. They were laughing and giggling throughout the day.
‘I bought them a Backgammon set from Asprey, which was on their list at Clarence House, and Kate sent a beautiful hand-written thank you card with some cake.’
Gary makes no secret of the fact that he is thrilled Kate will be a future Queen, and believes she is ideally equipped for the role.
He says: ‘When Kate and William first began dating, Carole telephoned the immediate family to warn them that the relationship would likely become public. I was so delighted that, at a business meeting, I pushed a piece of paper across to a colleague which read: “I think I am going to be the uncle of the future Queen of England.”
‘I’m amazed at how Kate has flourished in the spotlight.
‘For a girl who is pregnant, who is having her first baby, and who hasn’t had the easiest pregnancy, she has worked incredibly hard. It could be quite daunting but she has taken to it like a duck to water.
‘I think it is marvellous news that Kate will be living with Carole when the baby is born. Carole is a wonderful mum and she is going to make a fantastic grandmother.
Making an entrance: The blue Bentley which Gary turned up in for Kate and William's wedding
Mr Goldsmith attending the Royal Wedding in April 2011: He said he gave James Middleton advice on his reading during the service
‘Family is very important to Kate. She is incredibly close to her mother and sister. They are a very strong unit and look after each other. I think that gives them strength and gives Kate the confidence both to fulfil her role as a future Queen and to become a great mum.’
As for Pippa, Gary says the Royal connection could limit her ambitions for the future. ‘Poor Pippa,’ he says. ‘Realistically, what job can Pip do now? She can’t go and work in an office or be a PR person. If this hadn’t happened I’m sure she would have been earning £200,000 a year in her own right. She has probably taken a significant pay cut.’
Gary is keen to talk about the close relationship he has always shared with big sister Carole, who is ten years older than him and has always been something of a second mother.
He believes that, despite external appearances, they are cut from the same cloth.
‘Carole and I are both headstrong and can bicker, as all siblings do. But we are very close,’ he explains. ‘We tease each other relentlessly.
‘In many ways we are very similar: we’re both ambitious with lots of drive, we made our money young, are very loyal to our families and want the best for them.
‘But I’m the City yuppie and she’s the country girl. While I was driving a Lotus Esprit in my Gucci shoes, she had an Alfasud and wore Hunter wellies. I used to call her the original Sloane Ranger while she called me a tearaway or scamp.
Always there: Gary aged 12 with Carole aged 22 having fun together with a family pet
‘I’m a Thatcher child. I’m Captain Ambitious. I belong to a generation in which class does not exist.’
Dapper in a grey Savile Row suit and brown Prada shoes, a raffish yellow handkerchief tucked into his pocket, Gary, a recruitment consultant, looks younger than his 47 years as he sits in the Union Club, a town house in the heart of Soho, where he is a member. He has a hint of a London accent and is not as plummy as Carole. He is very jokey and chatty and speaks in an open manner.
And he is a rich man.
He lent nephew James £11,000 to help him set up his company selling cake-making kits. On his wrist he sports a £7,000 titanium Panerai diving watch and on the fourth finger of his left hand a wedding band, a symbol of his fourth marriage last year to former clerk Julie Ann Brown.
He has come a long way from his suburban upbringing as the son of a painter and decorator from West London and grandson of a miner from the pit villages of Durham.
He recalls: ‘My parents were incredibly happy together. My dad doted on my mum and she really respected him.
‘It was very sweet. Carole and her husband Mike have an amazing relationship too. They have nurtured three amazing kids.
‘I should have taken more lessons from them on how to make a marriage work.’
When Gary was eight, Carole left high school and joined British Airways as a stewardess. He laughs: ‘I remember her training. She used to practice doing her announcements and record them on a tape recorder, much to my amusement.’
He adds: ‘Carole was a huge influence on me musically. The first record I ever bought was the Best of James Bond, but she was mortified so she began introducing me to soul music, which is still very important to me. She was massively into Stevie Wonder and I remember her owning his record Innovations. She also loved Barry White and Earth, Wind & Fire. When she moved out, she offered me a couple of albums and, when she wasn’t looking, I stole a few more.’
Their attitudes to hard work did differ, however.
Perfect couple: Gary said he had 'never seen smiles like it' at Kate and William's wedding
Family ties: The 47-year-old is Carole Middleton's younger brother and godfather to their son, James. The family are pictured leaving the Goring Hotel the morning after Kate and Williams' wedding
‘Carole has always been more serious than me,’ he accepts. ‘I think life is for living and having fun, but Carole was more studious, worked harder than me and did better than me at exams.’
Gary was 15 when Carole and Michael asked him to be an usher for their wedding ceremony at the Parish Chapel of St James the Less in the village of Dorney in Buckinghamshire. The reception on June 21, 1980, was at nearby Dorney Court, a sumptuous Tudor mansion.
‘Mike and Carole’s wedding opened my eyes,’ Gary says. ‘It was a real departure for our family, everything my mother could have wished for.
‘It was natural, informal and classy but wasn’t pretentious or ostentatious – very unlike the weddings I was used to, which were big booze-ups in a Heathrow hotel with round tables and dodgy speeches. The house had a minstrel’s gallery and people wandered around with champagne flowing and canapés. Afterwards we went back to Mike’s brother Simon’s for a big chilli and a party.’
Within a year Carole was pregnant – news met with joyful excitement, says Gary: ‘I remember when she phoned to say she was expecting a baby. The whole house just erupted.’
With a family to think about, Carole took a £5,000 redundancy package from British Airways and set up her party-planning business, Party Pieces.
‘She was pregnant and she was going to leave, so she took redundancy and the business flew instantly,’ Gary says. ‘It was a business ahead of its time, which meant they could work hard and invest their money in the family, a new house and the nicest schools.’
Kate was born on January 9, 1982, when Gary was 17. Twenty months later Pippa arrived, followed by James in 1987.
‘After the children were born we always went to Carole and Mike’s for Christmas. But Carole had different ideas from me on how to spend the day. There would be no telly, we would walk for miles and would not be allowed to open our presents until after supper.
‘I used to go to Hamleys and get a personal shopper to buy the kids everything they could want, and we used to play with them in front of the fire.’
Kate was a tomboy, he says, but that didn’t stop him buying her first designer handbag – from Gucci – as she grew into a teenager. And family life did not prevent Carole from taking an important interest in her younger brother’s career.
Different personalities: Of the Middleton sisters, Gary said Kate always worked hard while things come more easily to Pippa
‘I effectively had two mums because of the age gap,’ he says. ‘Carole talked to me specifically about taking higher education after I had done my A-levels – I got maths and physics by the skin of my teeth, after a year of retakes.
‘She was desperate for me to go to university and be a helicopter pilot in the Services. But I didn’t want to go to university. I wanted to work in technology because I thought it looked more fun at the time.’
In the summer of 1983 Gary left school and got a job working as an IT operator. ‘I earned £19,000 in my first year,’ he brags.
‘Every three months I would go to my boss and say, “What do I need to do to get a pay rise?”
‘I was incredibly pushy, did every bit of overtime that you could possibly imagine and ended up being the youngest shift leader they ever had.’
By the time he got married, in 1991, to his first wife, sales executive Miranda Foote, he was a 26-year-old recruitment manager, living in a £70,000 one-bedroom flat in a mansion house in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, and driving a Lotus. But the marriage broke up within two years.
Shortly afterwards he joined Computer Futures, the IT recruitment company that would make his fortune. Within six months he was a director and owned shares.
He bought a five-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with a swimming pool and snooker room, invested in a boat, and drove a series of flash cars, including a Ferrari, Porsche 911 and Rolls-Royce Phantom.
‘Barclays bought-in to help us grow the business and it became hugely successful with 11 companies and 2,000 staff.’ He married his second wife Luan in 1997 and moved to Knutsford, Cheshire.
But that marriage broke up after he put his career above his family.
‘I hold my hands up,’ he says. ‘I’m not the easiest person in the world to be around. I became a workaholic. It is one of the few regrets in my life that I don’t live with Lulah [daughter Talullah] every day.’
He says it was the death of his parents – his father in 2003 and his mother three years later – that provoked his wild behaviour.
In 2005, he sold his shares in Computer Futures for £17 million, bought his villa in Ibiza and swapped work for pleasure. He married – and divorced – his third wife Julia Leake, a 32-year-old accountant, then dated a former lapdancer.
Before long he spiralled into depression, which culminated in what he describes as his ‘annus horribilis’ (a phrase that has Royal heritage, of course).
‘I felt very alone and down so I ended up at a party and got introduced to drugs in a moment of weakness. It was the worst thing anyone could do, but I did do it,’ he says.
‘I’m not making excuses. I went off the rails for a bit and didn’t put any effort into anything.’
Eventually work proved to be his salvation and he is now married to his fourth wife Julie-Ann.
‘I’m really happy now,’ he says. ‘I’ve grown up, got rid of all the flash cars and drive a Land Rover.
‘I’m incredibly proud that my family is going to be part of history. Yes, my sister is mother of a future Queen. Kate will be that Queen, with William by her side. I am blessed to be part of a loving family.’