Kate's dad turns 75 today: Michael Middleton has seen his daughter courageously battle cancer for months - and he and Carole have been her rock

• Michael and Carole Middleton have played a growing role in royal life
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His visit to Royal Ascot with wife Carole last week told the nation that their daughter Kate is doing well as she continues her cancer treatment.

But, as he turns 75 today, Michael Middleton may well be reflecting on just how difficult this year has been for his family and the royals.

The Princess of Wales and her husband Prince William have relied on Michael and Carole's support since her diagnosis, which was announced after King Charles revealed his own fight with the disease.

The ongoing health challenges faced by his daughter and the King come after joyous news last October, when Michael and Carole's son James welcomed baby son Inigo with his wife Alizee Thevenet.  

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Born in Leeds in 1949, Michael was brought up by parents Captain Peter Middleton and Valerie Glassborow, it was a family with aristocratic antecedents. 

Both served in the Second World War - Peter as a pilot in the Royal Air Force and Valerie as a code breaker and volunteer nurse.  

During his service in the RAF, Peter flew alongside Prince Philip as co-pilot during a two-month flying tour of South America in 1962.

Like his father and grandfather, Michael attended Clifton College, a boarding school in Bristol, before going on to study and graduate from the University of Surrey. 

Michael had originally planned to follow in his father's footsteps and become a pilot.

He studied at the British European Airways' flight school, before deciding to be part of the ground crew.

Michael then started working for British Airways as a flight dispatcher, where he met Carole - whose maiden name was Goldsmith.  

The couple were married on June 21, 1980, at the Church of St. James in Buckinghamshire. 

Two years later, in 1982, they welcomed first child, Catherine. Their second daughter, Philippa - or Pippa as she is now known to the world - followed in 1983.

Michael moved his family to Amman, Jordan from May 1984 until September 1986 for his work. 

After their return to England in 1987,  Michael and Carole welcomed baby James.

Until Catherine was 13, the family lived in a two-bed cottage in Bradfield, Berkshire. They later moved to nearby Bucklebury, where they remained today.

In 2012, the couple moved into their current home in Bucklebury, a Tudor-style manor house.  

Carole established her ill-fated Party Pieces firm in 1987. By the 1990s, the company selling party supplies and decorations had branched into mail orders and was managed by both Carole and Michael.

However, the firm later went bust owing £2.6million to creditors. 

Since becoming grandparents to Kate and William's three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, Michael and Carole have played an even bigger part in the lives of the royals.

William refused to allow them to be treated as non-royal in-laws had in the past, when they were often excluded from events. 

The late Queen was delighted and warmed to the hard-working aspirational values of the Middletons.

Michael and Carole were invited to Balmoral and Sandringham, where they were Christmas Day guests. And they also attended the King's Coronation.

William's love for his in-laws was on full display last week when he warmly greeted both Carole and Michael at Royal Ascot.

The Prince of Wales helped Carole when her heel got stuck in the grass and he was later pictured chatting to both her and his father-in-law. 

The Ascot outing was Carole and Michael's first public appearance since Kate's cancer diagnosis.  

Writing in her 2022 book The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil, royal commentator Tina Brown described how William 'adopted' the Middleton family after just a year of dating Kate.

One acquaintance told Brown: 'Not only did he fall for her but them. A warm nest with a complete nuclear family and seemingly wonderfully uncomplicated.

'The dad played the dad, the mum the county's tiger mum, but he also saw the daughters and James getting along - and wanting to get along - with their parents. What a contrast.'

William, who had a choice of palaces to spend weekends, enjoyed nothing more than 'tennis, TV and Carole's creature comforts at the Middleton manse', Brown said.

The Prince's love for the whole Middleton family was evidenced by his decision in 2011 to spend Christmas at their mansion in Bucklebury, West Berkshire, rather than with the Royal Family.

William was such a regular guest at the Middletons' home that he transferred his quadbike there from Highgrove.

He also joined the family on their holidays, including to the island of Mustique, which was once a favourite of Princess Margaret.

Michael meanwhile became like a 'surrogate father', according to Brown.

An acquaintance said: 'If your own father is always hosting dinner parties for fifty on Catherine the Great china or whatever, it's not very relaxing.

'Whereas the Middletons were like a pipe and slippers, with the wireless on, which is slightly the sort of William and Kate world.'

Carole and Michael have also formed a very tight bond with their royal grandchildren.

They were the first members of the family to visit Prince George when he was born in 2013 and have been a constant presence in his life ever since.

A month after the young royal's birth, Michael volunteered to take the first picture of his new grandson so that William and Kate would not have to bring in an external photographer.

After Kate's cancer diagnosis earlier this year, it was the continued support of Carole and Michael that allowed William to continue undertaking some royal duties - even as his father the King also battles the disease.

In April, William was spotted at a Norfolk pub with his mother-in-law. It was another sign of how close they are.

During the Easter school holidays, Carole again stayed with the Wales', according to the Mail's Richard Eden.

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, previously said: 'Carole and Michael are just as much family to William as they are to Catherine.

'He loves Carole being around to help as she has been with the children from the beginning and it is easy and reassuring having her invaluable help.

'Both with the children and keeping Catherine's spirits up. She is a strong woman!'