Following his eviction from Celebrity Big Brother on Friday, Gary Goldsmith sent a message to his niece Kate, Princess of Wales, and sister Carole Middleton this morning. Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Monday, 11 March, with Susanna Reid and Ed Balls, the businessman addressed the ongoing Mother's Day photo editing saga and described Kate as an "absolute treasure".
The younger brother of Carole was evicted from the CBB house on Friday, 8 March, and was appearing on GMB to discuss his experience on the show, while he was also asked about the ongoing speculation surrounding the "kill notice" applied to the photograph of Kate, which was released by Kensington Palace yesterday.
The photograph - which features the Princess of Wales, 42, and her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, in Windsor - was issued by the Palace but later withdrawn by various photo agencies over concerns it was "manipulated".
When businessman and podcast host Gary was asked if he had a message to send to Kate and Carole, Gary said: "Well I love them very much. There's something about that picture that's beautiful and they should be very proud of that. My sister is...we're very similar people...she's an absolute rockstar.
"So to my family.... really proud of what you're doing, and Kate is an absolute treasure so we're very lucky to have her."
Susanna and Ed pressed Gary on whether he'd spoken to his sister since his eviction, and he said it had been a "whirlwind" since Friday night, and he hadn't "had a chance really to speak to anybody". The presenters also asked him what he thought his family would make of his time on the show, and about "the number of times you mentioned Kate."
"Apparently it was quite a lot," he said. "That was the one thing that people were asking of me because nobody knew anything else about about me
"I was kind of prepared for it it was the one thing that would happen. I wasn't volunteering it, people were asking questions."
On why he wanted to appear on the show in the first place, Gary said as he approached 60, he wanted to "say yes to pretty much everything that comes past me". He continued: "I was afforded the opportunity, obviously, to share some goss about the fam, and I think I did that with respect and I think they trusted me to not to put a foot out of place."
The GMB hosts also quizzed Gary on the recent series of The Crown, which portrayed his sister in a less-than-favourable light while plotting her daughter Kate's ascent to royalty. Gary described the Netflix script as "absolute rubbish", and said he felt his sister was "victimised" by the show. "It’s as far away from the truth as it could possibly be," he said. "Absolute rubbish. I thought my sister was slightly victimised in that."
Headlines about Gary's exit from CBB were somewhat eclipsed yesterday when Kensington Palace released a special Mother's Day snap - the first picture of the princess since her abdominal surgery in January.
According to the official The Prince and Princess of Wales Instagram account, the photo was taken by Prince William, 41, this year, in "2024", but the exact date wasn't provided. It was accompanied by a heartfelt message from Kate thanking the public for its recent support. It read: "Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day. C."
Later on Sunday, various photo agencies withdrew the picture from their collections amid concerns over editing. The Associated Press said: "At closer inspection it appears that the source has manipulated the image."
Kate has now broken her silence on the picture, as she apologised for editing the family photograph which was shared online and sent to media on Mother’s Day.
In a post, personally signed C for Catherine, Kate said: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C.”
