The party's over! - CAROLE IN CRISIS

Kate’s mum is in the firing line after her business is sold while owing millions

The bubble has burst for the Princess of Wales' family. The party supplies business that made her parents Carole and Michael Middleton multimillionaires has gone bust, owing more than $5 million.

The resulting scandal could be bad news for Kate, as furious creditors who have been left out of pocket say they expected better from a company with such close connections to the royal family.

One business that supplied helium for balloons sold by Party Pieces says it feels badly let down by founder Carole. A spokesman for the firm, which is owed over $40,000, says, "What hurt me most was that I trusted her as the mother-in-law of the future king and she just betrayed me. It is absolutely unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, Carole, 68, is said to be deeply upset at the collapse of the business she started from her kitchen table in 1987 as a way to earn extra cash when her children were small. When Party Pieces became a hugely successful mail-order firm, the income it generated allowed former flight attendant Carole and her airline dispatcher husband Michael to send their three children to an expensive private school and later buy a manor house worth nearly $9.5 million.