Kate Middleton’s parents have been targeted in a malicious poster campaign over the collapse of the family’s party business, it was reported last night.

Messages were posted on lampposts and trees around the couple’s home village of Bucklebury in Berkshire, where they have lived for several decades.

Kate’s brother, James, 36, who lives nearby with his pregnant French wife Alizee, 33, was said to have been enraged by the posters, and was reportedly seen tearing them down.

Suppliers have been left out of pocket by the closure of Party Pieces, which was sold by Kate’s mother Carole, 68, and father Michael, 74, shortly before it went bust earlier this year. 

Kate Middleton ‘s parents (pictured) have been targeted in a malicious poster campaign over the collapse of the family’s party business, it was reported last night

Suppliers have been left out of pocket by the closure of Party Pieces, which was sold by Kate’s mother Carole, 68, and father Michael, 74, shortly before it went bust earlier this year 

The creditors have been calling on the couple to pay the outstanding sums out of their own pockets.

A source told The Sun on Sunday at the shock felt by villagers over the attacks targeted at the couple. ‘It’s unfair to do this in their home village, just yards from where they live,’ they added.

Party Pieces folded in the summer with £2.6 million of debts.

The firm was started by the Middletons in 1987, selling decorations and party paraphernalia for children’s events from catalogues. 

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Its business model was transformed by the internet revolution of the 1990s, which allowed the Party Pieces website to begin selling products to customers at home and abroad.

Kate’s brother, James, 36, (pictured) who lives nearby with his pregnant French wife Alizee, 33, was said to have been enraged by the posters, and was reportedly seen tearing them down

The company’s soaring profits are said to have helped the couple put their three children through the prestigious Marlborough College, where fees are £42,000 per year, as well as paid for their £5 million seven-bedroom Georgian manor house in Bucklebury.

But the firm was badly hit by the pandemic, when children’s parties had to be cancelled, and then the cost-of-living crisis caused the business to slump further.

In June, after 36 years in business, Party Pieces went under, just a fortnight after it had emerged that the company had been sold to a Scottish businessman named James Sinclair, having collapsed into administration.

Former British Airways stewardess Carole was said by a friend at the time to be ‘desperately sad’ at the company’s fate.

Other friends said that she was trying to make sure creditors were paid.

However, suppliers have since criticised the couple, claiming invoices were left unpaid before the firm went bust.

An administrator’s report revealed creditors were unlikely to be repaid cash they were owed.