The Queen's fury: Pippa Middleton linked to married man

Claims about the newly single royal in-law cause a stir behind palace walls.

Chatting to wealthy young businessman Ben Goldsmith at a fundraising evening with London’s high-society set, Pippa Middleton drew glances not only for her form-fitting dress by Dannii Minogue’s Project D label, but for the fact that she and her fellow partygoer seemed “spellbound” by each other. At the time, the royal sister-in-law was all but engaged to English banker and former cricketer Alex Loudon, while Ben was a married father of three young children.

How things can change! Just two months later, Pippa, 28, is one of the world’s most eligible women, with Alex having abruptly ended their one-and-a-half year relationship. Meanwhile, Ben has had to defend his marriage to his wife of eight years, Kate. These events have sparked media controversy, with an insider claiming in US magazine In Touch that it was Pippa’s close friendship with Ben – the 31-year-old brother of Jemima Khan – that’s been a key factor in both cases.

“Pippa’s increasingly flirtatious relationship with Ben is why Alex must have broken off his engagement with Pippa,” the source claims to In Touch, adding that the pair are in constant contact. “Pippa and Ben are regularly calling, texting and having dinners together,” the insider claims. However, UK newspaper the Daily Mail has rubbished the story, quoting a friend who says, “Ben met Pippa at a cricket match and thought she was charming but they have never been for dinner or spoken on the phone.” The friend also insists Ben will spend Christmas with his wife and kids in Somerset.

And now Pippa has been spotted on an intimate dinner with yet another ex-boyfriend, banking heir JJ Jardine-Paterson, whom she dated for three years before Alex. Nevertheless, the reports of Pippa’s friendship with a married man have already ruffled feathers among the royal family, with the Queen in particular said to be less than pleased that the media obsession with party-loving Pippa and her flirty antics could tarnish the Windsor name.