The best friends of Pippa

Rich, privileged and fiercely loyal, they have been dubbed the Pipparettes – the closest friends and confidantes of Pippa Middleton, playing a crucial supporting role as she adjusts to life at the top of the worldwide celebrity A-list. Alice St John Webster and Camilla Campion-Awwad are the new leading lights of the Chelsea set .

Here, ELIZABETH SANDERSON and KATIE NICHOLL offer a tantalising glimpse into their world and that of their friend and honorary Pipparette, George Percy...First in line for high jinks...the Marlborough old girl in vertiginous heels 

Girls together: Pippa enjoyed a post-Royal Wedding weekend in Madrid with Camilla, left and Alice

First in line for high jinks...the Marlborough old girl in vertiginous heels

Alice St John Webster, 29
Alice, 29, was in the same year as Kate at Marlborough College, the Wiltshire public school Pippa also attended.
An integral member of the ‘Glosse posse’ – the young polo set in Gloucestershire – she is also a close friend of Prince William’s pal Guy Pelly and Alicia Fox-Pitt, Kate’s best friend from school.
At the Royal Wedding, Alice was given a prime seat in the Statesmen’s Aisle, next to Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs, the daughter of the Marquess of Reading and behind Prince William’s ex-girlfriend, Arabella Musgrave.

Described as 'fun, outgoing and bubbly', Alice is very protective of Pippa and terribly discreet
 

She also attended the evening party for the couple’s closest friends, tottering out in the early hours in a pair of vertiginous heels.
Alice, Pippa and Kate were all in the school tennis team and shared a lot of the same friends.
One close friend said: ‘They were a very tight group and all best friends from the age of 14 upwards. To be honest, it could be a bit suffocating.
'They did everything together and they were all sporty and loved being outdoors.’
Described as ‘fun, outgoing and bubbly’, Alice is very protective of Pippa and terribly discreet.
She also went to Edinburgh University with Pippa and studied French and Spanish.
At one point she was an aspiring actress, appearing in Alan Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business at the Bedlam Theatre.
A contemporary said: ‘She was really rather eye-catching. She has boundless energy, is a great networker and is the first in line for any high jinks. You always heard her before you saw her, she was always the life and soul.’

Pippa and Alice played in the university’s hockey and tennis teams but according to one close friend, they also threw ‘some pretty raucous parties.

Alice was in the same year as Kate at Marlborough College, the Wiltshire public school Pippa also attended
 

'They were sporty in the day but in the evening let’s just say they knew how to have fun’.
Alice is the daughter of businessman and former Army captain St John Webster and his wife Inga.
She has two older brothers: Woody, who runs a company called Bright Young Things Tuition, and Alexander, who runs a software firm.
Her younger sister Clemmie is about to graduate from Oxford University. On leaving Edinburgh, Alice began working for financial services firm JP Morgan but then decided to become a teacher.
She now lives in Fulham and teaches French and Spanish.
The friend said: ‘She has always loved languages and children and is actually more suited to a teaching career than that of a ruthless banker.
'She’s engaged to a lovely French man. He’s not well-known. She’s yet to set the date but it will be later this year probably. Pippa has been helping her come up with ideas.’
Alice also ran the 2007 London Marathon, raising money for the Rainbow Trust which supports families who have a child with a life- threatening or terminal illness.

A first-class mind and unashamedly high-maintenance

Camilla Campion-Awwad, 27

'High maintenance': Camilla Campion-Awwad is fiercely loyal to Pippa and quick to spot anyone who might want to get close to the sister of the future Queen of England for the wrong reasons
 

Haughtily beautiful and unashamedly ‘high-maintenance’, Camilla is the daughter of the Jordanian plastic surgeon Awwad M. Awwad and Constance Campion-Awwad, an Irish practice nurse. 
She read English literature with Pippa at Edinburgh. Extremely clever – she got a first – Camilla is said by friends to be hugely lively, the last to leave a party but the first to be up the next day, bright-eyed and full of energy.
She is a regular visitor to the Middleton family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, or Middleton Manor as it is now known.
On leaving university, Camilla worked in the City but is now part of the family plastic surgery business.
One acquaintance said: ‘She’s a nice girl but she expects the finer things in life. She had an ex-boyfriend who was quite a troubled young boy and had a few problems with drugs. He was from a very good background but didn’t have a lot of money.
'Camilla always wanted to go to the best places and drink champagne and fine wines. He bought her a Rolex too. It was a very tempestuous relationship, very fiery, and it ended when he allegedly broke into her house.’
Camilla attended Latymer Upper School, the £15,000-a-year private school in Hammersmith, West London, near to the family’s Kensington home.

Expensive: Camilla attended Latymer Upper School, the £15,000-a-year private school in Hammersmith, West London, one of the best fee-paying schools in the capital
 

One of the best fee-paying schools in London, fellow alumni include supermodel Lily Cole, actors Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, and chef Heston Blumenthal.
She is fiercely loyal to Pippa and is quick to spot anyone who might want to get close to the sister of
the future Queen of England for the wrong reasons.


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