Unexpected item late Queen ate out of each day - as iconic brand Tupperware announces bankruptancy

It was beloved by the late Queen, and is still used by the Royals today, alongside celebs like David and Victoria Beckham - but today kitchen brand Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy

The party is finally over for Tupperware - makers of iconic food storage boxes - which filed for bankruptcy yesterday.

Founded in 1946 by Earl Silas Tupper, who patented the containers’ flexible airtight seal, the company’s shares fell by more than 50% in the week leading up to the sad announcement, with increased competition and consumer desire to use less plastic being cited as reasons for Tupperware’s demise.

Yet, the household name has enjoyed an illustrious 78 year history, at the heart of many a kitchen and picnic table worldwide.

Tupperware parties of the 60s and 70s with the slogan, ‘There ain’t no party like a Tupperware party,’ became part of our cultural history - playing a significant role in post war society, by helping women hosting the get togethers to earn an income by demonstrating the products to guests. Meanwhile, the containers have never been short of celebrity endorsers - and even royal fans - including the late Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles and Queen Camilla and Prince William and Princess Kate.

Indeed, a quick peek beneath the lid of a Tupperware box reveals a host of devotees who will be sad to see the firm go. But Earl Tupper’s invention did not win housewives’ hearts straight away. It wasn’t until the 1970s when single mum Brownie Wise was recruited as vice president and started to build up a network of women selling the product out of their own homes that Tupperware parties took off in the UK.

The brand’s rise in popularity then became stratospheric. Tupperware was soon sold in over 70 countries and its products became such an integral part of every kitchen that they made it onto the silver screen and the Broadway stage - with the film Tupperware Unsealed starring Sandra Bullock and the stage musical Sealed for Freshness.

The late Queen’s penchant for the airtight boxes was discovered in 2003 by a Daily Mirror reporter, Ryan Parry, who went undercover, securing a position as a Buckingham Palace footman, only to find that Her Majesty stored her breakfast cornflakes and fruit in a Tupperware container. This was later confirmed by the late monarch’s former chef Darren McGrady, who worked for her from 1982 to 1993.

He said: “People always say, ‘Oh, the Queen must eat off gold plates with gold knives and forks.’ Yes, sometimes...but at Balmoral she’d eat fruit from a plastic yellow Tupperware container.” And she passed down her love of the brand to her son King Charles and daughter-in-law Kate Middleton. “Charles and Camilla urge their staff to keep everything fresh by using Tupperware,” said an insider. “Charles got that from his mother and father. They use it mostly when they are having picnics on the estate [Balmoral]. William and Kate also put everything into Tupperware as well. She’s quite hands-on.”

Politicians have also cast their votes in support of the Tupperware brand. Playing down his 56th birthday party celebrations at 10 Downing Street during the pandemic, when the country was in lockdown, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he left the grand Cabinet room after just nine minutes and his birthday cake didn’t even leave the Tupperware box! And another former Prime Minister, Jeremy Corbyn, was photographed in 2019 with a Tupperware box, containing what seemed to be home made cakes

Posh and Becks showed you can never be too posh for a packed lunch when Victoria Beckham let slip that they use Tupperware at home, when she gave her Instagram followers a glimpse into her marital life in 2022. She shared a note David had left for her in a Tupperware container saying: “Enjoy lunch ****hole… Come home happier. Lots of love, you know who…” He was probably singing for his supper after that!

With such a famous fanbase it is hard to understand why Tupperware has gone bust. Despite a brief surge in sales during the pandemic, when more people were cooking at home, business coach Zoe Whitman told the Mirror Tupperware has had its day. She said: “Tupperware is a brand that sadly hasn’t kept up with the times. It’s a real lesson about how businesses need to stay current. I’m a mum and I send my children to school with a snack every day in a container, but it never crossed my mind to invest in Tupperware for this purpose and I’m sure many other households are the same, with so many competitors in the supermarkets and online.

"If I was leading a product business like Tupperware today, I’d be looking at collaborations with influencers, who could make the brand more desirable and position Tupperware as a solution to a problem that needs solving. I’m sure there are kitchen cupboards around the world full of mis-matched lunchbox combinations, but at a time of real austerity for many, it’s not a big enough problem for enough customers to want to fix.”

At times, however, the brand has made concerted efforts to refresh itself - even collaborating with the legendary rapper Ice T. In 2008, Tupperware threw a Super Bowl party for Ice T in appreciation of the Law & Order star’s love for its products, after he expressed his affection for Tupperware on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. And when it comes to celebrity endorsers you don’t get much better than Sir Elton John, who once made the headlines for never returning Tupperware boxes.

Patti LaBelle cooked for Elton and the band a lot back when she was singing with the Bluebelles and he was working with her as a pianist. After long nights in the studio, she’d invite them over, cook for them and give them food in Tupperware containers to take home. While Elton failed to return his airtight boxes, she says he did show his gratitude years later by leaving a huge diamond-encrusted ring shaped like a cross on the piano for her, with a note saying. “Patti, that’s your Tupperware.”

In 2009, American actress and model Brooke Shields became involved with Tupperware, saying she was planning to bring back its legendary parties through her charity work. “We’re sort of bringing back the Tupperware party,” Brooke said. “There’s this sort of kitsch aspect to it. It’s fun. I think people started making fun of it, but I guarantee you people are rushing to the table to see the product. It’s a campaign that celebrates women, that empowers women, that celebrates the relationships women have and the independence that they derive from those relationships.”

Presenter Josie Gibson teased her I’m A Celebrity campmate Nick Pickard, who is straight, by calling him 'a gay best friend' when they were in the jungle together in 2023, after The Hollyoaks actor joined the ladies for a chat and revealed his love of Tupperware. Meanwhile, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and his wife Giovanni made the news in 2016, when they revealed they were planning on taking home her placenta in a Tupperware box once she’d given birth.

Sharing the snap of him holding the empty container on Instagram and Twitter, Tom wrote: “You will never guess what this Tupperware box is for... #placenta”. But sadly, despite being named one of the 10 greatest icons of our time in the Guinness Book Of The 20th Century, the brand favoured by everyone from royals to rockstars seems to have finally gone stale.