#middleton family
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“I thought how lucky William was to be marrying my capable, down-to-earth big sister, and I felt absolutely reassured that they were in love.
It was beautiful to see how he brought out her confidence. She’d blossomed. I knew he’d look after her, and he does to this day.” - James Middleton in his book Meet Ella.
#There’s that lucky quote often referenced to when people use to tell Kate how lucky she was. she replied how lucky he was to have her#ktd#prince william#british royal family#The middletons#middleton family#catherine middleton#james middleton#Meet ella
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The Princess of Wales with her daughter Princess Charlotte and her sister Pippa Matthews at the Gentlemen's Singles Final, Wimbledon (July 14, 2024)
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“My favorite thing about William’s relationship with his in-laws is how much he includes them with the rest of the family, because he considers them as part of his family and not just these people he has to tolerate. Seeing him interact with them at Ascot as well as them interacting with the rest of the family members really shows (to me at least) how comfortable and familiar the Middletons are with the royal family.” - Submitted by Anonymous
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OMG do you remember when George was born and the Midds came to visit him at the hospital. Only Carole spoke to the press, if I remember correctly. I've always felt Catherine's nervousness to speak in front of the public endearing but even more so because I know she got it from him. Shyness is a trait I generally find sweet so it's a shame that most people seem averse to it or seemingly want to shame it out of those who have it.
I do! I was round the corner at the time haha. One of my most British traits is I love awkwardness in people. I don't trust people who are too confident lol. I'm always that person making forced eye contact and nodding and encouraging people when they do talks in meetings and seem nervous. I've had many times when people thought I had strong opinions but I was just nodding to encourage them lol. Public speaking is always listed as one of the biggest fears people have so it's totally normal, but she still gets up and does it. And the counterbalance is she is so much better at small talk than I am! Everyone has different strengths and I personally find it more relatable when someone is trying hard at something they aren't good at than when they're just naturally great at everything.
#the-mountbatten-windsors#ask#Middleton family#Kate middleton#British royal family#she is naturally great at most things#so the fact that she doesn't like public speaking and has no rhythm is what I can cling on to
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From one CHAMPION to another CHAMPION: Novak Djokovic's lovely statement about the Princess of Wales:
"It's wonderful to have that kind of support from the royal family."
After a brutal loss, The Daily Express (of course 🙄) came to Novak's press conference just to gather information about Catherine. Nole, being All Around Amazing, handled the question like a true Champion:
Q: What did it mean to have the Princess of Wales here today because obviously it was the first time we've seen her in Wimbledon given she's got this health battle and I just wondered what you said to her and what she said to you because obviously you've spoken so many times in the past...
AAA Novak: Yes it was of course a privilege to be in her presence again and I said to her that it is very nice to see her in good health. She seems to be in good health so that's obviously very positive news for everyone in this country, but also for Wimbledon--- for championships---- to have Her Royal Highness here of course with her family members. It's amazing. It's incredible support that they've been giving over the years to this tournament and I know that she and her sister (PIPPA 🎾) have played tennis for a very long time and so they TRULY respect and admire the game, and they also understand tennis which is great to have. It's wonderful to have that kind of support from the royal family.
Novak's Press Conference
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Thank you Charles, William & KP for sister's day in the royal box +1 surprise (a mini Pippa)
Healing is very slow. Thank you AAA Catherine for taking it slow & steady. 👑
Thank you Catherine's sister Pippa 🎾 for helping your sister. I was worried that Catherine wouldn't have someone to look after her at this engagement. We truly appreciate you and your entire family!
Thank you to the sweet little Princess for her signature 🎀 and yet another Middleton master class in SHADEs
Thank you Victoria Beckham for designing Kate's favorite (Wimbledon) handbag
#novak djokovic#serbia#spain#carlos alcaraz#All Around Amazing AAA#middleton family#catherine princess of wales#wimbledon#champion#prince and princess of wales#Team Lacoste#Dad#survivor#sisters#kate#BRF#AAA Novak#AAA Kate#tennis#king charles iii#prince william#kensington palace#all england lawn tennis & croquet club#princess charlotte#pippa matthews#james middleton#james matthews#victoria beckham
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16 November 2010, Bucklebury, Berkshire, Michael and Carole, the parents of Catherine Middleton make a statement to the press on the news regarding their daughters engagement to Prince William of Wales. "We all think he is wonderful and we are extremely fond of him. They make a lovely couple, they are great fun to be with, and we've had a lot of laughs together. We wish them every happiness for the future." - Michael Middleton
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Kate Middleton
#Kate Middleton#middleton family#catherine middleton#princess of wales#duchess of cambridge#princess kate#princess catherine
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Party Pieces sold.
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excitedly waiting for this
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The Middletons have been put through the royal wringer. Thank you Charles, William and anyone else involved in honoring Carole & Michael in this small but meaningful way. I always look forward to seeing Catherine and Pippa enjoy the sport, but this is even better. Good job to the Princess for resisting the media's selfish attempts to make money off of your appearances. Well done!!
Several years ago Catherine to her credit, humbly shared with a Wimbledon champion "she's good, she's VERY good..." in reference to her little sister, Pippa.
Carole & Michael Middleton are true tennis fans who inspired all 3 children to love the sport. They weren't too proud to que for "bad seats" at Wembley stadium and decades later the nation is reaping the rewards of their labor. Great Britain has cultivated another English Rose who sincerely loves the sport, and Princess Catherine inspires a new generation of athletes to appreciate it as well.
THE MIDDLETONS || Carole and Michael Middleton in the Royal Box on Centre Court as they attend day four of Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London | 4 JULY 2024
#carole middleton#michael middleton#middleton family#catherine duchess of cambridge#catherine elizabeth middleton#princess of wales#prince and princess of wales#wembley#wimbledon#tennis#royal box#for the love of the game#The All England Lawn Tennis Club#2024
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James Middleton: Kate, William and the dog that saved my life. The younger brother of the Princess of Wales was so depressed he came close to killing himself. Then Ella, his faithful cocker spaniel, stepped in — and even found him a wife. He tells Matt Rudd about his ‘waste of money’ education, family therapy and the help Prince William gave him. The Sunday Times, 22 Sep 2024.
I’m in a cottage on a farm with the brother of the Princess of Wales and his eyes are filling with tears. He has a cocker spaniel called Luna on his lap and I have a cocker spaniel called Inka on my lap. Both dogs are looking anxiously at their owner as he tries to tell me about the death of their mother, Ella. It could be a bit awkward when a man you’ve only just met starts getting very emotional about a dog that died nearly two years ago. Instead it’s the moment I realise James Middleton isn’t exaggerating. A dog really did save his life.
On a winter’s night in late 2017, Middleton climbed a ladder to the roof above his parents’ flat in Chelsea and contemplated suicide. Overwhelmed by feelings of failure, he had decided that the labour of living was no longer worth the effort. As his thoughts spiralled, it was only the sight of Ella, watching him carefully through the skylight, that gave him pause. How could he leave her, he wondered.
Over weeks and months Middleton had isolated himself from family and friends, ignoring increasingly desperate phone calls and texts. When his sister Pippa came to the door, he would hide in his room. When he tried to go to work, he got as far as the car park and then drove home again.
“I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t sleep, I was constantly agitated,” he says. “If I sat down I had to stand up again immediately. I couldn’t eat because I felt constantly as if I were about to throw up. What was most challenging was that I couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. It wasn’t living, it was just existing in this awful state of anxiety.”
As his mental health crisis deepened, it was only Ella and the routine of looking after her that kept him going. “I was never alone in a time when I felt very lonely,” he says, stroking Inka’s ears. “I’m surprised there weren’t marks on the carpet from the laps I was doing, but she would sort of get in the way. It was a silent interruption, but for a fraction of a second it would stop the spiralling. “Something was taking over my mind, but not knowing what it was made it very difficult to talk about. And I didn’t feel as though I had a right to be depressed because I’ve had everything, because I am privileged.”
We are meeting today, I should mention, at Bucklebury Farm Park, a genteel sheep-petting outfit plus farm shop (excellent organic pesto) at the more desirable end of Berkshire. It is owned by his sister Pippa Matthews née Middleton and her hedgie husband, James, who is, among other things, the next laird of Glen Affric. Carole and Michael Middleton, parents to James, Pippa and Catherine, live in a manor house a stone’s throw away and Middleton’s own farm, which he bought from the parents of a prep school friend mid-pandemic, is a mile over there. It’s quite the empire.
Now married to the French financier Alizée Thevenet and father to 11-month-old Inigo, Middleton is happy to talk about his annus horribilis and his dog-assisted recovery. He does so at book-length in Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life. But it’s a good question: what does someone born into such wealth and privilege have to be depressed about?
The roots of his 2017 crisis can be found, like most roots of crises, in childhood. Born in 1987, the same year his mother set up the mail-order company Party Pieces, he followed his two older sisters to Marlborough. If the prestigious boarding school demanded academic excellence and his parents expected it, both were to be disappointed. Diagnosed with dyslexia then, and with attention deficit disorder when he finally sought help in 2017, he struggled where his sisters had excelled.
“School is about comparing yourself to others,” he says, recalling how he would avoid friends phoning to compare exam results in the summer holidays. “I didn’t feel despair when I failed because it happened so often, but I was embarrassed. I felt let down because I didn’t think that those results properly represented me.”
In the early chapters of the book he charts his struggles with expectation — his mother is frequently in tears, his father just as frequently exasperated. Even without VAT, it must have taken a large chunk of the trust fund established by Michael’s grandmother, the heiress Olive Middleton, to put his son through Marlborough. When that son had to spend a gap year retaking his A-level chemistry four times, a “humiliating record” for the school, he tells him his education was “a waste of money”.
Although today Middleton studiously avoids criticising his school or his beloved parents — he learnt valuable survival skills at Marlborough, he tells me, and “Mum and Dad just wanted the best for me” — the pressure was clearly intense. He sought escape from that pressure in nature and in dogs. “I was an outcast … alienated from my classmates,” he writes. “But dogs never judged me. Mum asked repeatedly if I wanted to bring friends home to stay at weekends. But truthfully all I wanted to do was to see Tilly.”
Tilly was the family’s golden retriever, but from an early age Middleton was desperate for his own dog. His parents, on the other hand, continued to be desperate for him to succeed. And so, after that long summer of resits, he squeaked into Edinburgh University, choosing criminology, environmental studies and geography modules because he was “pretty certain they would all be multiple choice”. They weren’t, of course, and he failed his first-year exams. More crying from Mum, more exasperation from Dad, more solace from a dog, this time his own.
“For all my reservations, I shall be eternally grateful for the time I spent in Edinburgh because it is thanks to Ben, a university friend, that I find my adored dog Ella,” he writes, introducing us to the dog that saved his life. Despite his best efforts, puppies and student life are not compatible, and when he was banned from bringing Ella to lectures he finally abandoned his studies. “I knew that if I left university I’d be responsible for that decision,” he says. “It was a big step, but I had Ella with me, as my companion and my responsibility.”
Middleton’s story is not exactly Angela’s Ashes. When he announces that he is ditching his degree to become an entrepreneur in London, he is cut off, he tells us, from the Bank of Mum and Dad, but he can still move in with his sisters at the family’s flat in Chelsea. His uncle Gary Goldsmith, he of Celebrity Big Brother 2024 notoriety, is also on hand to invest in his cake kit start-up. Nobody in this story is going to find themselves on the street.
But cynics desist! Don’t underestimate the impact of parental expectation, nor of not conforming to the traditional model of success. Middleton, anxious and increasingly socially uncomfortable, had left his friends in Edinburgh and washed up in London with his dog.
“She was my shield,” he says. “Through her I could enjoy things. I could take her for a walk and see what she was seeing. I process a lot of things in my mind and that can be overwhelming, but she helped me open my eyes and realise everything was OK.”
There are, I’m sure, many advantages to being royal adjacent, but when his sister Catherine started dating Prince William in 2004, Middleton found the level of media interest “shocking”. A young man who used his dog as an excuse to leave parties early was not equipped for the spotlight, for stepping out of the flat into a sea of flashing cameras.
“I’d never seen a royal wedding,” he says, rather sweetly. “There hadn’t been one in my lifetime. Not a big one anyway. I wasn’t aware of the scale or the global interest. I just felt privileged that my sister was asking me to do it, and it meant something to her. I wanted to make sure I did it.”
His description of the intense amount of practice he put in to the reading is like a potted version of The King’s Speech — he stutters, he stumbles, he takes lessons with the voice coach Anthony Gordon Lennox, he reads nervously and then more confidently to an audience of one dog — Ella, of course — in Chelsea Old Church. And then it’s the big day. “Really, the build-up to Catherine’s wedding was no different to Pippa’s or other friends’ weddings,” he says, unbelievably. Just the family, 1,900 guests, Her Majesty, an archbishop and a few world leaders. Watching the recording back today, there’s no hint of nerves — Middleton, 24 at the time, gives a bravura performance. Afterwards an American production company wrote to ask if he’d like to star in his own film — their opening offer was $1 million.
“They even ventured,” he writes wryly, “that members of my wider family might like to take part.” Middleton is not unaware of how everything is distorted by his proximity to royalty.
On the surface the next few years of Middleton’s life read like a Hello! magazine special — parties, holidays on Mustique, holidays in the Alps, a blossoming relationship with a glamorous older woman (the actress Donna Air, about whom his parents were hesitant because of the eight-year age gap), weekends at Sandringham (“Did you get my message, James?” the Queen asked the first time he visited. “Ella is welcome to stay in your room.”) But then came the night of despair in pyjamas on a Chelsea rooftop. Long sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy followed with a psychiatrist who was happy for Ella to attend too. She was, Middleton says, the only reason he kept going.
In December 2017, his mental health still fragile, he left London without telling anyone and holed up in a remote cottage in the Lake District. While his family grew frantic with worry, much to his irritation (“I’m a grown man”), he describes three days of elemental existence — fetching firewood and water, heating soup, walking Ella and her two pups. For the first time in a year he enjoyed a deep sleep and, in front of the fire after a wild swim with his dogs, he felt fleetingly happy.
“Dogs are amazing,” he says and all five of the dogs in the cottage with us — three spaniels and two beautiful golden retrievers — look delighted. “They do just sense things. Ella had been with me in every therapy session, she was always with me. I think we can learn from dogs. They’re not thinking about yesterday or tomorrow. They’re not even thinking about the next couple of hours. They’re thinking about right now. I’m here, they’re here, in the moment.”
As Middleton’s recovery continued, he says his sisters understood — they both had friends who had depression — but his parents struggled. “They were uncomfortable with the fact that I’d been labelled ‘clinically depressed’,” he writes. “To people of their generation, I can understand why it was concerning. Society was only just starting to break through the stigma.”
The solution, in the end, was to invite the family to the therapy sessions. “I felt guilty because I knew they were worried,” he says. “They felt guilty because it’s really hard if you’re not able to help the people you love the most. I was finally understanding how I felt but I got nervous trying to translate that to my family without the help of an interpreter. When they came into the sessions they had the opportunity to ask questions that I couldn’t necessarily answer.”
In the 13 years since Catherine’s wedding Middleton’s hair has receded a little, but he now has a beard for balance — a little twirl of his moustaches and he could be a not-too-distant cousin of Tsar Nicholas II. He probably is — this generation of Middletons is not the first to hang out with royalty. He looks less bright and bushy-tailed than he did in 2011, but that might be fatherhood or the weekend with friends he has just returned from in Norfolk. Or it might simply be the passing of enough eventful years.
Whatever it is, he tells me he is now happy, which, given the depths of his depression, he still finds extraordinary. His idea of what constitutes success has changed — he is no longer motivated by money but by the things in life about which he is passionate. He doesn’t even like the word entrepreneur any more.
Having stepped away from Boomf, a marshmallow delivery company (Boomf is the sound a marshmallow makes falling from a letterbox), he started James & Ella, a “premium freeze-dried raw dog food” company in 2020. He clearly finds it easier to be passionate about dogs than marshmallows. But it’s in his personal life that the change has been most dramatic.
“I remember sitting in the therapist’s chair with Ella’s head on my lap, wondering how long it was going to take to get better,” he says. “But within a year I had met my future wife. And we’re now here with an 11-month-old son, living on a farm with six dogs. If someone had told me that would happen, I’d have been annoyed. It would have just seemed so ridiculous.”
He met Thevenet, 34, at a members club in South Kensington, west London, in 2018. Ella, having actively disapproved of several previous girlfriends, broke the ice by going over to her table. They married in the south of France in 2021 (a Hello! magazine world exclusive, naturally) and Ella was a flower girl. And everyone lived happily ever after.
Except, alas, the dog. It is one of life’s cruelties that man’s best friend has a much shorter life expectancy than man. Just asking Middleton about the death of Ella, early one Saturday in January 2023, makes him emotional. Despite being given two weeks to live the previous September, she had made it through Christmas, perhaps buoyed by the thought of one final week in the Alps. Of course Middleton was with her when she took her last breath at 3am. The whole family, including William and Catherine, gathered in his parents’ garden for what sounds like an extensive memorial on the Sunday.
“Saying goodbye to Ella was not just saying goodbye to her as a dog,” Middleton says. “It was everything I’d been through with her. She had arrived just as I was starting out in my twenties and she was leaving as I’d finally figured things out in my mid-thirties. She put me on the right path and I didn’t want another day from her. I didn’t want another hour. I would have loved it but I didn’t need it. “She was sent to me before I even knew I needed her, but she chose me. She was able to transform my life better than any human could have done and then she put me in the capable hands of someone and together we’re now raising our own family.”
Eight days after Ella was buried in her favourite sheepskin, Alizée interrupted Middleton’s mourning to announce that she was pregnant. He is convinced Ella knew and that her death was a kind of passing of the torch. His son, Inigo, was born last autumn. “I hope there’s an Ella who will find Inigo, if there’s a time in his life when he needs it,” he says, as one of the golden retrievers has a long stretch.
If you’re not a dog person, you might find this cosmic canine intervention a bit much. Whether Ella was the ultimate therapist or a very effective placebo, it worked for Middleton. His sisters’ families are also fully invested in the joys of cocker spaniels — Pippa has one of Ella’s sons and Catherine, whose announcement of the end of her chemotherapy treatment comes a few days after this interview, now has one of Ella’s granddaughters — no corgis to date. Middleton himself now regards his mental health crisis as a blessing. “Although I would never wish it on anybody and I would never want to go through it again, I’m pleased it happened. It was an opportunity to recalibrate and to re-evaluate what matters.” Happiness, he says, is what matters. Happiness and lots of dogs. Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life by James Middleton (Radar £22).
#ktd#middleton family#James middleton#meet ella#mental health#mental heath support#mental heath awareness#Sunday times#Dogs#dog#doggo#dogs of tumblr#dogblr#puppy
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#kate middleton#dungeons and dragons#dnd#princess diana#british royal family#royal family#twitter#meme#memes#tweets#tweet#funny#lol#humor
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“Over the years of following BRF, I’ve read countless articles saying that Prince William favours spending time with the Middleton than with his own family, because of how very “middle-class” it is. Why does it feel like he dislikes the fact he was born royal? What is the point of monarchy if the current PoW cannot even appreciate and appraise thousands of years tradition?” - Submitted by Anonymous
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So random that the first and only word I've ever heard Mike Middleton say in 15 years is "Bishop"
You have no idea how much this made me laugh. I scared the cat lol. He did that endearingly awkward little press conference when Kate and William got engaged but I don't think I've heard him say anything since then! It's like hearing a baby's first words.
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Prince Charming's Cinderellas 👠
#prince william#princess catherine#kate middleton#carole middleton#she gets it from her momma#BRF#british royal family#prince and princess of wales#Cinderella#Cinderella's Slipper#middleton family#favorite photos of kate#full time princess
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#Kate Middleton#Post Office Scandal#Hasmukh Shingadia#Duchess of Cambridge#Middleton Family#Postmaster#Wrongful Accusation#False Accounting Charges#Horizon Scandal#Michael Middleton#Spar#Upper Bucklebury#Berkshire#Conviction Overturned#Justice#Sub-Postmasters#Fujitsu Horizon System#Technical Glitches#Error Messages#Financial Discrepancies#Flawed Software#Missing Amount#Support#Gratitude#Challenging Decade#Westminster Abbey#Together At Christmas#Carol Service#London#England
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