Growing up in a successful family with two enterprising parents and two older sisters who never miss a beat can certainly be a stimulus but, depending on the case, it can also become a pressure that slowly crushes you. For James, the youngest of the Middleton family and Carole and Michael’s only son, It must not have been easy to bear the weight of comparison with an almost perfect family, in which he, dyslexic, introverted and suffering from attention deficitinevitably appeared as the different, not to say the black sheep. And to think that when he masterfully read a passage from the Bible at his sister Catherine’s wedding, an American production company offered him a leading role for a million dollars. James later confessed that he learned the song by heart for fear of stumbling due to his dyslexia.
In his new book “Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life”, of which the Daily Mail, in these launch weeks, has published some chapters, James, lo Spare of the Middleton family, he speaks with an open heart about the struggle of being oneself and the frustration of never feeling up to par. Two conditions that slowly made him sink into the depths of depression. «My sisters, Catherine and Pippa, are respectively five and three years older than me. Growing up surrounded by strong and capable women it was like having three mothersand I always relied on Kate and Pippa for advice”, it is written in the introduction to the book.
James, the other Spare
However, unlike Prince Harry, who in his autobiography talks about his problems and attacks his family, accusing him of being the main culprit, James Middleton does not blame anyone for his illness. which struck him and offers an intimate and, at times even ironic, portrait of his parents and sisters, who, in times of difficulty, get involved and never stop holding out their hand to help him out of the tunnel .
Carole and Michael welcome their son’s oddities but, as James says in the book, they are “firm and fair”. While Catherine and Pippa receive jewels for their eighteenth birthdays, he is given the choice between a “used Peugeot 206” or an old “dilapidated tractor”. He chooses the tractor and his father Michael drives him to Devon to collect it. After James drops out of college, his parents close his account at the “Bank of Mom and Dad,” forcing him to find his own path in life. When he falls into depression, the Middleton seniors are the first to criticize themselves, while admitting the difficulty in understanding their son’s torments.
At school he felt like an “outcast”
James makes no secret of the fact that he has struggled, ever since he was a child, to find his way. As Kate and Pippa are good at studies and skilled at sports, he collects one failure after another. His school career at the very expensive Marlborough College (32,000 pounds per year tuition), the same one his sisters also attended, was a disaster: «I set a new school record after four failed chemistry A levels, making my mum cry and prompting my dad to tell me my expensive education had just been a waste of money», he said in an interview with the Times. Even in sport things aren’t much better. «It’s always frustrating to be compared to my sisters. I think it was difficult for my parents, because they saw the two of them excel and finish school without problems. The teachers were so perplexed not only by my academic results but also by my poor rugby ability, that they wondered in disbelief.” “Are you sure you’re a Middleton?” Her older sister Kate was captain of the field hockey team when she attended the same college, as well as excelling in countless other sports.
James, diagnosed with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder (ADHD), explains in the book how his mother Carole encouraged him to invite school friends to their home in Bucklebury at weekendsbut he was more concerned about being with his family dog, Tilly, than his peers. «I was an outcast… isolated from my classmates. But the dogs never judged me.” «I sincerely hope that, when my son Inigo goes to school, the system, in the meantime, will have changed because it is out of time. I have the feeling that school and society’s expectations of you are like a round hole. If you have a round shape, it will be a pleasant experience. But if you have a different shape, all they will do is file down your edges to still fit you».
Failures at work and suicidal thoughts
After managing, on the fifth attempt, to pass the chemistry exam, a “humiliating record for Marlborough College”, James enrolled at the University of Edinburgh and chose courses in geography, criminology and environmental studies. “Mom and Dad only wanted the best for me.” And it is during his university years that James, who has always wanted to have a dog of his own, adopts a black cocker spaniel puppy, which he calls Ella. But young Middleton fails to pass his first year exams and soon abandons his studies with the feeling that this is not the right path for him.
After leaving university, his parents cut off his living expenses and offer him the chance to move into the family flat in Chelsea with his two sisters. who, at that time, lived in London. The Prince and Princess of Wales had been dating for three years when James moved in and immediately found the public interest in Kate “shocking”. In that period James embarked on a series of entrepreneurial adventures which however foundered. First set up a business that provides pastry kits to prepare themed cakes. And subsequently, in 2013, he created another marshmallow manufacturing company which, after a brilliant start, began to lose and accumulate debt.
Along with his activities his mood also plummets and his mental balance begins to “constantly decline”. Speaking of William as a “fantastic support” for the family, James confesses: «All the color in my life was sucked away. I didn’t find any pleasure or happiness in anything.” And suicidal thoughts begin to creep into his head even going so far as to think about jumping off the roof of his London home in 2017. That idea slowly fades when he thinks of the dog Ella who would be left alone without him. “As I walk back and forth, I look down through the skylight and see the kind eyes of my dog Ella looking up at me. Like me, she stayed up all night. He senses my strange, agitated state of mind […]. What would Ella do without me? She depends on me and I on her. The feeling is completely mutual […]. In that instant I know I won’t jump. What would happen to Ella if I died? How long would she be alone in the apartment before someone found her?”
The three brothers together at psychotherapy sessions
James, in his book, also enthusiastically recounts the support he received from his sisters. Kate and Pippa “looked after him like mother hens” despite their little brother having “upended their orderly lives”. «Rather protective, they preferred me to stay with them rather than alone. So they could keep an eye on me and make sure I got up in the morning». In an interview with the magazine Hello! the young Middleton told how his family agreed to undergo group family therapy and how Kate and Pippa helped Carole and Michael, “tremendously worried”, to understand and stop blaming themselves. Thinking back to her first sessions with the psychotherapist: «It was easier for my sisters. While initially my parents saw it as a challenge: where had they gone wrong?”. It was so important to have an impartial third party (represented by Pippa and Kate) tell Carole and Michael that their sheet’s mental health problems were not linked to any specific fault of theirs.
For the Princess of Wales it was natural and easy to help her brother. «Catherine had already done a lot of mental health work with the project Heads Togetherand during psychotherapy he asked very pertinent questions. He understood everything immediately. I was really admired,” James says in his book. In another passage of the book it is said that the Princess of Wales (then Duchess of Cambridge) participated in a psychotherapy session with her brother, acting as a bridge between the therapeutic language she had learned in her work and their parents, who struggled to understand this vocabulary.
Pippa, the middle sister, was also a precious resource during that period when she pampered her younger brother with homemade lasagne, making him feel part of the family. However, family sessions have allowed the Middleton family to grow and further strengthen their already strong union. «It helped us as a family to be more open. Now we can talk about everything.”
The meeting with Alizée, a ray of sunshine
The turning point for James comes after meeting his future wife Alizée, a French girl who is a financial analyst by profession.. A ray of sunshine for Kate’s brother. In March 2021, James told The Telegraph in an interview how Ella, who did not approve of his previous girlfriends, “made a beeline” for his future wife Alizée at a private club in South Kensington in 2018. After becoming close to her his future wife to apologize, James says: «Alizée thought I was the waiter and ordered a drink, continuing to caress Ella, who at that point was lying on her back and enjoying all that attention». In 2019 the engagement arrived and on September 11, 2021, after having postponed the wedding twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple got married in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France with Alizée wearing the wedding dress wife of his mother-in-law Carole Middleton. In September 2023 the couple welcomed their first child, Inigo. James, in his book, also recounts the first time Alizée met her sister Kate, showing up in the morning, for breakfast, at the Middletons’ house dressed only in her oversized men’s shirt. Alizée managed to immediately sympathize with Kate and William who began to converse with her as if they had always known her, behind the mischievous giggles of Charlotte and George.
The competitive spirit of the Middletons that Prince William escapes from
However, James’ book is peppered with amusing anecdotes about the Middletons and the royal family. One of the nicest concerns Prince William who apparently had a passion for Ella also because she offered him a good excuse «to escape the competitive nature of the Middleton family, which emerges every time we play our favorite card game, Racing Demon», writes James.
“William winces at our ruthless determination to win at all costs. He is therefore happy to be the first to go out and, when he no longer has to participate in the game, he will go away to cuddle Ella. I think he would just rather not play. “James, does Ella need to go for a walk?” he would ask before we even started dealing the cards.”
Today James has a beautiful wife, a wonderful son and a team of dogs, a primary source of inspiration for the business he founded in 2020, “Ella & Co”, which sells dog food.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
