In November 2010, the day before her engagement to Prince William was announced, Princess Kate Middleton sat in a corner at The Old Boot pub near her childhood home in Bucklebury with her sister, Pippa, and her brother, James. According to James’ new memoir, Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, the close-knit siblings were quietly chatting when Kate told them the big news.
“Pippa and I want to be visibly excited, but we have to tamp down our emotions so no one suspects a thing,” he writes. “We make a quiet acknowledgment that we’ll always be there for each other, look out for one another, support each other. No matter how crazy things get.”
It was one of Kate’s last moments of normalcy, and she wanted to spend it catching up with people she loves. While much has changed since then — the beloved 42-year-old royal has attended thousands of engagements, met with world leaders and Hollywood stars and acquired numerous titles, all while being a hands-on mom to Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, and a supportive wife to William — some things have not.
In an interview with Us Weekly, James, 37, offers rare insight into who Kate really is and how she’s managed to remain grounded despite her status as the future Queen of England. “Catherine is very much on a public stage and I’m in awe of a lot of the things she does,” James shares in the latest issue of Us. “I think the thing I’m most proud of is that she’s still the same person that I grew up with.”
Looking Back
James says Kate was a doting and generous big sister who never let her younger brother feel left out. “Growing up surrounded by three strong, capable women felt like having three mothers, and I would rely on Catherine and Pippa for advice,” he writes in Meet Ella, which chronicles how his former cocker spaniel Ella (who died in 2023) helped him cope with severe depression. “They never dismissed me as their little squirt of a brother who wasn’t worthy of their attention. On the contrary, they let me join in their games and included me in their friendships — they still do to this day.”
He also says Kate — who revealed in a September 9 video that she’s finished her chemotherapy treatment and is currently cancer-free — was especially helpful during his darkest moments (the entrepreneur reveals he contemplated suicide in 2017) in part because of the work she’s done around mental health issues. “Catherine had been doing a lot of work with Heads Together, so there was actually more awareness of how to communicate,” he tells Us, adding that both Kate and Pippa, 41, “were fantastic in supporting my parents through that as well.”
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No Airs
James’ sentiments are shared by others who have inside knowledge of what Kate is like behind palace walls. They describe her as kind, fiercely competitive and surprisingly silly. As a child, she was a Girl Scout who enjoyed going on field trips and earning badges, writes Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen author Robert Jobson. “She was quite easygoing,” Brownie pack leader June Scutter has said. At age 11, she landed the lead role of Eliza Doolittle in her school’s production of My Fair Lady — perhaps early preparation for her many public speeches as a royal.
In high school at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Kate made friends easily and did well in her classes. “Contemporaries recall her as the perfect pupil, listening to her Walkman, watching… Friends and indulging in Marmite sandwiches,” Jobson writes. Kate remains close with former classmates Alicia Fox-Pitt and Emilia Jardine-Paterson, one of seven of Prince George’s godparents and credited with setting her up with William.
A former boss at one of Kate’s first jobs (she was an assistant buyer at the clothing brand Jigsaw in 2006) says the future queen was “down-to-earth and unpretentious,” adding, “She sat in the kitchen at lunchtime and chatted with everyone from the van drivers to the accounts girls. She wasn’t precious.”
The art history major is still an art enthusiast, and gallery-hopping is a hobby she indulges when her schedule allows. “When in London, she has been known to head out early in the morning to fulfill that passion with secret visits to art galleries,” Jobson reveals. “It is a rare occurrence, and she has confided that she really misses getting the fix from that cultural side of her life.”
The People’s Princess
Famous folks who have met Kate rave about how approachable she is. “She’s so ordinary!” British pop star Cheryl Cole said after their 2012 meeting. “I mean, obviously, she isn’t because she’s a princess, but she’s easy to get along with.” Former first lady Hillary Clinton called herself a “great admirer” of Kate’s, adding, “I think she carries herself with such dignity and poise in the public spotlight.” The Duchess of Edinburgh (William’s aunt Sophie and a close confidante of Kate’s) has said the princess is “very easy to get along with” and “very much the girl next door.”
In 2016, tennis great Serena Williams (a good friend of Kate’s estranged sister-in-law, Meghan Markle) called the royal “super sweet, super level [and] so beautiful,” and in her 2018 book, Whiskey in a Teacup, Reese Witherspoon said that Kate’s warmth and elegance blew her away. “[She] told a joke, and I immediately fell under her spell,” Witherspoon wrote, adding, “She’s just as magnificent as she seems to be. She’s a very compassionate, socially conscious, deeply caring person.”
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Determination & Drive
Underneath her accessible public persona lies a strong competitive streak. Kate’s cousin-in-law (and Rugby World Cup winner) Mike Tindall playfully nicknamed her “Engine” because of her impressive endurance. A longtime tennis enthusiast, Kate has said she, Pippa and their dad, Michael, used to line up for Wimbledon tickets at the crack of dawn, and on Tindall’s podcast, “The Good, The Bad & The Rugby last September,” she admitted she and William “haven’t managed to finish a game of tennis” because it “becomes a mental challenge between … us.” (Tindall also noted Kate was “uber competitive” during a game of beer pong.) Jobson tells Us: “Kate is very sporty. She goes to the gym regularly and has been doing that during her convalescence, too.”
Royal author Christopher Andersen says Kate also has a lighter side and can be quite cheeky. “William and Kate have always shared a goofy sense of humor,” Andersen tells Us. “It’s very Monty Python — they both crack up at things that are just plain silly.”
James agrees that Kate and William are “so clearly a good fit, just right for each other.” He tells Us that he admires their strong bond. “I wanted one day to experience what they were experiencing as a couple,” James says, adding that he’s come to view William as part of the family. “Having been brought up…with strong, capable women surrounding me, I’ve enjoyed having this older brother-type figure to bounce questions [off of],” he explains. “I’m just incredibly grateful that [Kate and William] have been supportive of me over these years as well.”
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Dedicated to Royal Duty
In her recent video message, Kate said she’s “looking forward” to returning to work and “undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months” as she continues to recover and monitor her health. First on her agenda was a meeting with members from the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood at Windsor Castle on September 17 to discuss her Early Years campaign. There are reports she’ll attend Remembrance Sunday on November 10 in London alongside William.
The royals are excited for Kate to get back in her groove — and she is as well. The princess is passionate about public service. In a clip that went viral on TikTok in 2023, Queen Rania of Jordan said Kate’s “face lights up” when she talks about her work. “She does it out of a sense of duty, but more importantly, she does it because she absolutely cares,” Rania said. “She gives from her heart and … there is a sense of sincerity and a sense of love in everything does.”
For more on Kate, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi and Shelby Stivale
