Kate and Pippa’s brother bares all
James Middleton on getting back with Donna Living in the shadow of his brainier big sisters And how he spots royal hangers-on ‘a mile off’
HE IS surely best-known for the women in his life. And today James Middleton readily admits his pride in being the little brother of the Duchess of Cambridge and Pippa – and his delight in having rekindled his romance with Donna Air.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine, Prince William’s brother-in-law also warns that he ‘can spot it a mile off’ when social climbers want to use him for his Royal connections.
Mr Middleton, 29, and Ms Air, 37, have been dating for almost four years, but earlier this year their relationship was said to be foundering. However, when asked if the romance is back on, Mr Middleton confirmed: ‘Yes it is.’
But he cautioned: ‘I can’t say everything that is happening with us. We are thinking about where we are going next.’
He spoke fondly of the TV presenter and her 13-year-old daughter Freya from her previous relationship with multi-millionaire conservationist Damian Aspinall – but was circumspect on the question of marriage. ‘I love Donna very much and Freya is very much part of Donna and I love them both equally,’ he said. ‘Marriage is not something I’m scared of [but it] isn’t necessarily the be all and end all. She makes me very happy [and] I want children. I’ve said that before, but you’ll just have to wait.’
As for his own family, he revealed that even before Kate married William in 2011, he had long been overshadowed by his brainier, sportier siblings. He explained: ‘It’s always been that I am Pippa and Catherine’s little brother. It’s prob- ably going to be the story of my life. I am very proud to be “the little brother of…”, but, equally, they are proud I am who I am.’
When he followed his ‘very successful and confident’ sisters to £31,350-a-year Marlborough College in Wiltshire, James recalled: ‘It was, “Oh you are Pippa’s brother! Are you Catherine’s brother?”
‘And so I was automatically put into the top sports teams and academic sets. But I was a bit of a squirt when I started, so then it would be, “Are you sure you’re a Middleton?”’
And in later years he took great pains to avoid another subject of teasing – his sister’s relationship with William. ‘I used to be first up in the morning to make sure I could get the papers and rip out any stories about my sister so nobody would see them and there would be no conversations about them,’ he said.
Eventually he decided to stop trying to follow in his sisters’ footsteps and dropped out of Edinburgh University, which Pippa attended, after a year. He now runs personalised marshmallow company Boomf.
‘All I want to do in my life is be known as me and for what I do,’ he said.