Princess Kate’s brother, James Middleton, has shed new light on the personal issues that the royal was facing around the time that Meghan Markle joined the British royal family, as he has bravely discussed his battle with depression and suicidal thoughts in his memoir.
In his book Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, Middleton has revealed in detail how the deaths of family pets in the fall of 2016 contributed to a downward spiral of his mental health, sparking concern from his family.
He told readers he acknowledged at the time that, though things appeared externally perfect, he was deeply unhappy, so much so that in 2017 he considered ending his own life.
Middleton’s sisters, Princess Kate and Pippa Matthews, were not made aware of the extent of their brother’s mental health crisis until they attended a group therapy session in early 2018, after he had sought professional help.
This timeline adds new insight into the personal challenges facing Kate between 2016 and 2018, the same period of time that Meghan Markle was joining the royal family.
Meghan began dating Harry in the summer of 2016, and they announced their engagement in the fall of 2017, a period in which Middleton writes he was experiencing his darkest periods of his depression.
It comes as public focus on Kate’s relationship with Meghan and how she welcomed her new sister-in-law into the royal family has grown since the Sussexes split from the monarchy in 2020.
In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan confirmed speculation that her relationship with Kate was strained and that in May 2018 the princess had made her cry before the royal wedding.
In his 2023 memoir, Spare, Prince Harry expressed disappointment that his wife and sister-in-law didn’t appear to get along as well as he’d hoped, and that a number of tensions built up between them.
