Kate Middleton’s brother James is giving a behind-the-scenes, or palace, look at what the princess is really like.
Despite her world fame and impending role as the Queen of England, the Princess of Wales, 42, is “still the same person that I grew up with,” the 37-year-old entrepreneur told Us Weekly.
James also weighed in on his big sister’s marriage to Prince William, noting the couple is “so clearly a good fit, just right for each other.”
“I wanted one day to experience what they were experiencing as a couple,” said James, adding that he regards the Duke of Cambridge, 42, as an “older brother-type figure.”
The remarks come as James is promoting his memoir, “Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life,” about the way his cocker spaniel, who died last year, helped him through a period of severe depression and suicidal ideation in 2017.
“Catherine had been doing a lot of work with Heads Together, so there was actually more awareness of how to communicate,” recalled James, who said that she and their sister, Pippa Middleton, 41, “were fantastic in supporting my parents through that as well.”
Kate shared in late March that she had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing preventative chemotherapy, following a “successful” abdominal surgery she underwent in January. Father-in-law King Charles had been hospitalized at the same time and revealed his own cancer diagnosis in February.
Just last month, Kate revealed that she had completed chemotherapy and, though the “path to healing and full recovery is long,” she would “take each day as it comes.”
Late last month, Kate, William and their family attended church in her first public appearance since entering recovery.