How Kate accompanied James Middleton to therapy
Kate Middleton’s brother James has given a powerful interview to The Daily Telegraph discussing what appears to be a complete breakdown in his mental health that occurred some 18 months ago.
In the interview he reveals that his entire family, including Kate, accompanied him to cognitive behavioral therapy family sessions.
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Although he doesn’t directly attribute his illness to his sister’s fame, the piece hints that it hasn’t helped.
In an interview with the paper, James, 32, spoke of being in a “dark and miserable place,” saying, “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t read a book, I couldn’t eat. I removed myself from everything.”
Middleton was so depressed that he refused to engage with his family at stages, meaning they had to go via his friends to stage an intervention to get him to a psychiatric hospital.
“I remember my friends turned up one morning and rang the doorbell. I saw it was them and I just didn’t answer the door. And they rang it again. They rang my phone. I was like, ‘I’m not answering.’ I thought: ‘What am I going to do? What are they going to say?’ I understood that they cared about me. But I couldn’t see what they were going to do for me.”
At a private psychiatric hospital James was asked if he was having suicidal thoughts. “I remember thinking, I might have to answer this one truthfully, because I want them to help me.’ So I said, ‘Well, actually, yes, but I don’t think I’ll ever action it.’ In my report it said I had suicidal thoughts but wasn’t a threat to myself.”
Happier days now beckon, including his engagement to French girlfriend Alizee Thevenet, which he announced last week with a post on Instagram, captioned “She said Oui.”
Middleton says he is grateful for his experiences with depression, saying: “Despite all of it, I’m very pleased that I went through it, because of who I am on the other side. It’s like a rebirth. I can’t remember feeling like it [ever]. This is who I am now. I am conscious that I have not got rid of it [the depression], it’s still there. But I’m on top of it, and I’m aware that if I don’t work hard at maintaining control of it, then it has the ability to come back.”
In the interview he added that he is looking forward to settling down with his wife-to-be and his beloved dogs. He now works for the charity Pets As Therapy to spread the message of how animals can help people struggling with their mental health.
Getting the band back together? Not quite
There was great excitement when it was announced that the original fab royal four of Kate, William, Harry and Meghan were to come together to make a short film entitled ‘Every Mind Matters’ to promote mental health causes.
The video was published this week, but it seems a reunion isn't quite on the cards yet; the four just provided voice overs and did not appear together. One assumes they didn't go into the studio together, in the best tradition of troubled rock outfits.
Queen could make $126 million a year, thanks to wind farms
Green energy could become a highly lucrative source of income for the Royal Family.
The Mail on Sunday revealed that the huge expansion of offshore wind farms could lead to the royal family making around $126 million a year, because the queen will make a quarter of all the profits from the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed off the British coast where the wind farms would be sited.
The money will be made by rent and option fees, and the windfall made possible because in 2012 the Government got rid of the Civil List and replaced it with the Sovereign Grant, which has been "hugely profitable" for the royals, according to former Liberal Democrat Minister and Privy Counsellor Norman Baker.
Prince Charles helps make a saint
Prince Charles was a lone monarch among dozens of cardinal princes of the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday when he attended the canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a rare British Catholic convert from the Anglican church who became a theologian and scholar often described as one of the most influential figures of Victorian Britain.
Charles attended the lavish ceremony under scorching October sun on Sunday morning in St. Peter’s Square where Newman’s sainthood was the headline act.
Four women, including a stigmatist, a mystic, a Roman orphan, and a Nobel Peace prize nominee, were also elevated to sainthood alongside the new Saint Newman.
The last Brit to become a saint was a 17th century Scottish martyr called John Ogilvie who was elevated in 1976. Charles gave testimony to Newman’s many accomplishments.
“His often overlooked labors on behalf of children’s education are testimony to his commitment to ensuring those of all backgrounds shared the opportunities learning can bring,” Charles said in a prepared statement read at a ceremony ahead of Newman’s canonization. “As an Anglican, he guided that church back to its Catholic roots, and as a Catholic he was ready to learn from the Anglican tradition, such as in his promoting the role of the laity.”
Royal fashion watch
High street approachability rules! In Jigsaw culottes and a Warehouse sweater, Kate Middleton signaled autumn was officially here when she went to London’s Natural History Museum this week in CULOTTES, and it was all sweetly matchy-matchy (with heels by Tod's and handbag by Chanel). Britain is having its own nervous breakdown over Brexit, and a fever dream over Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, but in a typical week this would have excited much comment. Now, yeah, go Kate! Great CULOTTES.
This week in royal history
On October 14, 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots went on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I. Any trial that includes quotes like “I would never make shipwreck of my soul by conspiring the destruction of my dearest sister,” is clearly one where you'd hope to have snagged a seat in the public gallery. Mary was found guilty for her complicity in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth, and executed on February 8, 1587.
Unanswered questions
Harry and Meghan, we can be under no illusion, are determined to do things their own way, so what will be the next rulebook they chose to rip up? Those family photos of the entire clan walking to church at Christmas have to be up for debate.
