Kate Middleton’s Brother Talks About Depressive Episode

Kate Middleton’s brother, James, is opening up about one of the hardest periods of his life.

The Princess of Wales’ younger brother spoke to The U.K. Times about struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts nearly a decade ago.

“I think at the time I was spiraling out of control,” Middleton told the outlet in an article published on Monday.

“It was only once I was diagnosed that I came to terms with the fact that I could have depression and needed to make sure I was present for myself. I needed to re-find who I was. I knew that the kinds of thoughts I was having were not me. I wasn’t being myself. I’d lost who James was.”

In his book, “Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life,” the businessman opens up about being at his parents’ house in November 2017. The Times’ says that in the early morning, Middleton writes he’d made his way to his parents’ skylight and was thinking of jumping off the roof.

He wrote that it was only his late dog, Ella, who saved him, when the two made eye contact.

“There are reasons to be alive, and not wanting anyone to suffer from what I might do was a major one,” Middleton shared. “I imagined what it would be like for Ella, how unfair it would have been for her, and then that extended to my whole family and my friends. All I would have done was transfer my pain on to other people.”

Middleton credited his sister, Kate, and brother-in-law, Prince William, for campaigning about mental health at the time. He also told the Times that he’d attended therapy sessions with both Kate and his sister, Pippa Middleton, which was important to his recovery.

“Having them there meant that I knew I was surrounded by people that truly understood what I was going through,” he shared, though he said his “biggest challenge was that I had my own stigma about mental health.”

“I think I was most terrified that when I wrote about having depression, I would be called a fraud; that people would say, ‘You’ve had a privileged upbringing. You’ve had everything, essentially. No real struggles,’” he said. “That sort of feedback. But depression doesn’t select like that and, anyway, I think I’ve learnt to accept criticism.”

James has openly spoken about his mental health over the years, as have other younger members of the royal family, including Prince Harry, Prince William, Meghan Markle and the Princess of Wales.

Kate previously wrote about the importance of seeking help for mental health issues, particularly in children, in a guest blog for HuffPost in 2016.

“Like most parents today, William and I would not hesitate to seek help for our children if they needed it,” she wrote.

“We hope to encourage George and Charlotte to speak about their feelings, and to give them the tools and sensitivity to be supportive peers to their friends as they get older,” the then-Duchess of Cambridge said (Prince Louis was not mentioned, as he was born two years later).

She added, “We know there is no shame in a young child struggling with their emotions or suffering from a mental illness.”