One might think that James Middleton would mostly get recognized for his close association to the royal family — but he claims he’s more well-known for an entirely different reason.
In a Dec. 29 interview with The Sunday Times, Kate Middleton’s younger brother said, “I don’t know if I’m recognized often on holidays. I don’t put myself in the category of being a celebrity, as I’m essentially known by default.”
“But people sometimes reach out to me on social media to say they’ve seen me with the dogs,” he added.
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James, 37, is a well-known dog lover, even calling his memoir released earlier this year Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, about his beloved cocker spaniel who died in 2023. He is still a dog dad to six dogs: Mabel, Nala, Inka, Zulu, Isla and Luna (and a dad to one human, too — son Inigo, who he shares with wife Alizée Thevenet).
“I think they recognize the dogs first, to be honest,” James said. “They get recognized more than I do.”
James said of his pack of six that “The dogs love going on car journeys — and there are increasingly more wonderful dog-friendly hotels in the U.K., where you feel that the dogs are being looked after better than you are.”
He told the outlet, “The dogs get their own menus and beds and everything. It’s fantastic to see hotels opening up that cater to the whole family; four-legged friends as well as two-legged ones.”
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Speaking to PEOPLE in September, James — a strong advocate for dogs as a form of therapy — said, “An ambition [of mine] is to get dogs to be on a prescription from doctors because I think there is an undeniable amount of things that dogs can do for us.”
“[They] get us up in the morning and outside,” he added. “It’s incredible what it can do for us if you don’t mentally want to do it, but you’re doing it for something else,”
In Meet Ella, James detailed his struggle with depression, including how seeing Ella one night in 2017 helped steer him away from suicidal thoughts.
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“We have a lot to learn from dogs, which is that they live every day as today. They’re not thinking about yesterday,” James said. “They’re not annoyed about yesterday or worrying about the future. They’re living in the moment. If we all focus on that a little bit more then I think we will be happier.”
