James Middleton Thanks Sisters Kate and Pippa for Joining Therapy Sessions

Supportive sisters. James Middleton publicly thanked both Princess Kate and Pippa Middleton for joining him in therapy sessions amid his battle with major depressive disorder.

The Boomf founder, 35, opened up about the death of his dog, Ella, and how he struggled to mourn the cocker spaniel who previously got him through some of his darkest hours.

“During the difficult times, I would go through an entire day without speaking to a single person, only Ella,” he wrote in an essay for The Sunday Times on Sunday, January 29. “I said everything to her before I ever said it to anyone else. Describing how I felt out loud to Ella helped me talk to my therapist, family and friends. … I have thought about suicide but never actually contemplated it. My thoughts were stopped short because Ella got in the way.”

James explained that he brought Ella home when she was just 4 weeks old and he was 20. She died at age 15. “Everybody knew how much she meant to me and there was a day they feared the most: the day Ella was no longer in my life. She meant something to all of them too,” James wrote in the tribute.

He continued, “My sisters came to some of my therapy sessions. They’ve always been there during difficult times and they were at my side during the hardest of times as well.”

The businessman explained that both Princess Kate, 41, and Prince William as well as Pippa, 39, and husband James Matthews each have a pup that Ella birthed. They all came to the dog’s funeral.

“All the family came to say their goodbyes. I can’t speak for them but I believe she influenced their lives too. Lupo, Catherine and William’s dog, was one of Ella’s puppies. My sister Pippa and her husband have a pup from Ella, as do other family members,” he said.

James, who married Alizée Thevenet in 2021, has long been open about his mental health, and he previously revealed that the Princess of Wales attended his counseling sessions to better understand his depression. He spent nearly a year in cognitive behavioral therapy, often with his family, after he went to a private psychiatric hospital for a consultation.

“That was so important because that helped them understand me and how my mind was working,” he explained to The Telegraph in October 2019. “And I think the way the therapy helped me was that I didn’t need my family to say, ‘What can we do?’ The only thing they could do was just come to some of the therapy sessions to start to understand.”