James Middleton (British businessman)


James William Middleton is an English entrepreneur and member of the Middleton family and the younger brother of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. In 2013 he founded personalised greeting card company Boomf. In January 2019 Middleton revealed his battle with depression. His motivation to speak out was his sister’s charity Heads Together. Middleton has spoken about his love of dogs. James and his dog Ella volunteer with the Pets As Therapy charity.

Personal life

Middleton was born on 15 April 1987 at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, the youngest child and only son of Michael Middleton and Carole Goldsmith. His father came from a line of solicitors who resided in Leeds, in West Yorkshire, and one of his great-grandmothers, Olive Middleton, was a member of the Lupton family who are described by the City of Leeds archives as "landed gentry; a business and political dynasty". Carole Middleton's mother's family were labourers and miners from County Durham. His elder sisters are Catherine and Pippa .
Middleton was educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne, and Marlborough College. He attended the University of Edinburgh for a year in 2006 before dropping out.
Middleton said that he is dyslexic and is raising awareness about the condition. In January 2019, he revealed his struggles with depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He read the lesson, Epistle to the Romans chapter 12, verses 1–2 and 9–18, from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible at the wedding of his sister Catherine to Prince William.
On 6 October 2019, Middleton confirmed his engagement to French financial analyst, Alizée Thevenet. They planned to wed in summer 2020 but postponed the event due to the 2020 outbreak of COVID-19.

Business

Middleton's cake-making business, which is defunct, was inspired by reading that a mother's baking is a highly evocative childhood memory. He supplied baking kits so home bakers would be able to get all the ingredients in one place for adventurous creations such as "football cakes". He started baking in the family kitchen and expanded into a freight container and converted barns. Themed birthday cake baking kits were distributed by his parents' company, Party Pieces.
Themed cakes were baked for companies such as Jigsaw, 3 and Ralph Lauren. Middleton caused "shudders" at Buckingham Palace after taking part in a Hello magazine photoshoot for which he was commissioned to bake 21 cakes commemorating its 21st birthday, each iced with one of the magazine's front covers – amongst them, several members of the Royal family, including Diana, Princess of Wales. The business won Smarta 100 and Haines Watts Young Entrepreneur awards. In April 2011 he registered three businesses: Nice Cakes, Nice Wine and Nice Group London and planned to expand the Cake Kit Company.
Middleton's company Boomf made a loss of £3 million between 2015–2018. James Matthews paid Middleton €110,000 for 12,800 Boomf shares.
parties at Glen Affric Estate, owned by the family of his sister Pippa
Middleton hosts the odd weekend deer stalking party at the 10,000 acre Glen Affric Estate which is owned by David Matthews, his sister's father-in-law.

Arms