James Middleton is looking forward to celebrating milestones with his son Inigo, particularly his first words. On September 29, the younger brother of Kate Middleton made his debut appearance in front of a live audience at the Henley Literary Festival, where he promoted his memoir, Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, which was released in the U.S. on September 24 and in the U.K. on September 26.
During the event, James, 37, shared, “I think his first word is going to be tractor or dog.” Celebrating his first birthday on September 21, Inigo is the son of James and his wife, Alizee Thevenet. While James didn’t disclose any specifics about the birthday celebrations, he did mention that Inigo has reached another milestone: he is now crawling.
Looking forward to Inigo’s first words, James Middleton hopes it’ll be ‘tractor’ or ‘dog.’
“I think he thinks he’s a dog!” James joked, noting that their home is lively with “six dogs in the house and him pretty much walking on all fours most of the time.” In addition to revealing Inigo’s birthday, James disclosed his son’s middle name in Meet Ella: Gabriel.
“Inigo means fiery, ardent, although he is peaceful now,” James explained. “Gabriel is in memory of his grandfather, Alizee’s papa. It is a small tribute, and we look forward to sharing lots of stories about his French granddad too.”
Accompanying James on stage were three of his dogs: Inka, Mabel, and Isla. At the event, he reflected on how Ella, his cocker spaniel who passed away at 15 years old in January 2023, profoundly influenced his life, including leading him to meet his future wife and eventually becoming a father. He stated, “His existence is purely because of her [Inka’s] mother Ella.”
Recalling his first encounter with Alizee, he said, “I had been at a bar in London. I had a meeting, and that meeting had finished and I was feeling joyous. I wouldn’t normally have done it, but I wanted a beer. Ella was there, but she had wandered off. There was this girl with long blonde hair with her back to me, and I look ’round, and Ella was upside down, and this girl was stroking Ella’s belly.”
He continued, “I said, ‘I’m really sorry, but I hope Ella isn’t bothering you.’ This incredibly beautiful woman looked back at me and, in the most incredible French accent, basically said, ‘No, but we’re still waiting for our drinks. Could we have a Pinot noir and a Sauvignon blanc?’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go and get them.’”
After placing the drink order, James returned to his seat, letting the waiter deliver the drinks, but Ella didn’t come back. Once he finished his drink, he decided to write Alizee a note—an endearing piece of their shared history that he brought to the event and read aloud to the audience.
“Hi, I usually don’t do this sort of thing,” he read. “In fact, this is the first time that I have, and I realize it’s slightly more difficult to figure out what to say than I thought. Anyhow, here goes.
I have no idea if I am barking up the wrong tree, and forgive me if I am, but I was wondering if you might like to go for a drink sometime, or maybe in the future — and here is my number. It would be lovely to hear from you, and absolutely no pressure to reply, but I hope you have a lovely evening. James and Ella (dog).”
Alizee texted him back the following evening, and they met a few days later. “Fast forward a few years, we got married, moved into our now home, onto a little farm, which was one of the first conversations that we had—this dream about moving to the countryside, being self-sufficient on a little farm — and a one-year-old son,” James shared.
In a candid hour-long interview on September 29 with journalist Bryony Gordon, a friend of Prince Harry and a mental health campaigner, James opened up about his struggles with depression.
He described how his beloved dog Ella literally saved his life one night when he was grappling with suicidal thoughts. Throughout the discussion, he emphasized the closeness he feels with his family, mentioning how both of his older sisters, Kate and Pippa, made efforts to support him.
“On the outside, I was pretending to be James Middleton, what people saw me to be, but on the inside, I had completely lost my sense of identity—who I was, what I was working towards, what my future was, and what brought me happiness,” he shared. “I was in a very lost place.”
