Kate's brother James on why he 'shut' himself off from his famous family

James Middleton has spoken about being "judged" by the public soon after his sister, Kate, married into the British royal family.

James, now 32, was thrown into the spotlight when Kate wed Prince William in 2011, at Westminster Abbey. An estimated 26 million people across the UK tuned in to watch the historic event.

The sudden shift from anonymity to stardom had a negative effect on his mental health, something he had struggled with for some time. During his school years James had dyslexia and was later diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder.

"Suddenly, and very publicly, I was being judged about whether I was a success of a failure," Middleton tells the August issue of Tatler.

"That does put pressure on you. Because in my mind I’m doing this irrespective of my family and events that have happened."

James, the younger brother to Kate and Pippa, admits he had "lucky" upbringing with little to complain about.

But he developed depression, describing his condition as crippling.

"I shut myself off, I didn’t communicate with my family at all. 

"I lead a separate life to them. If there’s an interest in me, great. If there’s an interest in me because of them, that’s different."

It's not the first time James has opened up about his condition.

In March he described living with depression, writing on Instagram "I've been in that angst of loneliness, where you're really alone in the universe".

"Luckily for me I had my dogs."

He has five dogs and is an ambassador for Pets as Therapy UK.

James is due to launch a new business soon, centred around his beloved dogs, after stepping down from his previous venture, Boomf.

When James made the decision to speak publicly about his depression, in an op-ed piece for the Daily Mail in January, his parents, Michael and Carole, were initially "nervous".

"It is tricky to describe the condition," he wrote, "It is not merely sadness. It is an illness, a cancer of the mind."

He sought help in 2017 and found comfort working at Glen Affric, the Scottish estate owned by the family of Pippa's husband, James Matthews.