Pippa Middleton

Early life

Pippa Middleton was born on 6 September 1983 at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. She is the second of three children born to Michael Middleton (born 1949), a former British Airways flight dispatcher, and Carole Middleton (née Goldsmith; born 1955), a former flight attendant. She was christened at St Andrew's Bradfield, Berkshire.

Family background

Middleton's father, Michael, was born in Leeds, now in West Yorkshire, to an old and wealthy Yorkshire family with blood ties to the British aristocracy: Pippa's great grandmother, Olive Middleton, belonged to the Lupton family who, according to the City of Leeds archives, were "woollen manufacturers and landed gentry; a business and political dynasty". Previously unpublished pictures revealed in March 2015 that Olive Middleton had grown up on her family's Potternewton Hall Estate alongside her cousin, Baroness von Schunck, née Kate Lupton. Baroness Airedale, the daughter of Baroness von Schunck, later lived at nearby Gledhow Hall Estate where her family and their cousin, Olive Middleton, worked as volunteer nurses during the Great War. A BBC documentary reported in 2014 that Gledhow Hall had been visited in 1885 by King Edward VII – at that Time the Prince of Wales.

The family of Middleton's mother, Carole, are from London. Their ancestors worked as labourers and miners in County Durham.

Middleton's father had inherited large trust funds from his grandmother Olive Middleton. These funds enabled the Middleton family tradition of private schooling to continue; Michael Middleton's father, Captain Peter Middleton, was educated at Oxford University. Added to this wealth was Michael Middleton's wife's success as a businesswoman.

In 1986, Middleton's family returned from Amman; her father having worked there in a managerial position with British Airways for two and a half years. Once again, the family were living in Bradfield Southend and the two eldest children were at St Andrew's School, an independent school in the village of Pangbourne in Berkshire. In 1987, Carole Middleton set up Party Pieces. The company initially began by making party bags and went on to sell party supplies and decorations by mail order. By 1995, both of Middleton's parents were directors and managers of the firm which had become so successful that it had moved into a range of farm buildings at Ashampstead Common,

The success of their company, combined with the inherited Middleton wealth, has meant that Pippa's parents are reported to be millionaires. While at Bradfield Southend, Middleton and her sister were members of the local St Andrew's Brownie pack.

By 2012, Middleton's parents were the owners of Bucklebury Manor, a Georgian English country house with grounds of some 18 acres. Middleton's nephew, Prince George, spent his first few weeks at Bucklebury. On 20 May 2017, Pippa married James Matthews in the Berkshire countryside, near Bucklebury Manor.

Education

In 1995, her family moved to Bucklebury, Berkshire. Like her sister, Middleton was first educated at St Andrew's School, a private boarding school in Pangbourne and then Downe House School, a girls' day and boarding school in Cold Ash. She was a boarder at Marlborough College, where she held a sports/all-rounder scholarship. Middleton then graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an English literature degree, where she shared a house with Lord Edward Innes-Ker, a son of the Duke of Roxburghe, and with Earl Percy, heir apparent of the Duke of Northumberland.

Career

Following her graduation, Middleton briefly worked in 2008 at a public relations firm promoting luxury products. She then had an events management job with Table Talk, a company based in London that organises corporate events and parties. Also in 2008, Tatler magazine named Middleton "the Number 1 Society Singleton", ahead of singer-songwriter James Blunt and Princess Eugenie of York, although in the same Tatler article she was described as someone who "goes to a lot of parties, but mainly as the caterer." Since then, she has often been described as a socialite. As part of a duo with her elder sister, Middleton has received wide press coverage, focusing on her social life and her lifestyle. In April 2012, Time magazine listed Middleton as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Middleton has worked part-time for her parents' company Party Pieces, editing the web magazine Party Times.

Penguin Books paid Middleton a £400,000 advance for a book on party planning. The book, entitled Celebrate, was published in autumn 2012, and had lower than anticipated sales as many reviewers mocked it for the obviousness of its content. Middleton had said that she was not using a ghost writer. In March 2013, Middleton parted from her literary agent.

The 2016 ITV documentary, Our Queen At 90, revealed that a recipe which featured in Middleton's Celebrate book – Granny's Marrow Chutney – had been made by her sister, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who gave a jar of it as a Christmas gift to her grandmother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2011.

Middleton is also a regular columnist for several publications. She has contributed articles to The Spectator magazine since December 2012 and began having a food column in the supermarket magazine Waitrose Kitchen beginning in spring 2013. In June 2013 she was named a contributing editor of Vanity Fair writing a series of columns for the magazine. Beginning in September 2013, Middleton also wrote a fortnightly sports and social column for The Sunday Telegraph. She parted ways from The Telegraph in May 2014.

In May 2013, she became the sole director and shareholder of PXM Enterprises Limited. The company is headquartered at 19 Portland Place in London. Its assets amounted to £211,521 in 2014, at the end of its first fiscal year.

In September 2016, Middleton's iPhone was hacked. The Sun reported it had been approached by a hacker who claimed to have 3,000 images from Middleton's iCloud account and demanded £50,000 for them. The hacker was arrested in September 2016.

2011 Royal wedding

The official announcement of her sister's engagement came on 16 November 2010. Middleton served as the maid of honour. At the wedding, Middleton's white figure-hugging dress, which, like the bride's, was created by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, was highly praised in the media. Made of ivory crêpe fabric, it was styled with a cowl at the front and organza-covered buttons at the back. Copies of the dress were soon available on the High Street where there was a great demand for them.

Philanthropy

In April 2013, Middleton became an ambassador to the Mary Hare School for deaf children in Berkshire.

In June 2014, Middleton became an ambassador to the British Heart Foundation (BHF). That month, she took part in the Race Across America, a 3,000 mile cycling race across the United States, followed by the Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race, a 6.5 km swimming competition in Istanbul, as two fundraising opportunities for the BHF. Her bicycle was also auctioned on eBay for the BHF. She then attended the BHF's Roll out the Red Ball at the Park Lane Hotel on 10 February 2015. She auctioned one of her L.K.Bennett dresses at the ball. She took part in the London to Brighton Bike Ride for the BHF on 21 June 2015.

In September 2016, Middleton released her second book, Heartfelt, whose proceeds go to the British Heart Foundation.

Marriage

In July 2016, Middleton became engaged to James Matthews, a former professional racing driver, now hedge fund manager. The couple married on 20 May 2017 at St Mark's Church, at Englefield Estate, Berkshire, near Bucklebury Manor, the Middleton family home.

Matthews is the son and heir of David Matthews, the Laird of Glen Affric. If Matthews inherits his father's lairdship, then Middleton may be accorded the courtesy title of Lady Glen Affric.

Film

In William & Kate, a television movie released on 18 April 2011 about her sister's romance, the part of Middleton was played by Mary Elise Hayden.