Kate Middleton’s brother James was in shock when he was asked to take up a crucial role in a milestone royal ceremony.
James got candid about his thoughts after Prince William and Kate requested a big favour in his forthcoming memoir Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life.
The 37-year-old, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at 11 years old, shared that the now-Prince and Princess of Wales had asked him to do a Bible reading at their wedding in 2011.
“A reading? I thought they were joking,” he wrote, in an excerpt released by Daily Mail. “My mind raced back to school and my stumbling, incoherent efforts to read in front of the class.”
“What were they thinking?” was James’ first reaction.
Kate’s brother stated that since he was dyslexic, “reading is my least favourite occupation” but he pretended, hid his nervousness and said, “if that was what my sister and William wanted, then of course I’d do my best not to let them down.”
Adding to his nerves, James was told that his reading would be “the only Bible reading in the service” and he didn’t know “whether to be honoured or appalled” at the time.
However, he practiced for months ahead of the big event for the important role, and took assistance from voice coach Anthony Gordon Lennox.
On wedding day, James was seemingly overwhelmed but determined to make Kate and William proud. He shared that when he “glanced up and saw happy faces I recognised in the congregation and the nervousness fell away. I took a deep breath ... and began.”
He deemed it a success since he “received thousands of messages and invitations to read lessons at churches around the globe that would have given me scope for a Bible-reading world tour.”