Pippa Middleton is celebrating her 43rd birthday with a sisterly relationship that has survived royal weddings, titles and years of extraordinary public attention.
A new PEOPLE photo retrospective marking Pippa’s September 6 birthday traces her relationship with Catherine, Princess of Wales, from childhood through some of the most photographed family occasions of their adult lives.
The images include Pippa carrying Kate’s wedding train at Westminster Abbey in 2011, Kate smoothing Pippa’s dress before her 2017 wedding to James Matthews and the sisters returning to the Royal Box at Wimbledon years after Kate joined the royal family.
Their public circumstances changed dramatically, but Pippa has said the relationship itself remained familiar. During her first television interview in 2014, she described what she and Kate shared as a “very normal sisterly relationship” supported by a close family that could still treat one another normally.
Pippa Said Royal Life Had Not Particularly Changed Them
Three years after Kate married Prince William, Matt Lauer asked Pippa directly whether her sister’s new position and responsibilities had changed their relationship.
“Not particularly,” Pippa replied during the TODAY interview. She acknowledged that Kate had taken on new pressures but said the sisters still spent considerable time together and continued doing things as a family.
Pippa credited that close family life with keeping everyone grounded. “We have a very normal sisterly relationship,” she said. “We’re very close. We support each other and get each other’s opinions and things.”
Prince George was approaching his first birthday at the time, and Pippa also described her nephew as “amazing” and “a very, very dear boy” who had brought fun to the entire family.
Each Sister Had a Role on the Other’s Wedding Day
Pippa had one of the most visible jobs at Kate and William’s April 29, 2011 wedding. As Kate’s maid of honor, she followed her sister into Westminster Abbey while carrying the long train of the Alexander McQueen wedding gown. Westminster Abbey’s account of the ceremony also identifies Philippa Middleton as the maid of honor.
When Pippa married James Matthews on May 20, 2017, Kate did not formally serve as maid of honor. She was still very much involved, helping with Pippa’s train and managing the young members of the wedding party as they entered St. Mark’s Church in Englefield.
Those children included Prince George and Princess Charlotte. ABC News reported that George served as a page boy while Charlotte was a bridesmaid, with photographs capturing Kate arranging her younger sister’s train before the ceremony.
Wimbledon Kept Bringing the Sisters Back Together
The sisters have also shared considerably less formal outings at Wimbledon. In July 2012, just over a year after the royal wedding, Kate and Pippa sat together in the Royal Box for the men’s singles final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray.
They were photographed together there again in 2019, chatting from the Royal Box during the tournament. The setting offered a recurring public version of the relationship Pippa had described years earlier, without requiring either sister to turn the outing into an official statement about their family.
In July 2024, Pippa joined Kate and Princess Charlotte for the men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. The appearance came during one of Kate’s limited public outings that year, with Pippa seated alongside her sister and niece in the Royal Box.
More than a decade after Pippa said royal life had not particularly changed their relationship, her 43rd birthday retrospective returns to the same collection of weddings, tennis matches and family photographs that have documented the sisters together.