Royal Watch News

James Middleton overcame dyslexia for royal wedding

Oct 29, 2012, 16:09 GMT

James Middleton

James Middleton overcame dyslexia to deliver a word-perfect speech at his sister Duchess Catherine and Prince William's wedding.

The 25-year-old businessman - who was diagnosed with the learning disability when he was 11 years old - had to rewrite the biblical text in the speech he made at last year's royal wedding at London's Westminster Abbey so that he could understand it.

Speaking to raise awareness on behalf of the British Dyslexia Association, he said: 'I had to retype the whole of the reading phonetically, and that's how I learnt it.

'In that way I became confident in it, and then I felt I was perfectly capable of doing it. At the end of the day, whether it was in a little church or Westminster Abbey didn't matter, it was me, as a brother, doing a reading for my sister and her husband at their wedding and I wanted to do it right.'

James admits it was a huge relief when he finished his emotional speech without making any mistakes.

He added: 'There was definitely a big sort of sigh afterwards.'

James' disability was initially flagged up by his teachers before he was formally diagnosed with the condition, and he had to undergo extra lessons at school and was given magnifying bifocal spectacles to help letters on the page stand out.

He explained: 'I was fine with numbers but it took me a longer time to grasp simple things like spellings. I used to spell everything phonetically, or I would have little tricks for words I could not figure out.

'So 'said' was Sally Anne Is Dead, and 'because' was Betty Eats Cakes And Uncle Sells Eggs. Words that had double letters completely baffled me. At that stage it wasn't a particular issue though - I just found it a bit of a pain to have these extra lessons because I wanted to be outside playing.'