A warm encounter between the Waleses and James Middleton and his wife contradicts Prince Harry’s frosty recollection of Prince William meeting Meghan Markle.

A new book describes the warm encounter of the Waleses with James Middleton’s wife (Image: Getty)

Princess Kate’s brother has revealed how the Prince and Princess of Wales met James Middleton’s wife, Alizee, for the first time.

It has raised questions over Prince Harry’s take on the future King meeting his wife, Meghan Markle and allegedly being “freaked out” over hugging “strangers”.

The younger brother of Princess Kate is set to release his own memoir, Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, on September 25, and some parts of it have now been serialised by the Mail.

In the new book, James opens up about his battle with depression and how his spaniel Ella, who’s now passed away, was instrumental in saving his life.

But he also gives insight into his private life and some snippets of it include the Prince and Princess of Wales and their warm encounter with his then-girlfriend, Alizee Thevenet, who he met in 2018.

James wrote that in the autumn of 2018, the couple went to stay at their family home in Bucklebury, without realising that Princess Kate and Prince William brought all three of their children to stay too for the weekend.

James Middleton married Alizee Thevenet in 2021 (Image: Getty)

He said: “We let ourselves in and tiptoe around in the dark, not wanting to wake anyone, then catch a few hours’ sleep before I’m woken at 7.30am by giggling at the bedroom door. It’s George and Charlotte, my nephew and niece. I hadn’t realised all three children are staying for the weekend with my sister and William.”

James then gave a heartwarming description of how the Waleses met his wife-to-be.

He wrote: “I’m about to take a cup up to Alizee when she appears at the kitchen door. She has just got out of bed, her hair still tousled, and she is wearing one of my shirts. In situations like this, Alizee is wonderfully French. She does not panic or rush upstairs to get dressed. Instead, she just greets everyone warmly as if it’s not remotely unusual to be meeting her boyfriend’s sister and brother-in-law for the first time wearing only an oversized man’s shirt.”

“‘Hello,’ she says, proffering her hand and with no awkwardness at all we’re soon all chatting and the children are asking all kinds of cheeky questions at 100 miles per hour.

“How come we weren’t there when they went to bed? And who is this lady? Is she your girlfriend? (Cue giggles from both of them.)

“So I tell Charlotte and George, yes, she is my girlfriend and introduce her to them, then we are all talking and laughing as if she has been part of the family for years. Later that afternoon, Mum and Dad, who have been away for the weekend, come home. The next day we go for a walk together, all of us.”

Prince Harry claimed that Prince William would not hug strangerse (Image: Getty)

And in a paragraph which is vastly different to Prince Harry’s recollection of his and his wife’s own meeting with the Waleses, James said that they all hugged goodbye before they left.

He wrote: “When we all hug goodbye I get a special squeeze from Catherine, who whispers in my ear, ‘She’s just great.’ Mum’s warm smile tells me she agrees. All my stars have aligned: Alizee is perfect for me and my family adores her.”

It comes more than a year after Prince Harry released his own memoir, Spare, and revealed Meghan’s first encounter with William and Kate at Kensington Palace in 2016, claiming that the future King “recoiled” from his future wife’s hug.

Harry wrote: “I introduced Meg, who leaned in and gave him a hug, which completely freaked him out. He recoiled.”

He continued: ‘Maybe Willy expected Meg to curtsey? It would have been protocol when meeting a member of the Royal Family for the first time, but she didn’t know and I didn’t tell her.’

The prince gave some context to the awkward meeting, saying that William wouldn’t hug strangers, but Meghan would.

He wrote: “Willy didn’t hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers.”

Harry added: “When meeting my grandmother [the late Queen Elizabeth II], I’d made it clear — this is the queen, but when meeting my brother, it was just Willy, who loved ‘Suits.'”