Philippa Charlotte Matthews (née Middleton; born 6 September 1983) is an English socialite, author, and columnist. The younger sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, she began receiving media attention with her appearance as the maid of honour at her sister's wedding to Prince William.
Pippa Middleton was born at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire, England. 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.
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 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.