Pippa Middleton, a true bridesmaid, keeps famous gown ‘tucked away’

When the fomer Kate Middleton stepped out with pomp and circumstance for the royal wedding, the event yielded an unlikely celebrity: her younger sister and maid of honor, Pippa Middleton.

Since the April 2011 wedding, Pippa has become a fixture in British media but until now hadn’t done a televised interview.

Enter Matt Lauer, who scored the first TV sit-down with the 30-year-old, talking to the royal-adjacent sibling about her sister, the royal wedding and her nephew Prince George. The first part of the interview aired Monday.

Middleton said the transition to being famous has been “difficult� and chalked up her reluctance to be on television to a “nervousness of publicly going in front of the camera.�

And you know that royal wedding we — and by “we,� we mean the world — keep talking about? Turns out that Middleton & Co. just saw it as a normal family affair.

“It sounds funny to say, but we saw it as a family as just a family wedding,� the younger Middleton told Lauer. “And actually I didn’t realize perhaps the scale of it until afterwards. I had to sort of make sure that I’d help my sister where I should and look after the bridesmaids and page boys. But we really saw it as sort of a family getting together and doing their bit.�

“Even sort of walking through the [Westminster] Abbey there were a lot of people, but maybe I didn’t see any TV cameras, so to me it was just performing in front of a lot of people, not necessarily the whole world.�

Middleton, whose full name is Philippa, described the landmark event as “surreal� but said the scope of the occasion didn’t hit until after the ceremony, when she stepped out on the Buckingham Palace balcony with the wedding party to greet the droves of royal fans.

By then, however, the royal sister-in-law’s curve-hugging Alexander McQueen gown had already captured the attention of newly minted Pippa admirers. Naturally, a Facebook page where fans of her buoyant bum could converge sprouted promptly after the nuptials.

“It was completely unexpected,� Middleton said of the attention she got for the dress. “You know, I think the plan was not really for it to be a significant dress, really to just sort of blend in with the train. And I suppose it’s flattering. Embarrassing, definitely, because I suppose it wasn’t planned. The dress was almost meant to be insignificant.�

The gown, she said, is “tucked away� in her wardrobe at home. (Just like any other bridesmaids’ dress, and she hasn’t worn it since.)

Middleton just wrapped up a 12-state, 3,000-mile cycling expedition with her brother James and several others as part of “Race Across America� benefiting two British charities. And thanks to her celebrity, she was able to raise awareness for causes that are dear to her.

The young writer, who’s penned a party-planning book and is a guest columnist for Vanity Fair and Britain’s Waitrose Kitchen magazine, has previously said that “fame can have an upside, a downside and a backside.�

“I’ve had amazing opportunities, and I really, I feel very fortunate to have opportunities and to have sort of access to things that I wouldn’t necessarily,� she said.

Despite both her and Catherine’s jolt to fame, she said that she and her sister have maintained a normal sororal relationship.

“I mean, obviously she has pressures that she’s taken on and things. But we spend a lot of time together. We still do a lot together as a family,� she said. “We have a very normal, sisterly relationship. We’re very close. And, you know, we support each other and get each other’s opinions and things.�

As for her nephew, Prince George of Cambridge, Middleton has been doting on the handsome prince just as any proud aunt would.

“He’s amazing. He’s a very dear boy,� she said. “And he’s brought a lot of pleasure and fun for all of us, the whole family.�

The second half of Middleton’s interview airs Tuesday morning.

Still hoping Pippa and Prince Harry get together. Follow me @NardineSaad.