Pippa Middleton Describes her Close Relationship with Big Sister Kate Middleton

Pippa Middleton has revealed she is "extremely close" to her elder sister Kate.

The 30-year-old spoke candidly about her close bond with the Duchess of Cambridge in her first ever TV interview on the Today programme.

Pippa said that despite Kate's public life as a high-profile member of the Royal family, nothing has changed in the Middleton household and their close familial ties keeps them grounded.

Speaking to US host Matt Lauer she said: "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.

"And I think that's really the heart for all of us is having a really close family that we can sort of be normal with each other, treat each other normally. And that's sort of kept us all, you know, affixed to the ground."

Lauer asked Pippa if she is still able to call Kate anytime for 'girl talk'.

"Yeah, yeah. We do 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."

Lauer joked that he had to catch an overnight flight to London for his hour-long chat with Pippa, to which she responded: "I hate to say it but I was actually in America last week."

Pippa completed a 3,000-mile cycle across the U.S. with her brother James Middleton. They set off from California last week on the Race Across America with the aim of crossing 12 states to raise money for charity.

Giving her impressions of the US she said: "Through the trip it was just amazing to go through so many different states and just see the diversity of the landscape, the countryside - it's huge.

'I love it - It's very friendly, very welcoming. And we felt that the entire way. And the scenery was incredible. And I think that what lifted our spirits when it really hurt, sort of grinding on the bike, was to see everything around us. From the mountains, the desert-- through the flat plains of Kansas," she explained.

It's the first time Pippa has spoken publicly about her life after the royal wedding which thrust the Middleton's into the glare of the global spotlight.

It has been reported that the interview has been timed to coincide with an announcement that she is being offered a correspondent's job with NBC, but a spokesman said that the rumour was "100 per cent not true."

Rumours that the Duchesses sister was being considered for a £600,000 a year job as royal correspondent first surfaced in 2012, but this was denied by the network.

However, it's unlikely that Pippa, who is Prince William's sister-in-law, would be permitted to report on the Royal family, as personal details of the royals are strictly off limits.

A magazine columnist and party-planner, Miss Middleton has not had much luck with her career of late after having been dropped by her American publisher Viking Press earlier this year after her party-planning book Celebrate sold just 18,000 copies.

In May she was dropped as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph after just six months. She continues to write for Vanity Fair and is associated with the supermarket Waitrose.

She will however be taking on more physical challenges and will soon be on her way to Istanbul to take on the Bosphorus Cross-Continental Race, a 6.5km historical swim that crosses from Europe to Asia.

The two-part interview will be aired on Monday and Tuesday on NBC.