Get to Know Princess Eugenie's Family Before Her Royal Wedding
In just a few hours, Princess Eugenie will walk down the aisle of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle to marry her fiancé Jack Brooksbank. But before the second royal wedding of the year, here's what you need to know about the major players in the bride-to-be's life.
Princess Eugenie is the Queen's granddaughter.
Her father, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, is the British monarch's third child and second son. Unlike her dad, Eugenie is not a working royal, and has a career outside the Palace at a London-based art gallery, though she does often attend major family events like the Trooping of the Colour parade, annual Christmas church services, and Royal Ascot.
Eugenie is also reportedly quite good friends with her cousins Princes William and Harry and their wives Duchesses Kate and Meghan, and they are all expected to be at the wedding (barring Kate's sister Pippa going into labor, that is). Perhaps that bond has grown stronger since Eugenie and Jack moved in to Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace just down the road from her relatives.
While her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, are divorced, the split was reportedly amicable.
Andrew and Fergie, as she's often called, separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996, but as Eugenie put it, "They are the best divorced couple I know." They co-own a chalet in Switzerland; when Fergie is in the UK, she stays at Andrew's home Royal Lodge; and there has been more than one rumor they are actually still in a relationship. Fueling the speculation, Fergie told a radio station in 2016, "We've never really left each other."
Sarah Ferguson is slowly returning to the royal fold.
Eugenie's mother is no stranger to controversy, and between her split from Andrew and a few very public scandals (including one toe-sucking incident), she was essentially exiled from the royal family for a number of years. Prince Philip, in particular, reportedly does not care for his former daughter-in-law.
But this summer, Fergie seems to have been welcomed back into the royal fold. She was in attendance at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding back in May, and in June, she even joined the Queen in the royal box at Ascot.
Eugenie's sister Princess Beatrice will serve as the maid of honor at her wedding.
The pair of Princesses are less than two years apart and are reportedly quite close.
"Mummy, Bea, and I call ourselves 'the Tripod'-they are my best friends in the world," Princess Eugenie once told the Telegraph, and in a recent interview with British Vogue, the sisters even call each other their "rock."
But that doesn't mean they don't argue like normal siblings. "Like all sisters, we have silly arguments about unimportant stuff, but we do love each other to death," Eugenie said.
While they used to live together, Beatrice is now based in the US, where she works for a company called Afiniti, and Eugenie is closer to home with her soon-to-be husband in London.
Eugenie is reportedly throwing her evening reception at her family's home in Windsor.
According to Vanity Fair, wedding guests will party into the night at the Royal Lodge. More on the 1662 venue here.
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