Starting with: how do you actually pronounce her name?
Hurrah! Today Princess Eugenie blows out 34 candles. A good time to get to know the youngest daughter of Sarah Ferguson and scandal prince Andrew a little better. For example, did you already know these facts about the princess?
What’s in a name?
Just like ‘our’ Princess Ariane, Princess Eugenie has a name that is often mispronounced. She says she is now used to ‘all possible pronunciations’ of her name, but officially the emphasis is on the first syllable. So you say JOE-djunnie and not Joe-DJU-nie. The name suddenly looks a lot less royal…
But the name is certainly royal. Princess Eugenie Victoria Helena is her full name, which means she is named after two other princesses: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and later Queen of Spain, and Princess Helena, a daughter of Queen Victoria.
Although we usually call Eugenie Princess of York, she officially has no last name. A title is sufficient, according to British royal rules. Since her marriage in 2018, Eugenie has been able to use her husband’s surname, Jack Brooksbank.
Speaking of Jack, Princess Eugenie’s dog and husband share the same name. When ‘Jack’ is called in the Brooksbank-York home, Eugenie can mean both her husband and her Norfolk terrier. They both come right away, that’s easy.
Just like Kate
Princess Eugenie went to the same school as Princess Kate: both royal ladies attended the Marlborough College boarding school in Wiltshire. However, because Kate is eight years older than her niece by marriage, the two never met at this school.
Eugenie also followed in Kate’s footsteps by studying art history. The current Duchess of Cambridge did this in Scotland, where she met Prince William at university, while Princess Eugenie chose Newcastle University. And art history is not the only thing Eugenie studied. The princess followed a special honors degree, during which she also studied English literature and politics.
What kind of work does she actually do?
Princess Eugenie does not perform royal duties, but has a ‘normal’ job. Her studies in art history come in handy in her work as Associate Art Director at an art gallery in London. In addition, Eugenie, as befits any royal, has numerous charity projects underway. She is, among other things, co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective, a foundation that fights modern-day slavery, and is involved in various organizations around plastic pollution, environmental protection, culture and healthcare. A full agenda, that’s for sure!
The Brooksbanks
Two years ago, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank became parents of son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank. He received a special ‘double royal baptism’ together with his great-nephew, Lucas Tindall. But did you know that Princess Eugenie herself also received a special baptism? This was the first and only time that the press was invited to the church ceremony.
August Brooksbank has not been given a title, but is referred to as ‘Master’ Brooksbank and is twelfth in the line of succession to the throne. Eugenie herself is at number eleven.
Princess Eugenie and her husband are distantly related: both are descended from Thomas William Coke, Earl of Leicester, who lived in the nineteenth century. Nothing crazy in royal circles in the past, but quite striking for the current generation of royals.
The Brooksbankjes were some of the first (and probably the only) royals to have met Lilibet Diana, the daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Eugenie is particularly close to her cousin Harry and visited him in the United States last year.
Finally, Princess Eugenie is the only British royal who manages her own social media, without a communications team (her mother does it too, although she has officially retired since her divorce). It has already earned her a scolding from the court (“I accidentally shared a photo of a part of the palace that the public was not allowed to see”), but it makes her one of the most accessible and modern royals.
Will a birthday photo be shared on Instagram today? We’ll keep an eye on it. Congratulations, Eugenie!
Source: Grazia UK, Town & Country | Image: NL Image
