Princess Eugenie: Expert discusses birth announcement
Eugenie, 30, announced she was pregnant in September, two months after her older sister, 32, married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in a beautiful ceremony in Windsor. The timing was perfect, which may not be a coincidence when royal protocol is taken into consideration. Indeed, it was previously reported that Eugenie may have been waiting for her sister to get married before starting a family.
A source told the Daily Express at the time: “Beatrice is desperate to get married as soon as possible and is already trying to fall pregnant.”
What’s more, royal etiquette means Beatrice may have had to delay her engagement if Eugenie has fallen pregnant earlier, as this is what happened to Princess Margaret when the Queen fell pregnant with Prince Andrew.
The Queen’s sister, who died in 2002, had a turbulent love life and countless dead-end relationships.
When she finally found love with Antony Armstrong-Jones, the pair got engaged in 1960, but the Queen is said to have asked her sister to delay sharing the news of her marriage until she had given birth to her third child, who she was pregnant with at the time.
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Princess Eugenie may have delayed her pregnancy announcement after Meghan and Harry row (Image: GETTY)
Princess Beatrice married Edo in July 2020 (Image: Benjamin Wheeler via Getty Images)
Andrew was born on February 19, 1960, and a week later, on February 26, the engagement for Princess Margaret to Mr Armstrong-Jones was announced by Clarence House
In the Royal Family, all big announcements tend to be spread out so that each can get the appropriate fanfare.
Eugenie is especially aware of this after Meghan and Harry allegedly broke this tradition by telling the family Meghan was pregnant on Eugenie’s wedding day.
According to the book ‘Royals at War’, Eugenie was “furious” and Prince Harry was left “embarrassed” by the “social gaffe”.
Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank in 2018 (Image: GETTY)
Authors Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett wrote: “Meghan put her foot in it when she decided that it would be the ideal moment to announce that she and Harry were expecting their first child.
“This was a huge social gaffe, even if you were not a royal ‒ stealing the limelight from Eugenie, who was furious, as was her mother, Sarah.”
Their public announcement was just three days later, too, likely adding salt to the wound.
This was just five months after Meghan and Harry tied the knot themselves.
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Eugenie and Beatrice are said to be very close (Image: GETTY)
In contrast, Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank in October 2018 but did not announce a pregnancy for nearly two years.
It is possible that Eugenie, as the younger sister, was waiting for Beatrice to get married as a sign of support.
As the baby is due in mid-February this would mean that Eugenie got pregnant in May 2020, which is when Beatrice was supposed to tie the knot.
As pregnancy announcements are generally not made until after the first trimester, this would have been perfect timing.
Princess Eugenie’s Frogmore situation discussed by experts
Unfortunately, Beatrice’s May wedding was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but she finally managed to make it legal with her beau at a small ceremony in July.
It is possible that, due to this, Eugenie held off making the announcement of her pregnancy until the hubbub of Beatrice’s wedding was over, so that neither would distract from the other.
In summer 2018, it was already clear that Beatrice’s relationship was getting serious, as they had been on holiday together and he had been introduced to her parents Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
They finally got engaged that September and set their date for May 2020, intending it to be a medium-scale affair with 150 guests.
However, with the event cancelled and no ending of restrictions for large gatherings in sight, Beatrice operated for a small-scale wedding with just 20 people in attendance, including her parents, the Queen and Prince Philip.
Since her pregnancy announcement, Eugenie moved into Frogmore Cottage, Harry and Meghan’s former abode in Windsor, but moved out again after just six weeks.
She and Jack have moved back to Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace.
‘Royals at War’ was written by Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett and published by Skyhorse in 2020. It is available here.
