Britain's Princess Eugenie to wed long-term boyfriend

LONDON — Another royal wedding is on the cards in Britain this year, after Buckingham Palace announced that one of Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughters, Princess Eugenie, will marry her long-term boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank.

The couple were introduced by friends during a ski break in Verbier, Switzerland, and have been dating for more than six years. They got engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month, the palace said.

Eugenie, 27, is the daughter of the queen's son Prince Andrew the Duke of York, 57, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, 58.

“The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Princess Eugenie to Mr. Jack Brooksbank,” the palace said in the statement Monday.

“The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at George's Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course.”

St. George's Chapel, the mini-cathedral at Windsor Castle, will be busy this year: It will be the venue for the much-anticipated wedding in May of Prince Harry and his American-actress fiancée, Meghan Markle.

Engagement photos of Eugenie and Brooksbank were taken in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace, where Eugenie, wearing an Erdem dress and Jimmy Choo pumps,  showed off her ring, a padparadscha sapphire (a pinkish orange gem) surrounded by diamonds.

The son of an accountant, Brooksbank, 31, was educated at a posh British school and grew up among the upper-class and aristocratic socialites who hang out with the young royals. Instead of college, he went into the restaurant-and-bar industry, working as a bartender at first. 

He's been the manager of Mahiki, the tropical-themed Mayfair nightspot for the rich and famous, including Eugenie's cousins, Princes William and Harry. And since 2016, he's worked as a U.K. brand representative for Casamigos Tequila, the spirits brand co-founded by George Clooney.

The princess and Brooksbank had a long-distance relationship for several years after she moved to New York in 2013 to work for Paddle8, an online auction house.

Eugenie, who graduated in 2013 from Newcastle University with a degree in art history and English literature, also has worked at Christie's in London and at the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace.

Both her parents expressed joy; the Duchess of York gushed in a series of tweets. "They float with laughter and love," she wrote in one post.

"Jack is an absolutely outstanding young man and Eugenie and he have got to know each other over a number of years, and I'm really thrilled for them," Andrew tweeted.

The couple traveled to the queen's retreat, Balmoral Castle in Scotland, during Prince Harry's 32nd birthday celebrations in September 2016 to ask the queen to give them her blessing to get married, British media reported at the time.

Eugenie is eighth-in-line to the throne (she will move down to ninth when Prince William's third child is born in April) so technically she does not need the queen's permission to marry. But she is close to her grandmother and would expect to consult her before making a public announcement. 

It will be the second royal wedding of the year — Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, will marry at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19.

Eugenie's older sister, Princess Beatrice, 29, had been expected to announce her engagement to her American-born boyfriend, Dave Clark, a few years ago but they broke up in 2016 after 10 years. Beatrice can be expected to play a prominent role in her sister's wedding.

The princesses are two of the eight grandchildren of the queen, 91, and her now-retired husband, Prince Philip, 96.

It is not clear yet whether Brooksbank will be given a title by the queen on the day of the wedding, as she has done with her other grandchildren and as is typical when a princess marries a non-royal.

It's also not clear where they will live but one likely place is a cottage or apartment at Kensington Palace, where her royal cousins live. 

The York princesses are the daughters of the queen's second-eldest son and "Fergie," who are long divorced (since 1996) but are still close and living in the same house, Royal Lodge. (They've even been subjected to will-they-remarry rumors in recent years.)

Although Beatrice and Eugenie are relatively high up in the royal succession, neither is expected to ever reign. They are increasingly expected to find something to do with their lives beyond royal duties, because the next king, their uncle Prince Charles, is already streamlining the royal firm and they are considered "surplus to royal requirements," as The Telegraph once put it. 

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