Inside Princess Eugenie's Marriage

The British royal family may still be dealing with the fallout from "Megxit," but news that came from the halls of Buckingham Palace in September 2020 was surely a joyous reprieve for the members of the senior royal clan: the announcement that Princess Eugenie is pregnant with her first child.

"Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie and Mr. Jack Brooksbank are very pleased to announce that they are expecting a baby in early 2021," read an official statement from Buckingham Palace on Sept. 25, 2020. The statement also noted that members of the Windsor brood, including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Eugenie's parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, are "delighted with the news."

Sarah Ferguson — the aforementioned Duchess of York — took to Twitter to express her excitement over the upcoming birth of her first grandchild. "I am so excited by the news that Eugenie and Jack are expecting their first child," she wrote. "Thrilled for them both and in my 60th year cannot wait to be a grandmother. Welcoming a new baby into the York family is going to be a moment of profound joy." 

Eugenie's pregnancy comes nearly two years after she and Brooksbank, a wine merchant and tequila brand ambassador, tied the knot in October 2018. So what's the story behind the relationship of the royal family's newest future parents? Let's take a look.

As People magazine noted in their report on Princess Eugenie's pregnancy announcement, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York didn't enter into marriage lightly. The royal first met her future husband, Jack Brooksbank, during a ski vacation in Switzerland in 2010, per Town & Country magazine. Eugenie herself described their first encounter in a 2018 interview with ITV's This Morning, noting that it felt like an act of fate — or, as she put it, "love at first sight" — but with a bit of a charmingly hilarious caveat. 

"And [then] I thought 'what a silly hat' ... and then [Brooksbank] came over and shook my hand and I was all butterflies and nervous," Eugenie recalled at the time. Despite Brooksbank's fashion faux pas, it seems that nothing could prevent a romance already in bloom. In fact, it even compelled Eugenie to phone her mother, Sarah Ferguson, to tell her she had met someone truly special. 

While the courtship went on for another eight years before the two tied the knot in a ceremony at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in October 2018, Eugenie's feelings towards Brooksbank have seemingly only grown. According to Eugenie during her ITV interview, "Jack is the kind of guy, who when you're lost at a party and you can't find anyone to talk to and you start panicking and you need help, he'll walk in and he'll make everyone feel so special."