EUGENIE & JACK’S LOVE STORY
While the world may have been captivated by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s whirlwind romance, Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s long-term relationship is the stuff of real love stories.
Despite keeping much of their romance out of the public eye, the newlyweds had been dating for seven years before they tied the knot on Friday. In Jack’s own words, their first meeting was “love at first sight”, when they locked eyes at Verbier, a Swiss ski resort, all those years ago.
“We met when I was 20 and Jack was 24 and we fell in love,” Eugenie confirmed, adding that their outlook on life is very similar. “We have the same passions and drive for life.”
Indeed, Eugenie and Jack share more in common than people may think, as it was recently revealed the couple are distant cousins, similar to Eugenie’s grandmother the Queen and husband Prince Philip, who are third cousins.
Their first public appearance together was in 2011, when Eugenie and Jack attended Royal Ascot. However, their relationship wasn’t always plain sailing. Much like Harry and Meghan, the couple had a longdistance relationship. While Jack – who is now UK ambassador for George Clooney’s tequila brand, Casamigos – concentrated on his hospitality career in London, Eugenie was thousands of kilometres away furthering her passion for art, working at New York online auction house Paddle8.
“We spend a lot of time on Skype,” Jack admitted at the time of Eugenie’s 2013 move. “It’s great. We are still very much together.” By 2015 they were both living in London again, with Eugenie taking a position at Hauser & Wirth art gallery.
In 2015 Eugenie and Jack attended Royal Ascot once again, this time alongside Eugenie’s sister Beatrice and her then boyfriend Dave Clark. They also made an appearance at Chelsea Flower Show. “Jack was very much by Eugenie’s side throughout,” royals photographer Mark Stewart told People of the event. “It was quite a big thing to go to.”
As to their engagement earlier this year – Jack got down on bended knee during a trip to Nicaragua – Eugenie laughingly admitted that she had “maybe” been getting anxious for Jack to propose after seven years. “We had a beautiful volcano, sun was setting, birds were flying,” Jack said in their BBC engagement interview. The lake was so beautiful,” Eugenie added. “The light was just a special light that I’ve never seen. I actually said, ‘This is an incredible moment,’ and then he popped the question.”
Speaking of her big day, Eugenie touchingly admitted: “I’m not stressed at all. “It’s very nerve-racking because you want it to be perfect but then you realise that you’re going to be with the person you love forever and nothing else really matters.”