Why Eugenie could broker a truce, despite Harry’s disdain for her father
PRINCE ANDREW’S daughter, Princess Eugenie, may be called upon to act as peacemaker between the royal family and Harry and Meghan – despite Harry’s apparent disdain for her father.
In the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Harry distanced himself from the prince last year, saying: ‘Whatever he has done or hasn’t done is completely separate from me and my wife. We are completely separate from the majority of my family.’
Meghan was also reported to be ‘troubled’ by Andrew’s disastrous BBC Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in November 2019 about the scandal.
But informed sources believe the best hope of a Windsor reconciliation after the Oprah Winfrey interview lies with Eugenie, 30, who was friends with Meghan before she met Harry. The princess and her then boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank, were at a party in Soho House in Toronto in 2016 when Harry and the Suits star were first seen together. Eugenie was instrumental in keeping their relationship secret.
Sources believe other members of Andrew’s family might also be able to restore unity. When Meghan referred to the Andrew’s wife as ‘Fergie’ during her tell-all interview this week, it hinted at a friendship that would have surprised many viewers.
Recalling her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Royal Lodge in Windsor, the home of Prince Andrew and Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, Meghan said: ‘There wasn’t a huge formality. We were going for lunch at Royal Lodge... where other members of the family live, specifically Andrew and Fergie, and Eugenie and Beatrice would spend a lot of time there. Eugenie and I had known each other before I knew Harry, so that was comfortable and it turned out the queen was finishing a church service in Windsor and so she was going to be at the house. Fergie ran out and said, “Are you ready? Do you know how to curtsey?”’
Meghan and Sarah Ferguson, both outsiders who married into the family, now have something else in common – Oprah.
In her own interview in 1996, Fergie told the US chat show host that she had been put in her place by courtiers who reprimanded her for opening palace windows.
She said: ‘You fell in love and married a man, and then you have to come to terms with the fairy tale. Now it’s not a fairy tale, it’s real life.’