How did Robbie the alien obsessive become pals with the York girls?
HE believes in aliens, is a veteran of rehab and has complained that he is agoraphobic, anxious, depressed, addicted to food and a sleepwalker.
But royal bride Eugenie simply regards troubled pop star Robbie Williams, 44, as ‘the brother she never had’.
It is a long-standing friendship which was fostered by her mother, Sarah Ferguson, and Williams’s socially pushy wife, former soap opera star Ayda Field, 39.
The two of them met back in 2011, when the Duchess of York took a freebie winter sunshine holiday in the Caribbean on board a yacht owned by Phones 4 U tycoon John Caudwell.
Williams and his wife were also Caudwell’s invited guests, and they struck up a close bond, with Ayda and Fergie going shopping all day in St Barts while Robbie lounged on deck.
He came back saying that he had made a ‘friend for life’ in the duchess, and she felt the same way.
An open invitation was issued for Fergie to come and visit the couple in Los Angeles any time with her girls, who at that point were in their mid-20s – and this was taken up.
By May 2011, Fergie and the girls were on such close terms with Williams and Miss Field that they were among a small party invited to watch the Eurovision song contest at a house he owned at the time in Wiltshire.
Williams was among family and friends invited to celebrate Eugenie’s graduation at a party at the Yorks’ Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate in 2012.
Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank were then spotted in 2013 watching one of his concerts from the wings of the stage. ‘Eugenie loves pop music,’ came the explanation.
Since that time they have seen each other regularly, mostly in London where Williams lives on and off.
Among the favoured venues for a meeting is the Chiltern Firehouse in central London, which has a discreet members’ area alongside the regular restaurants.
Miss Field, it is said, has made it her business to keep the connection going even though a former pop star worth £155million who has a family might be said not to have much in common with a coupled-up princess living in St James’s Palace and working for an art gallery.
However, when she was casting about for prospective bridesmaids and pageboys it seemed only natural to ask Williams and Miss Field’s daughter Theodora, known as Teddy, who is now six.
Williams rather notoriously filmed his wife giving birth to Teddy’s brother, Charlie, with Miss Field affecting high heels throughout – and said watching her give birth was like watching his favourite pub burn down.
Last month he and Miss Field welcomed a third child, Colette, by surrogate. The couple have joined the judging panel of The X Factor and of course earlier in the summer he performed at the opening of the football World Cup – and gave the crowd the middle finger.
Let’s hope that there are no such histrionics from him or his angelic girl on Friday.