‘WE’RE EACH OTHER’S ROCKS’
PRINCESS BEATRICE MAY HAVE TIED THE KNOT, BUT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER SPECIAL SOMEBODY IN HER LIFE
Growing up in front of the world might not always be easy, but Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were lucky to always have each other. The sisters, who have just 19 months between them, have always maintained an incredibly close bond. Younger sister Eugenie has previously referred to Beatrice as, “Someone I’ve looked up to my whole life.” She has also complimented her for being, “The greatest, and has been there since I was born. Beatrice has been an inspirational big sister since 1990.”
Their unbreakable bond is partly due to the fact they are the only other people in the world experiencing their unique lives. Beatrice, 31, explained, “It’s hard to navigate situations like these because there is no precedent, there is no protocol. We are the first: We are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and we’re also princesses and doing all of this in the public eye.”
Eugenie, 30, has said, “We’re each other’s rocks. We’re the only other person in each other’s lives who can know exactly what the other one is going through.” They’ve leaned on each other when times have been tough, and scrutiny has left them feeling vulnerable. “There was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice and she got really upset,” Eugenie recalled. “We were just about to step out and she had a bit of a wobble and cried. I was looking after her. And then about an hour later, I had a wobble and started crying and Bea was there for me.”
It’s hardly surprising that Beatrice was selected as Maid of Honour for Eugenie at her wedding to Jack Brooksbank in 2018. She took her duties very seriously and was even pictured helping her sister get into an Aston Martin, when her wedding dress made it more difficult. Eugenie called her older sister the biggest supporter of “team Eug and Jack”. It therefore would have been important to Beatrice that Edoardo also got the stamp of approval.
Before Eugenie got engaged to Jack, the sisters lived together in a four-bedroom apartment at St James’s Palace for about a decade. Their work commitments are often shared, with their most notable work being with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Teenage Cancer Trust. Being that close means that they have their squabbles like any
other siblings. The sisters have both recalled a particularly big argument over a pair of Converse trainers in previous interviews.
Eugenie explained, “Like all sisters, we have silly arguments about unimportant stuff, but we do love each other to death.” That sentiment has remained, and while they both move on to the next phase of their lives one thing is for certain: they will always have each other.
“We get on fantastically well, perhaps because we do and think different things,” Eugenie has said. “I am definitely not as polite as Beatrice, I have to say. I tell it as it is. I am shyer at first – like, at a party I will say to Beatrice as we go in, ‘Oh, you go first.’ But then, when we’re actually in, I am much louder and she is far more polite and solicitous.”
The third member of their close circle is, of course, their mother, Sarah, Duchess of York. “Mummy, Bea and I call ourselves ‘The Tripod’, they are my best friends in the world,” said Eugenie. Beatrice added, “We’ve been through some incredibly stressful times together as a family and every single minute she [Sarah] created joy. I am so lucky that I get to learn from her every single day. I’m inspired by her ability to give, even when she’s going through something hard.”
Despite Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s divorce in 1996, they’ve remained a close-knit family. All the women have also stood by Prince Andrew, following his links to Jeffrey Epstein, which has not come without criticism. Sarah, Andrew, Eugenie and Jack have even been isolating together, while Beatrice has been with her new husband’s family. To summarise their bond, Eugenie once put it perfectly. “What can’t I live without? My family. That sounds cheesy, but I can’t,” she admitted.