Disquiet over security costs as Princess Eugenie weds today
Final preparations were being made in the town of Windsor yesterday for Britain’s second major royal wedding this year, this time involving Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie.
Eugenie, younger daughter of the Queen’s third child Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, will tie the knot with Jack Brooksbank, at the monarch’s Windsor Castle home today.
The nuptials come just five months after the glittering wedding of Prince Harry, younger son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, and US actress wife Meghan, now the Duchess of Sussex, at the same location.
Eugenie, 28, ninth-in-line to the throne and a director at London’s Hauser & Wirth art gallery, and Brooksbank, 32, who works in the drinks and hospitality industry, are copying some of her cousin’s plans.
The couple, who met in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010 and got engaged in Nicaragua in January, have likewise invited 1,200 people from across Britain to join in the celebrations in the castle grounds and to watch the newlyweds leave St George’s Chapel after the service.
They will then take an open-top carriage ride through Windsor, although it will be shorter than the one Harry and Meghan took in May when thousands thronged the streets and hundreds of millions worldwide watched on television.
Nearly all Britain’s senior royals are expected to attend although Prince Charles’s wife Camilla will be absent as she has a prior engagement in Scotland.
It was not certain whether the 92-year-old Queen’s husband Prince Philip, 97, who no longer carries out official duties, would be present.
While the royal family is paying for the wedding itself, there has been disquiet among republicans and some newspapers over the security bill for the event, which has been estimated at more than £2mn, given that Eugenie does not carry out official royal duties.
About 38,000 people signed a petition, organised by campaign group Republic, against taxpayers’ money being spent on the occasion. “Most Brits opposed taxpayer funding of Prince Harry’s wedding but as with all royal events were forced to accept it,” a spokesman for the group said. “But there’s something different about today’s royal wedding, and people aren’t happy.”
The Sun newspaper ran a front page story on Wednesday with the headline ‘£2mn too much for Eugenie wedding’, saying the event could have been held at a chapel near her childhood home.