Princess Eugenie gives birth: Queen’s granddaughter has baby boy

Princess Eugenie has given birth to her first child, a baby boy born this morning. 

The Queen’s granddaughter, 30, had husband Jack Brooksbank at her side at The Portland Hospital in central London where their son – the Queen’s ninth great grandchild – was delivered at 8.55am. 

The new arrival, who is 11th in line to the throne, weighs 8lbs 1oz and the couple broke with tradition by immediately sharing a black and white photo to Eugenie’s Instagram of their baby boy, showing them holding his tiny hand.

Proud new mother Eugenie followed the post with three blue hearts after welcoming her son at the luxury private hospital where Meghan Markle also gave birth to her son, Archie.  

The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of York, Sarah, Duchess of York, and Mr and Mrs George Brooksbank have been informed and are delighted with the news, Buckingham Palace has announced, adding that ‘Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well’.

This is Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s first child, The Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York’s first grandchild, and the ninth great-grandchild for The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, but will not have a royal title.  

The Duchess of Cambridge’s younger brother James Middleton was among the first to congratulate Eugenie and her husband, a tequila brand ambassador, writing on Instagram: ‘Such wonderful news’.

Sarah Ferguson and Lady Violet Diana Louise Manners both ‘liked’ the post, while Clarence House sent their well-wishes and penned: ‘Congratulations to Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on the birth of their son.’ 

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) charity, which treated Princess Eugenie for the rare condition of scoliosis when she was 12, also wrote: ‘Congratulations to our Patron, HRH Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on the birth of their baby boy. We are so delighted for you both and would like to wish you all the very best’

Eugenie’s pregnancy was revealed in November, with a traditional announcement from Buckingham Palace, as well as an Instagram post from the happy couple. 

Sharing the news, Eugenie, 30, wrote: ‘Jack and I are so excited for early 2021….,’ alongside photos of baby slippers and her and Jack smiling. 

Sarah Ferguson shared her excitement, writing: ‘I am so excited by the news that Eugenie and Jack are expecting their first child.

‘Thrilled for them both and in my 60th year cannot wait to be a grandmother. Welcoming a new baby into the York family is going to be a moment of profound joy.’

Although the baby is the first biological grandchild for Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, they are step-grandparents to Wolfie, the son of Princess Beatrice’s husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi.

When Eugenie’s pregnancy was announced, a spokesman for the duchess told the Mail that while she was clearly overjoyed at Eugenie’s news, she also wanted to stress that she and Andrew very much saw Beatrice’s stepson, Wolfie, as a grandchild too.

‘Wolfie is already a very much-loved member of their family and the duchess is very keen to stress that she sees Wolfie as their grandchild too,’ they said. The three-year-old is Mr Mapelli Mozzi’s son by a previous relationship.

Eugenie and Jack’s child will be 11th in the order of succession, which means the Queen’s youngest son Prince Edward will slip down a place into 12th place.

Eugenie and Jack, spent lockdown at Fergie and Prince Andrew’s home on the Queen’s Windsor estate, but have recently spent time at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former home, Frogmore cottage. 

The couple moved into the five-bedroom home in Windsor in November after a direct arrangement with the Sussexes.

However, it was reported that just six weeks later, they quit the Grade-II listed house and moved back to Kensington Palace. 

It was understood that Eugenie and her cousin Harry reached a ‘private agreement’ over Frogmore Cottage though it is not known how long it will last.

At the time of the move, Harry and Meghan, who currently reside in an £11million mansion in California, said they were ‘delighted’ to ‘open up their home’ while they were in the United States.

Frogmore Cottage was gifted to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, by the Queen ahead of their wedding in May 2018, and remains their UK residence.

The move to Frogmore Cottage brought the couple closer to the Princess’s parents, who live four miles away at Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park, and less than a mile from Windsor Castle, where the Queen is spending lockdown with Prince Philip.

Eugenie and Jack had been living at Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace before they relocated to Frogmore Cottage.

The new mother is currently on maternity leave from her job as a director at Mayfair art gallery Hausery& Wirth. 

However, she’s been keeping busy and over the weekend shared a video remembering the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster for the charity she co-founded, The Anti-Slavery Collective. 

She wanted to ‘take the opportunity to remember the anniversary of the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster’ in the clip, shared to the organisation’s Instagram account this weekend.

The tragedy saw at least 21 Chinese undocumented immigrant labourers drowned by an incoming tide after picking cockles off the Lancashire coast.

Speaking in the clip, Eugenie said: ‘Seventeen years ago, 21 Chinese undocumented immigrant labourers were drowned by an incoming tide after picking cockles off the Lancashire coast.

‘While their story is so tragic, it really isn’t very unique and it’s something that happens in modern slavery and has only worsened in the last years. There’s an estimated 24.9million victims of forced labour globally across the world.’ 

Jack and Eugenie were introduced by friends around seven years ago during a skiing holiday to Verbier in Switzerland. 

‘There was an immediate attraction and since that meeting, they have barely been apart,’ a friend later recalled.

The friend added: ‘Eugenie was studying at Newcastle when they met and Jack was working in London, but they made the relationship work. She is very uncomplicated. She’s a doer, a worker, as is Jack. They are very suited.

‘Jack’s always worked hard. He chose not to go to university so that he could get on the career ladder and Eugenie loved that. She didn’t care at all that he was a waiter. She might be a princess, but Eugenie comes with few airs and graces.’ 

The couple invited 850 royals, aristocrats, VIPs and friends – 150 more than Harry and Meghan who married five months earlier – to their lavish ceremony in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on October 12, 2018. 

The bride’s V-neck dress made from a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend with a low back – designed to display the scars from her childhood operation for scoliosis – was designed by London-based Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos. 

Jack Brooksbank is a former waiter who spurned university and a job in the City to set himself up in the pub trade. 

He was once nicknamed ‘barman Jack’ in his Chelsea social circle and has worked his way up through some of the capital’s trendiest bars and nightspots.

But he has moved to put any idea of his being a party animal behind him in recent years, setting up a respectable wine merchants business. 

Brooksbank is the son of Old Etonian chartered accountant George Brooksbank and his wife Nicola.

It has previously emerged that, as with many royal couples, Brooksbank and Eugenie are very distantly related. Brooksbank’s father’s great grandfather is Viscount Coke, a former Earl of Leicester and a peer in the early 19th century.

Viscount Coke, who died in 1909, is also the great, great grandfather of Sarah Ferguson, Eugenie’s mother.

He was educated at £10,000-a-term Stowe school in Buckinghamshire, whose former pupils include businessmen Richard Branson and John Sainsbury.

Rather than follow many of his peers into finance degrees and the City, Jack got the backing of his parents to go straight to work after school, heading for the hospitality industry.

He worked as a waiter and took a job at Chelsea’s Admiral Codrington, a gastropub just a short walk from Sloane Square and in the heart of Made In Chelsea country

It was there that he met businessman Piers Adam, who brought him around the corner to The Markham Inn, also in Chelsea.

Mr Adam previously described him as a ‘phenomenal’ operator, who was happy dealing with staff and customer issues.

In his three years at the Markham, Jack got to know Prince Harry and his friend Guy Pelly and began to move in royal circles.

Jack said of his time at the pub: ‘At the Markham Inn, I had to deal with lots of strange people, and everyone was demanding. I also got to know the locals, which I loved.’

From there he went on to help run the Mahiki nightclub in Mayfair, one of the capital’s most exclusive nightclubs and also a favourite of Prince Harry and the young royals. 

He also got on well with Eugenie’s best friend, actress Cressida Bonas, who was at that time Prince Harry’s girlfriend.

Despite reports he celebrated his 21st birthday – before he knew Eugenie – dancing with a naked stripper, Jack has more recently insisted he doesn’t spend much time drinking with revellers in his nightspots.

He previously said: ‘I leave work at 11pm and head home. I’m not a big drinker. People think we party a lot but actually we are very quiet. For me it’s a case of going home and watching a DVD.’

He was also said to be a stablising influence on one-time ‘party princess’ Eugenie, and the couple were both said to have been seen out less as their relationship matured. 

But he knew his way around a bar well enough to become a brand ambassador for Casamigos tequila, the brand set up by Clooney and his friends Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman.

It is said the move from ‘party fixer’ to wine merchant was an attempt to make himself look more respectable in case he were to attempt to join the royal family in future.

Brooksbank has also previously spoken of his dream of opening a chain of country hostelries.

In 2013, he said: ‘I want to create a chain of pubs. It has been my dream since I was 18. I have fond memories of Sunday roasts in pubs with log fires, and it’s something I want to recreate. I love pubs and often go to my local for a pint.’ 

After meeting Princess Eugenie on a ski holiday, Jack quickly ingratiated himself with Eugenie’s parents and reportedly bought her a Cartier bracelet for her 22nd birthday.

It was reported in 2012 that Fergie had to apologise to fellow diners after a party at the Osteria dell’Arancio restaurant in Chelsea to celebrate Jack’s 27th birthday.

Their relationship was tested in 2013, three years after they met, Eugenie went to work at Paddle8 auction house in New York, while Jack stayed in London.

But they managed to keep a long-distance relationship going with the aid of Skype and reunited in London two years later.

After months of rumours, Jack proposed to his princess in Nicaragua in early January 2018 and the Royal Family announced they would marry in the autumn.