Princess Eugenie is the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of York and the former Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson before the couple divorced. After her older sister, Princess Beatrice, she is the sixth inheriting member of the royal family in line to the throne of over 16 independent states. To use her full name, Eugenie Victoria Helena, the Princess was born on 23 March 1990.
At the age of 12, Princess Eugenie had back surgery to correct a condition called scoliosis, which causes curvature of the spine.
Just like they did with her sister, her parents tried to keep Princess Eugenie away from the critical and invasive eye of the media, which they also succeeded in doing as she does not have a high public profile. However, as she is getting older Princess Eugenie takes part in Royal engagements along with her parents and she even opened an anti-cancer symposium on her own, as her first solo public engagement.
Princess Eugenie was baptized some months after her birth, on 23rd December 1990 at the church of St. Mary Magdalene. She was also the first child of the Royal Family to have a public baptism. She and her sister, Princess Beatrice are the fifth, and sixth granddaughters respectively of the Queen and the two of them are her only granddaughters to hold the royal title of Princess and who also received the noble style of Her Royal Highness. Princess Eugenie is also the first female royal descendent to hold the name of Victoria, among her other names. This is a significant piece of information, since Queen Victoria expressed the desire that all her female descendents should add this name along with their others and this had yet to happen since Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary before Princess Eugenie took the name.
The divorce of her parents did not seem to affect the Princess a lot, as she herself described them as the best divorced couple ever. Prince Andrew of Wales and Sarah Ferguson obtained joint custody of the girls and so the two princesses had the chance to travel abroad and spend time with both their parents during their early childhood. Princess Eugenie was only 6 years old at the time of the divorce and in spite of that she admits herself that she had a very happy childhood at her royal house. She owes this to her grandmother as well.
Princess Eugenie started primary education at the Montessori Winkfield School and continued at Upton House School in Windsor and then at St. George’s School. The next five years of school she boarded for Marlborough College and graduated just like her sister, with A-levels in art, history and English literature.
At the moment (August 2009) Princess Beatrice is on a gap year, traveling around the Far East with friends and also Royal Protection officers. She may be glad of their expert protection as the group was the victims of an attempted mugging in Cambodia in May 2009. However, her bodyguards foiled the attempt, although the failed muggers escaped.
- Full Name: Eugenie Victoria Helena
- Father: Prince Andrew, Duke of York
- Mother: Sarah, Duchess of York
- Born: 23 March 1990
- Married: No
- Children: No
