Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank are some of the only members of the royal family to have maintained a relationship with the Sussexes, since they stepped back from their royal roles to pursue an independent life in Montecito. Eugenie has always been close with her cousin, and even ran in the same circles as Meghan Markle long before the former actress met her Prince. It’s understood, says The Express, that the pair originally met through a mutual friend, the fashion designer Misha Nonoo; both Eugenie and Meghan attended Nonoo’s wedding in 2012, when she tied the knot with now ex-husband Alexander Gilkes, an old school friend of Harry’s.
It was perhaps this connection that prompted Harry to introduce Meghan to Princess Eugenie before any other royal, in a secret meeting at the Prince’s former home, Nottingham Cottage. The fledgling couple went on to become fast friends with Eugenie and Jack – and the foursome even had one last night of (relatively anonymous) fun together in 2016, just before Harry and Meghan went public with their relationship. ‘It was so great,’ said Megan of the outing, ‘just silly fun’. She went on her friend Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show to recount how ‘the four of us snuck out in Halloween costumes to just have one fun night on the town before it was out in the world that we were a couple’.
Since then, the two couples have remained close, despite the frictions that have caused not so much a rift as a chasm between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family. Footage from Meghan and Harry’s inaugural Netflix documentary shows Princess Eugenie accompanying Prince Harry to the Super Bowl, and playing with a young Prince Archie on the beach.
To this day, Princess Eugenie is thought to have been the only royal to have flown out to see the pair in Montecito. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have returned the favour, however, and have apparently visited Eugenie and Jack in Portugal, where the couple have a house in the grounds of the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club. The Brooksbanks split their time between there and a cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace.