Princess Eugenie has paid tribute to The Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee by writing an exclusive article in The Spectator.
In the piece, the Princess writes how she wishes for her son, August, to inherit key qualities from The Queen, as well as recalling memories from the Golden Jubilee.
She opens her piece by saying how it almost felt like being ‘back at school desperately writing an essay’ after the deadline creeped up on her but notes the ‘subject is easier to write about’.
The Queen and Princess Eugenie at the Royal Maundy Service at St George’s Chapel in 2019
Eugenie says 2022 sees the year we celebrate ‘a magnificent woman’ with people from across the country, Commonwealth and her family coming together to mark an incredible achievement. But she also highlights how she is a ‘very proud granddaughter’.
HRH recalled memories of the 2012 Jubilee, where she was reminded of moments such as ‘Grace Jones doing hula-hoops at the Jubilee concert and Alfie Boe singing from the window of Buckingham Palace to the crowds’ and the regatta saw ‘850 boats floating down the Thames in honour of Her Majesty’.
Members of the Royal Family – The Prince of Wales, Duke of Edinburgh, The Queen, The Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Cambridge, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry – aboard the Spirit of Chartwell during the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames
The Diamond Jubilee River Pageant featured a flotilla of over 1000 boats
Yet, the memory that most stuck out to her was seeing her ‘grannie and grandpa standing for eight hours in the rain, waving and smiling, and keeping the family and the nation moving forward like they had done for so many years’.
She says how ‘the Jubilee allows an opportunity to reflect on all the wonderful charities and organisations that Her Majesty supports. Over the years of her reign, she has – alongside the Duke of Edinburgh – supported more than 1,000.’
Eugenie recognises how the Platinum Jubilee stands ‘as a testimony to a woman who has transcended time and has been that constant rock for so many when the world can feel so fragile’. She notes how The Queen’s speech during the first lockdown of the pandemic brought everyone together in ‘a collective confidence that everything would be OK and life would continue one day’.
In her personal life, she says how things have changed since the Golden Jubilee, as she is now a mother and wife – marrying husband Jack in 2018 – with more responsibility. Eugenie continues to say how she gives her life to her ‘special little family and hope to impart even an inch of the values my grandmother has lived her life by’.
New parents Eugenie and Jack with their son, August
The mother-of-one often thinks about the world her son August will grow up in and how she would love for him to have his great-grandmother’s ‘patience, calmness and kindness, while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye’.
She concludes her piece by hoping that the next 10 years are to be filled ‘with gratitude for Her Majesty’s dedication and service’ but also how as a nation, ‘we really are quite a great one’.
