Meghan Markle made an appearance on Ellen this week and shared all kinds of cute insights (though nothing as groundbreaking as the sit-down she and Prince Harry had with Oprah earlier this year). For example, Meghan told Ellen Degeneres—who she revealed is a friend from before her royalty days—about how her kids did not enjoy Halloween, how she loves to cook and is looking forward to Thanksgiving, and how she and Harry used to go incognito to parties when they were dating. In the process, Meghan also underscored the main, close royal relationship she and Harry have maintained: The bond they have with Princess Eugenie.
In one particular story, Meghan recounted a 2016 date, before their relationship was announced, when she and Prince Harry snuck off to Toronto to attend a Halloween party with Princess Eugenie and her then-boyfriend, now-husband Jack Brooksbank. “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,” Meghan told the TV host. “It was a post-apocalypse theme, so we had all this very bizarre costuming on, and we were able to just have one fun final night out.”
According to the Daily Mail, that name-drop of Princess Eugenie was pretty revelatory, underscoring speculation that Eugenie has remained fiercely loyal to Prince Harry and Meghan, even after their move to the U.S.
The publication quoted Nigel Crawthorne, author of Prince Andrew, saying that the tabloid frenzy around both of their parents while growing up led to Prince Harry and Eugenie, who are five years apart, becoming close. “This bond between them was a great consolation for them,” Crawthorne told the publication. Princess Diana was also notably close to Eugenie’s mother, Sarah Ferguson, in the 1990s.
Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie leaving Balmoral in 2016.
Even as Prince Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the rest of the royal family—notably, it’s been reported, Prince William—has strained over the last few years, their bond with Eugenie has stayed strong. In Finding Freedom, the book about Harry and Meghan that made waves when it came out last year, the authors (who, it was revealed recently, collaborated on the book with the royals) described Harry and Eugenie as “the closest of friends.”
And it’s clear that bond is shared by Eugenie and Meghan as well: Eugenie even posted on her Instagram to celebrate “dear Meghan’s” 40th birthday earlier this year.