This Member of the Royal Family Remains Prince Harry’s “Bridge” to the Rest of the Family

Prince Harry alongside cousins at Coronation ceremony — (Image credit: Getty)

It has long been understood that Prince Harry and his cousin, Princess Eugenie, are incredibly close. Though Harry is also said to have a bond with Eugenie’s older sister, Princess Beatrice, it’s Eugenie that remains Harry’s “bridge” to the rest of the royal family, Hello reports, as tensions continue to remain between Harry and his older brother, Prince William (and, vis a vis, William’s wife Kate) and his father, King Charles. Harry and Eugenie have attended the Super Bowl together, were seen together at Charles’ Coronation this past May, and Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly visited Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, in Portugal last month, where they live part of the time.

Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie together

“I think for Harry, Eugenie is his go-to royal,” said Dr. Anthony Wallersteiner, who is a family friend and also serves as chair of Street Child, one of Sarah Ferguson’s charities. (She is Eugenie’s mom—but you knew that. Wallersteiner, as if he wasn’t connected enough, was also school headmaster of Jack Brooksbank, who married Eugenie five years ago this month.) “I think those cousins are very close, which is good, and I think Eugenie acts as a bridge between Harry and the rest of the family, which is really useful to have.”

Wallersteiner was in attendance at Eugenie and Jack’s wedding, held just five months after Harry and Meghan’s May 2018 wedding, and in the same location—St. George’s Chapel in Windsor. “It was a joyously happy occasion,” Wallersteiner said of Eugenie and Jack’s wedding. “It was lovely to see the whole of the royal family united to celebrate Jack and Eugenie’s wedding. It was nice to see Harry and Meghan there. It was a time when everyone was together and, of course, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were there as well. A lot has changed in the last five years for the royal family, but this goes back to a time when there really was a moment of togetherness and family bonding.”

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It’s unreal to think how much can change in five years’ time, huh?

One unchanging force is Harry and Eugenie’s tight knit bond, documented in Harry and Meghan’s eponymous Netflix docuseries (Eugenie can be seen playing with their son, Prince Archie, on a beach) and in the pages of Harry’s memoir, Spare. Eugenie was one of the first to know about Harry and Meghan’s romance in 2016, and was one of the first members of the royal family to meet Meghan. Of their meeting, Harry wrote in Spare “I remember Euge hugging Meg, as if they were sisters. I remember [Harry’s friend] Charlie giving me a thumbs up. I remember thinking, ‘If meeting the rest of my family goes like this, we’re home free.’”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.