On this day seven years ago, Eugenie tied the knot with Jack Brooksbank, with one empty seat in St George’s Chapel drawing in a lot of attention for one key reason
Today, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank are celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s youngest daughter tied the knot with Brooksbank, a British marketing executive, on October 12 2018, exchanging their vows in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in front of the entire royal family, including the late Queen.
More than 850 people, including Robbie Williams and Cara Delevigne, packed into the chapel to see Eugenie and Jack get married, but if you look closely, you can see one prime seat at the front of the chapel in front of the former monarch was left empty, despite the packed guestlist.
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While the empty seat drew a lot of attention, it wasn’t because of a last minute no-show on the big day. It was, however, due to a decades long royal tradition held by the late Queen.
That’s because traditionally the monarch and the rest of the royals sit on the right-hand-side of the quire in St George’s Chapel. Her late Majesty is said to have preferred to sit in the second row of seats, as, according to The Sun , she found the front row uncomfortable.
With tradition dictating that no one is allowed to sit in front of the Queen and obstruct her view, this is why the seat – possibly the best seat in the house – was left empty.
The same seat was also left empty months earlier when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married in the same chapel, and in 2022 when a committal service for the late Queen was held there on the day of her funeral, an empty space was left in the row in front of King Charles .
However, there was one key member of the royal family missing on Eugenie’s wedding day – Queen Camilla . Instead, she attended a school harvest festival in Scotland , which she had agreed to make an appearance at before Eugenie’s wedding date had been confirmed.
On her big day, Eugenie opted for a dress that featured a low-cut back while also deciding to not wear a veil. She said she wanted to change the perception of “beauty” by showing off the scoliosis scar on her spine.
Eugenie underwent surgery at just 12 years old at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital so titanium could be added to repair the curvature that had been caused by her scoliosis. “You can show people your scars and it’s really special,” she previously told This Morning. “I think you can change the way beauty is, and you can show people your scars and I think it’s really special to stand up for that.”
Since marrying in 2018, Eugenie and Jack have welcomed two children – August, who was born in February 2021 and Ernest, who arrived in late May 2023.
