There will be two royal weddings in 2018, after it was announced today that the queen’s favorite granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, is to marry her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement issued this morning on behalf of her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, that the couple “became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month.”
The wedding will take place in autumn this year at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the same location chosen by Harry and Meghan Markle.
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In a break with tradition, the palace published a highly informal picture of the couple that appears to have been taken on a cellphone in a bar. Brooksbank wears a white, collared shirt and jacket and his fiancée wears an unzipped leather jacket.
The couple has been dating for seven years and an announcement has been expected for some time.
Brooksbank works in hospitality.
According to the Daily Mail, Brooksbank was privately educated and skipped university in favor of starting work, taking a job at a Chelsea pub beloved by London’s jeunesse d’oree—the Admiral Codrington, commonly known as the Cod.
He was then hired by London club promoter Piers Adam and his partner Guy Pelly to manage their club, Mahiki.
He left that role in 2016 to set up Jack Brooksbank Ltd., which specializes in the “wholesale of wine, beer, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages,” reports the Mail.
The groom’s parents were quick to voice their delight to the Daily Express:
