WINDSOR: Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie married wine merchant Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle on Friday in front of celebrities and royals including Prince Harry and wife Meghan who wed at the same venue in May.

Princess Eugenie, 28, younger daughter of the queen’s third child, Prince Andrew, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, tied the knot with Brooksbank, 32, in a traditional ceremony in the castle’s 15th century St George’s Chapel.

It was the same setting as Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as the couple are now known, were among the star-studded congregation.

The 92-year-old queen and her husband Philip, 97, who has retired from official engagements, were joined by other royals and celebrities including Hollywood stars Liv Tyler and Demi Moore, models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell and singer Ellie Goulding.

Female guests had to cling on to their hats as a blustery wind threatened their wedding outfits and a page boy tripped on the stairs walking into the chapel.

Princess Eugenie’s dress, by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos of the London-based label Peter Pilotto, had a low back to reveal scars from surgery she underwent to correct scoliosis when she was 12.

“It’s a lovely way to honour the people who looked after me and a way of standing up for young people who also go through this,” she told ITV’s This Morning ahead of the wedding.

The couple, while showing clear signs of nerves, beamed happily during the hour-long service.

“This is meant to be a family wedding,” Eugenie’s father Prince Andrew said earlier.

“There will be a few more people than most people have, there are a few more than Harry had, but that’s just the nature of Eugenie and Jack — they’ve got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in,” he told This Morning which broadcast the event live.

Several hundred singing and cheering well-wishers gathered outside in the shadow of the castle, far fewer than the thousands that crammed into the town for Prince Harry’s wedding.

“I’m a true royalist,” David Weeks, 77, bedecked in a Union Jack suit and bowler hat, said. “I was here for the queen’s 90th birthday. I was here for Harry and Meghan’s wedding, I wouldn’t miss it, I love the atmosphere.”

The ceremony was conducted by the Dean of Windsor David Conner, and Princess Eugenie’s elder sister, Princess Beatrice, the maid of honour, read an extract from the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby which the bride had read after meeting her future husband in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2018