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The Yorks

Duchess of York: “I am so excited to have a son, a brother and a best friend”

Sarah, Duchess of York has reacted to the news of Princess Eugenie’s engagement to Jack Brooksbank on Twitter.

The Duchess, who announced her daughter’s engagement alongside the Duke of York through a Buckingham Palace statement, tweeted “total joy” as the news was made public.

She tweeted: “A total embrace of goodness and joy.

“We love Jack and I am so excited to have a son, a brother and a best friend.

“Eugenie is one of the finest people I know and so together it will be pure harmony.”

In a separate tweet, she posted: “I always say that the river flows well to it’s destiny because of the guidance of a solid rock.”

Prince Andrew retweeted his former wife’s messages on his official account.

Eugenie and Jack will marry at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle following a seven-year relationship.

This morning Buckingham Palace announced: “The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Princess Eugenie to Mr Jack Brooksbank.

“Her Royal Highness and Mr Brooksbank became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month.

“The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at George’s Chapel in Windsor with further details announced in due course.”

Because Princess Eugenie is eighth-in-line to the throne, The Queen did not need to give her consent for her marriage to take place. This is reserved for members of the Royal Family who are sixth-in-line to the throne or higher.

Princess Eugenie is not a full-time working royal and does not carry out engagements on behalf of her grandmother. This also means that it is highly unlikely that the wedding will be a public event like that of Princess Eugenie’s cousin, Prince William and his wife the Duchess of Cambridge, but likely to be a private family affair like that of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall.

Princess Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank met at the Swiss resort of Verbier where Eugenie was on a family vacation celebrating her father’s 50th birthday. Mr Brooksbank is now manager of Mahiki, a nightclub in Mayfair but before that, he worked at Chelsea’s Admiral Codrington pub, then the Markham Inn. In a past interview with the Daily Mail, he said that his future dream is to open a line of pubs.