Princess Eugenie didn’t get to know her aunt Diana for very long, as the Princess of Wales passed away when she was only 7. Despite that, Eugenie has plans to pay tribute to her legacy 21 years later with a subtle reference during her wedding ceremony with Jack Brooksbank on Friday, reports Mamam!a.
It appears that Sara, the Duchess of York and Eugenie’s mother, will be the brains behind the tribute, according to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams. Fitzwilliams alleged that the homage will come in the form of a musical tribute that will be played during the ceremony at Windsor Chapel.
Speaking to the Express, Fitzwilliam said, “She might choose a hymn which Diana was fond of such as ‘I Vow To Thee, My Country,’ which was sung at Diana’s wedding and funeral.”
The duchess, more commonly referred to in the media as Fergie, and Diana were close friends even before the royal connection, with the pair often having lunch together before Fergie struck up her relationship with Prince Andrew. Their friendship became closer once they became sisters in the mid-1980s, as it also did when both of their marriages began to fall apart around the same time.
Speaking about her and Diana’s close relationship and hinting at their future divorces in her autobiography My Story, the duchess recalled a 1991 conversation, saying, “we first put words to the unspeakable idea that had been nudging us in the ribs for some time: that one or both of us might leave the Royal family. We burned the phone wires into the night, trading secrets and jokes that no-one else would understand.”
Subtle tribute to Diana that niece Princess Eugenie may include in her wedding https://t.co/eEQMvf79jy pic.twitter.com/EwOzjRN4KD
— Mirror Royal (@MirrorRoyal) October 10, 2018
The release of Fergie’s autobiography in 1996 led to a falling out between the two, one which was never reconciled before Diana’s death. Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, the duchess said, “because we were like siblings, we rowed. And the saddest thing, at the end, we hadn’t spoken for a year.”
While Fergie became ostracized from the royal family after her divorce from Prince Andrew in 1992, due in part to a combination of the divorce as well as some tabloid-attracting antics, she has managed to maintain a close relationship with her nephews Prince William and Harry, and received an invitation to Harry’s own royal wedding with Meghan Markle earlier in the year.
The Diana tribute planned for Eugenie’s wedding would “undoubtedly please” both princes, according to Fitzwilliams.
“Sarah Ferguson has made a seismic effort to regain some of the royal favor she so catastrophically lost,” he said. “This wedding is her chance to excel.”