For over a decade, Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank have shared one of the most low-profile romances within the royal family.
Brooksbank married Eugenie, the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York, in October 2018, effectively joining the British royal family. But before he became known as Eugenie's husband, Brooksbank was an English socialite with several royal blood ties of his own.
Ahead, read everything to know about him.
He has a normal job.
Brooksbank, born in London, has been involved in the hospitality industry over the years, working as a nightclub manager at Mahiki and brand ambassador for George Clooney's popular tequila brand, Casamigos. In 2022, he got a new job at Discovery Land Company, a development corporation based in Portugal. He and Eugenie now split their time between London and Portugal.
He met Eugenie on a ski trip.
Back in 2010, 24-year-old Brooksbank first crossed paths with 20-year-old Princess Eugenie during a ski trip in Switzerland, where the two happened to be staying at the same resort.
Following the news of their engagement in January 2018, Brooksbank told BBC that his meeting with Eugenie was "love at first sight."
"We met when I was 20 and Jack was 24 and fell in love," Eugenie also told the news channel. "We have the same passions and drive for life."
The two dated for over seven years before Brooksbank proposed in January 2018 during a vacation in Nicaragua. Later that year, on October 12, they tied the knot at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
He is a distant cousin of Eugenie.
Much like the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (who were third cousins), the royal spouses share distant blood ties as half-third cousins twice removed.
Brooksbank's ties to Eugenie are tangentially royal, as his parents—George Edward Hugh Brooksbank and Nicola Newton—come from the Brooksbank baronetcy of the Baronetage of England, a British hereditary dignity considered lower in rank than barony but above knighthood (barring several exceptions, including the Knights of the Garter in England and Scotland).
He does not have a royal title.
Despite descending from British nobility and later marrying into the British royal family, Brooksbank does not have a royal title of his own.
As a baronet descended, Brooksbank comes from the only class of British nobility not part of the peerage, the ranks of which consist (in descending order of precedence) of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. Royal historian Marlene Koenig told Town and Country, "There is no precedent for giving a peerage to the commoner husband of a princess on the wedding day."
He has a child with Eugenie, with one more on the way.
Brooksbank and Eugenie share two-year-old son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, who, like his father, does not have a royal title. The two are also expecting their second child—a daughter—later this summer.
Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.
